A few Wednesdays ago, the Mary Chain remained as authentic to their sound as ever on the latest leg of their 40th anniversary tour. Inside a sold-out Usher Hall, a wide age demographic gathered to devote themselves to 90 minutes of distorted guitars, strobe lighting and the younger Reid brother Jim still contorting to each strained lyric, legs curved inward rather than bent.
Following a cruelly sparse attendance for the warm-up act of electronic machinists Aircooled — whose latest album appeared pleasantly derivative of Kraftwerk’s Kometenmelodies, complete with synthesised flute and frequent motorik drumming — anticipation was high for which JAMC was going to appear on stage. Would it be the reflective warmth of ‘Just Like Honey’ or ‘April Skies’, or a harsher hot mess attempting to incentivise a mosh pit? What arrived was ‘jamcod’, Jim’s vocals heard but not listened to beside the droned lead guitar of elder brother William, and the electronic synthesisers that persist all the way through the latest Mary Chain album, Glasgow Eyes, which ‘jamcod’ sat within.
More electronic perhaps than their heyday, but equally acidic, Glasgow Eyes floats between the fast ‘jamcod’ rock that almost borders grunge, and the slower, hazy, Velvet Underground-esque noise of ‘Silver Strings’ or, obliquely, ‘Hey Lou Reid’. In Usher Hall, ‘Chemical Animal’ also fell into the latter category, a heavy-breathed confession of drug use that brought moodier head nods to the previously agitated pit below the stage. Not that such a reprieve would last long, as ‘Amputation’s chaotic guitar harmonies brought vim to an audience already invigorated by the company they could keep in front of them. With ‘Amputation’ the JAMC moved on to a whirlwind tour of their back catalogue, the standing crowd crowing in approval after each song. Drinks were spilt, jumpers were removed, attendees mirrored the music, transcending beyond the banality of normal feelings into a crazy haze. The band’s physical presence appeared minimal, visible as silhouettes when lit only from behind. Not that they were needed as much as they were felt.
Aware perhaps that public recognition of The JAMC rests largely on their first two albums, the main show shrewdly ended with ‘Just Like Honey’ before the encore segued into ‘Darklands’, both uniting the audience into singing along. For some, it was recognition of the journey that has passed with life in the decades since first release, others were content to just savour the joy of such music loud, unbothered by the precise mixing compositions demanded by studio recordings. Such introspection dissipated soon enough though when ‘Reverence’ roared into life to close the night out, lyrical thoughts of death and martyrdom outweighing any lingering emotional wallowing. Hurriedly exiting the stage despite the ovation received at the end, The Jesus and Mary Chain seem content not to bask in the glory of their adoration, unbothered by the fuss that still follows each release even now, forty years on.
“The Jesus and Mary Chain, Main Stage @ EXIT Festival 2017” by Exit Festival is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.