The Jesus and Mary Chain
O2 ABC, Glasgow
Martin Williams
Five stars
IT has been 32 years since brothers William and Jim Reid departed East Kilbride to unleash their punk-inspired feedback-frenzied fuzz-pop. It had been thought it all had come to a full stop in 1998 with an acrimonious split.
However time has healed wounds, and the Reids, now in their 50s, are not just happy to share a stage, but are also in the studio to record their seventh album.
Not that any surprise new songs from the promised first LP in 18 years were unveiled on Tuesday. This was an exhilarating journey through the best of their Ramones-on-amphetamine back catalogue from April Skies to Teenage Lust to Taste of Cindy, showcasing one of the most influential rock bands to come out of Scotland.
If their newest tune, the eight-year-old anthemic All Things Must Pass, recorded for the US television drama Heroes, is a taste of things to come, a feast is in store when new material is finally released.
The frustration with JAMC has been that when you want this band to explode on stage like their music, they will often smoulder.
Jim has always had a slacker demeanour and he often looks like he is just plain uncomfortable on stage, preferring a default pose of being held up by the microphone stand.
The murky dry ice and obscuring lighting creates a dense onstage atmosphere that conspires to hide the faces of the Reids from most of the audience for the whole of the gig, however, also added to the feeling of mystery that has always surrounded the single-minded Scots.
A Jesus and Mary Chain tea towel, anyone?
When William is fiddling around with his guitar head stock, Jim announces that this is the point where he is supposed to crack a joke but he says he doesn't know any.
Later as William does more guitar tuning he stumbles on a gag, dryly noting that his brother did not need to tune up in the old days.
It got a knowing laugh from fans, even the mosh pit hungry youngsters, some of whom would not have been born when Reverence became a chart hit in 1992. It is now the band's rapturous pre-encore sign-off song, the "I wanna die" refrain the antithesis to today's charts pop.
The godfathers of indie-pop are back and with a legacy that will never be forgotten.
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