Jesus And Mary Chain As Good As New

The ShowBox SoDo

Seattle, WA

on Jul 16 2008

Quinn Omori (CHARTattack)

07/18/2008 11:21am

When I contacted Chart's managing editor Aaron Brophy about this show, he quipped that he thought The Jesus And Mary Chain were "the most perfect rock band ever." Frankly, I wouldn't disagree. They could've gone through the motions and that would have been enough for the hardcore fans in attendance on Wednesday, but they were good enough to make converts out of non-believers.

When they stepped on stage at the hangar-like Showbox SoDo, Jim and William Reid — supported by former Lush bassist Phil King, ex-Ride drummer Laurence "Loz" Colbert and rhythm guitarist Mark Crozer — launched into "The Hardest Walk" from 1985's Psychocandy. They quickly proved they hadn't lost a thing between their 1999 break-up and last year's reformation for Coachella. William's guitar still alternated between feedback-soaked chords and razor-sharp riffs, his little brother's vocals haven't aged a bit, and their gang of hired guns sounded like they'd been playing with the band for years.

The performance was predictably stuffed full of crowd-pleasing "hits." But The Jesus And Mary Chain also threw a few non-single cuts into the career spanning set list. But the biggest testament to the band's reunion, though, was just how good their two new songs are. "All Things Must Pass" and "Dead End Kids" (which Jim recorded for a solo project in 2006) sounded right at home between classics like "Snakedriver" and "Just Like Honey."

Banter was kept to a minimum. Jim only addressed the crowd when the elder Reid had some equipment issues ("See, it's my worst nightmare already") and when he ended the set with "Thank you." But the music spoke for itself.

It would have been nice to hear one of the earliest singles like "You Trip Me Up," "Never Understand" or "Upside Down" in the encore, but it's hard to argue with the appropriateness of closing the first date of this brief American tour with "Reverence" and its refrain "I wanna die just like J.F.K./I wanna die in the U.S.A." The lyrics sparked a bit of controversy stateside when the song came out in 1992, but nobody at this show seemed to mind.