Jesus and Mary Chain: Gratitude Beyond Distortion
The premise is simple but necessary: seeing The Jesus and Mary Chain live today without knowing what it meant to do so between the late Eighties and the early Nineties is a risk. There is the risk of not understanding, of misunderstanding and therefore wasting a precious opportunity. The effort is considerable, certainly, especially for those who were not yet born when the Reid Brothers bloomed like acid flowers in a dark forest, but lived to provoke and their every thought was aimed at creating havoc. When they struggled with the statuses that were pinned on them, distancing themselves from post-punk when everyone would have wanted them in that guise, from shoegaze when everyone would have wanted to elect them champions. And so given that today, in 2024, on the stage of the Todays Festival in Turin, the JAMC appear so composed, polite and institutional, the perspective becomes fundamental.
Putting aside the triumphant tour to celebrate “Darklands”, that second album that made legendary an otherwise very atypical career, Jim and William Reid got to work and gave life to the second album after the reunion. “Glasgow Eyes”, released last March 22, is an excellent alternative rock album that gives a bit of solidity to the band. If “Damage and Joy” (2017) – of which today practically nothing is proposed live – had rekindled the spotlight that had been off since the distant 1998, this new album chapter has a lighter but more complex task: JAMC must try to get out of the nostalgia effect. Maybe it is still too early to determine the outcome of the mission, but the start in the meantime is entrusted to the new “Jamcod”, which all in all does not make us regret any opening of the past.
The Scots still sound like the irreverent feedback and distortion machine they once were and this is already a good thing to preserve. Thanks to the excellent sounds and volumes offered by the Todays Festival it is possible to lose yourself in this rough and abrasive sound, emulated over the decades and then declined by many artistic paths born as grafts of this fundamental piece of the history of alternative music.
Among the new tracks, “Girl71” stands out, during which Jim Reid’s girlfriend also takes the stage for a duet that ends with a kiss that remains among the postcards of this edition of the Todays Festival and softens the contours of a frontman and a band with otherwise very harsh contours. But new album aside, it is still “Darklands” that holds the stage, with “April Skies”, “Happy When It Rains”, “Nine Million Rainy Days” and the title track. The rest of the setlist draws from almost the entire discography of the last century, with a particular emphasis on “Taste of Cindy” and “Reverence” that close the evening. So much affection on both sides and a gratitude that fills every empty space.
Unfortunately, the static nature of the stage makes it difficult to go much further than this, even in light of the above premises. It’s a good concert, with a textbook sound, but it suffers the effects of time. In this case, the fact that the band is still faithful to its “short but intense” format is perhaps a good thing, because a few more songs could have compromised the perception of the entire set. Better this way then, better to be overwhelmed by the exaggerated amount of fuzz and pull the plug before it’s too late.
