In Photos: JESUS AND MARY CHAIN Perform “Psychocandy”


It had been how long? since Jesus and Mary Chain had played Vancouver and fans in their forties were giddy. Fans in their 20s – how the hell does anyone discover JAMC these days anyway? – were giddy too. And for what? Singer Jim Reid’s stare off perpetually irritated stare? His white-knuckle gripping of mic stand? His brother William hanging back in his Batman shirt, making no eye contact or movement beyond the music? Jim’s mumbling announcement of how the show would go, ie, a first set bathed in bleak and dry ice dedicated to the hits, then a wee break, followed by a bright and faithful retelling the band’s classic, 1985 album Psychocandy, from start to finish?

No. Or maybe yes.

Fans were giddy Because Nostalgia. And because all those songs – from kicker “April Skies” into “Head On” into “Some Candy Talking” into “Psychocandy” then into the actual album Psychocandy lead, “Just Like Honey” an all that followed from that glorious, historical album – well, they all just sounded so fuzzy, so loud and still just so, so important. It doesn’t really matter that JAMC have never been a band to watch. At the moment in the mid-80s when we were all worried that the best new wave, new romantic, punk and post-punk were behind us, JAMC came and they were a band to hear. This sound, this enormous ear-shattering sound of history repeating, was welcome. \m/

Jesus and Mary Chain, photo Mikala Folb

Jesus and Mary Chain, photo Mikala Folb

Jesus and Mary Chain, photo Mikala Folb

Jesus and Mary Chain, photo Mikala Folb

Jesus and Mary Chain, photo Mikala Folb

Jesus and Mary Chain, photo Mikala Folb

Jesus and Mary Chain, photo Mikala Folb


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