Earlier than expected (eight o’clock instead of 8.15) Dirk Serries’ Microphonics has started his minimalistic guitar resonances. Halfway during his set Metalrage is stepping up the stairs of Effenaar’s main venue. Lonely in the middle of the stage Dirk Serries has a hard time to make an impact on most of the crowd who’s still talking. How much I love his last album and how much the volume of the drones increases it never makes an impact as he did in a smaller room without surface noises.
 

Louder as on their records and louder as many metal bands (for those who think what’s MBV doing on a metal site) My Bloody Valentine is launching their dream rock aka shoegaze with the oldies ‘I only said’ and ‘When you sleep’ from Loveless. Kevin Shields looks like he’s still in his pyjama pants when he handling his guitar in front of thousand amps. Much more elegance has Bilinda Butcher who is standing on high heels the entire set. When she hits one of her pedals it’s in balance with the floating music.
 

All members with a guitar are looking downwards as it has to be with a shoegaze band except when they sing. The voices are drenched in the buzz of the guitar sound as sirens in a sea storm. Every song has a backdrop reflecting the album cover or period where it’s coming from. Drummer Colm O'Ciosoig is decent but just as with other shoegaze bands the guy has a supporting role. Also his rolls in one of the songs aren’t how you expect it. He also starts two songs too early when the main man Kevin Shields isn’t ready yet. He is the boss so he stares backwards for a second and the song is started again.
 

‘Wonder 2’ with the electronic beats is a sort of breakpoint. It gives the listener rest while the guitar sound is turned up louder with Colm O'Ciosoig also on guitar. People are waiting for the 15 loud minutes at the end as grief tourists. First they repeat themselves with two mediocre songs and then the decibels are increasing until 127 decibels during ‘You made me realise’. It doesn’t last for 15 minutes and it feels like Sunn O))) is covering a shoegaze song while Swans are playing on the same stage. Your body is only shaking a bit, it’s not you are overwhelmed by a wall of sound. As a newbie I expected a bit more loudness, especially when others told me the loud end in the nineties was much longer, louder and audience that left.