Last night at The Beacon Theatre in a co-headlining show with The Psychedelic Furs, East Kilbride, Scotland-originated influential post-punk/noise pop/shoegaze-precursor group The Jesus & Mary Chain returned to NYC for the first time since 2018, intact with shadowy lyrics wrapped in bright melodies sung in offhand baritone by Jim Reid bristled by blistering fuzz riffs from William Reid (the original Creation Records sometimes-fractious brothers band) celebrating 40 years of JAMC with excellent new LP Glasgow Eyes, which opens with “Jamcod” (sung “JAMC O.D.,” still plumbing the darkness) that has the same danceable downtrodden swagger of breakthrough U.S. alt-rock hits “Head On” (later covered by Pixies) and “Reverence.”
Although JAMC played only 13 songs in this abbreviated co-headlining format, the Reids managed to hit many of their best, from early Creation singles “Just Like Honey” (joined by opener Frankie Rose on duet vocals) & “Some Candy Talking” to later faves “April Skies” and “Far Gone and Out,” joined by the excellent Justin Welch (of Elastica, Lush) on drums to keep the crowd wanting much more.
Setlist:
Jamcod
April Skies
Head On
Happy When It Rains
All Things Must Pass
Chemical Animal
Some Candy Talking
Far Gone and Out
Venal Joy
Sometimes Always
Nine Million Rainy Days
Just Like Honey
Reverence
After The Jesus & Mary Chain’s excellent set, another British brothers band, London, England-originated post-punk art-rock/new wave sextet The Psychedelic Furs also played for less than an hour, but brought out enough ’80s hits to have the crowd singing and swaying along to singer Richard Butler’s distinct snarl-croon, theatrically miming his still-relevant post-modern barbed poetry with his brother Tim Butler’s melodic bass locked in with long-time post 2000 reunion member Rich Good on guitar, with post-pandemic members Zack Alford on drums & Amanda Kramer (of Information Society) on keyboards, and guest guitarist Richard Fortus (once in the Butlers’ off-shoot ’90s group Love Spit Love, now in Guns N’ Roses) to capture the reverbed phase-shifted guitar & synth magic of the Furs. Especially good were the songs from the 2020 comeback LP Made of Rain, with the impassioned doomed love ballad “Wrong Train” fitting in well with the ’80s classics.
(This is the first tour without longtime member saxophone genius Mars Williams, who died in November 2023. His sax was missed!)
Setlist:
The Boy That Invented Rock & Roll
So Run Down
The Ghost in You
Wrong Train
Love My Way
All of the Law
President Gas
Pretty in Pink
Mr. Jones
Heartbreak Beat
Heaven
