CONCERT REVIEW: Jesus and Mary Chain, San Francisco
- Robin Lapid
Some people still worship the Jesus and Mary Chain. In a town like San Francisco, where you can go to a different goth club every night of the week, locals hold a certain reverence for time-honored bands like the Mary Chain. Now signed to Sub Pop Records, the tour in support of their latest release, Munki, is more like seeing a reunion tour; you applaud politely for the newer songs, but you call out and dance to your old favorites like it's an 80s flashback weekend.
The Mary Chain delivered enough of those old favorites to get the initially sluggish crowd on their feet and cheering. The band played a short set of reverb goodies among a set strewn with pink and white Christmas lights. Lead singer Jim Reid leaned into his mike, dipping into his raspy bedroom vocals for just enough added affect with minimal effort. William Reid, brother and guitarist, added that classic pre-grunge chord riffing that made the Jesus and Mary Chain so good in their day - the thick and fuzzy pop of "Head On" and "Teenage Lust" were the standout numbers in the set, only because I could pick them out among the trademark sound that seems to have congealed into a nice but stale and fuzzy confection.
There was little between-song banter, but considering the set lasted about 45 minutes with one brief encore, that was plenty. William responded to the relatively laidback crowd midway through the set with, "You're too polite," and continued to the next song. The Jesus and Mary Chain bookended the show with "I Love Rock 'n Roll" and "I Hate Rock 'n Roll" from the new album. William closed the performance by improvising lyrics from "Reverence" from Honey's Dead. "I wanna die just like disco," he sang, before the reverb finally faded. The funny thing is, one could argue that disco hasn't really died, and neither have the Jesus and Mary Chain.
