Live Review :: The Jesus And Mary Chain :: Manchester Academy - Nov 20 2014

Live Review

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Manchester Academy

November 20 2014

Words: Belle Samuel

There were undoubtedly those here tonight who weren't even born when The Jesus and Mary Chain were around the first time, but there are still enough of those in the greying, poundage added department queueing outside on Oxford Road to tell that this was no ordinary gig night.

As excitement  amongst the capacity-filled room became as tangible as the sweat pouring off the balding fiftysomethings, the band - now stretched to a five-man unit - began with vocalist Jim Reid telling the crowd how they would play “the encore first”, referring to the bunch of later material which made up the first section of the 21-song set, and comprised of the likes of 'April Skies', still remaining as relevant and fresh to today's listeners as it did back in 1987.  'Reverence' scratches like nails on metal, although it was not until 'Upside Down', the last song of the 'encore', that the crowd really began to come alive.

The Reid brothers - William hanging with guitar to a lesser spotlight, but both still delivering an urgency and unadulterated cool that has not dimmed over the years - have been back together now for seven years, and reapplied with varying degrees of both sharp intensity and almost breathless rage, a sound that weaves between ferocious mindblowing power and cautious fragility.

When they return to the stage after the break, it is to play the whole of 'Psychocandy', almost 30 years since it had first been aired, and now considered generally to rank on the all-time classics list. Decibel levels peak throughout' Just Like Honey', 'The Hardest Walk' and 'The Living End' and 'In A Hole'.  Crashing waves of reverb and feedback echo in the Academy room as well as ringing eardrums as they draw to a close on the fearsome three of 'You Trip Me Up', 'Something's Wrong' and 'It's So Hard'.

Tonight was a reminder of the past for those who had been there the first time, and for the new striplings coming to witness how it used to be done back in 'the good old days'. Filled with moments of magic, of genius, of sheer noise abandonment, and mostly a big rush of twisted psycho fury and sweet-tasting candy.


Set list:

1. April Skies
2. Head On
3. Some Candy Talking
4. Psychocandy
5. Up Too High
6. Reverence
7. Upside Down

8. Just Like Honey
9. The Living End
10. Taste the Floor
11. The Hardest Walk
12. Cut Dead
13. In a Hole
14. Taste of Cindy
15. Never Understand
16. Inside Me
17. Sowing Seeds
18. My Little Underground
19. You Trip Me Up
20. Something's Wrong
21. It's So Hard