BBC6Music Festival
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Barrowland, Glasgow
Jonathan Geddes
four stars
ALTHOUGH sets by the Jesus and Mary Chain are now more crowd-pleasing than anarchy, there thankfully remains something unpolished about Scotland’s finest ever band. Blues From A Gun lasted barely a minute before Jim Reid demanded a restart after singing in the wrong key, while pity his brother William, who got a caustic reminder to hurry up when tuning his guitar.
Reid’s onstage persona is still surliness made flesh but they have reason for cheer with a new album, Damage and Joy, which provided the swaggering Amputation and the ominous War On Peace.
In enjoyably stubborn fashion, that ended the set rather than something more familiar, but a driving Head On, epic Reverence and Psychocandy heavy encore should have satisfied desires for past glories. However that urgency was welcome, because the middle of this gig was oddly static, lacking the dangerous thrust expected.
The evening’s extremely early start time may have hampered attendance for Sleaford Mods and Warpaint, but Ride were greeted like headliners in their own right. Occasionally their poppy shoegaze dragged, but it was glorious in full flow, particularly Drive Blind’s furiously noisy finale. An evening to damage the ears, but worth it.
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