September 2012, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, Ga.
“It’s fucking amateur night,” snarled (a maybe tipsy?) Jim Reid to the capacity crowd in Atlanta. His band, The Jesus and Mary Chain, was struggling to work out the opening to “Sidewalking,” but no one seemed to care about Reid’s wariness. After all, JAMC was back on stage, playing its fuzzy feedback with wild abandon, and giving the people a setlist of songs it longed to hear (if the riotous reaction was any indication).
I won’t lie, I’ve was waiting to see this band for years, so JAMC could have walked on stage and mimed show tunes and I would have left satisfied. What it did instead was showcase a sound it created and perfected through years of stellar albums, and while it showed its age at times on this night, there were far more moments of pure musical joy than fumbles for chord arrangements.
You never know what a band will play after returning to the stage from a long hiatus. When The Pixies made its first comeback tour in 2004, I went in not sure what to expect but left with a show I remember in full to this day. The same could be said for this one, as one song after another was sprite and electric — “Head On,” “Far Gone and Out,” “Blues From a Gun”. When the band did figure out “Sidewalking,” a song I never thought it would play, I was good for the night. Add “Some Candy Talking,” “Happy When It Rains,” “Just Like Honey” (of course), and the set ending “Reverence” and it was more than I could take (actually, I would have loved to hear “April Skies,” but I shouldn’t be so greedy).
“Reverence” was something special. Letting the band build behind him to a roaring growl, Reid snapped out the opening line “I want to die just like Jesus Christ” with added fervor. Standing stock with his hands out wide, his constant screams of “I want to die” at the song’s end was unforgettable.
The band returned for a three-song encore — highlighted by the guitar squealing “Never Understand” from the band’s brilliant debut Psychocandy — then disappeared as the curtain came to a close. My 25 years of waiting were satisfied in a little under an hour and half — I don’t want to die like Reid’s refrain, but I’m safe saying now I can once I’ve seen the power that is Jesus and Mary Chain live.
