Pop gig of the week: My Bloody Valentine, Academy, Birmingham

Making an impact: The net-busting release of MBV's third album sparked a real sense of occasion

He might bide his time, but MBV's chief noise instigator Kevin Shields knows how to make an impact when he's ready. Even next to David Bowie's return, the net-busting release of MBV's third album, mbv – after a 22-year wait – sparked a real sense of occasion.

More impressively still, the music matched the myths about MBV: just as their 2008 shows really were as loud as veterans of their early gigs claimed, so mbv shows that the disorientating effects of Shields' dazed drones remain unmatched by his nu-gaze copyists. Fair warning to catch them before they're off again, then – and to befriend the chaps selling earplugs.

(0871 220 0260; seetickets.com) Fri; then touring