Live Review

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Troxy, London

24th November 2014

Pulsing around a volatile front of stage whirlpool, the whole of the Troxy is under the same spell.

Words: El Hunt
Photos: Carolina Faruolo
26th November 2014

You can’t buy ‘Psychocandy’ from a pic n’ mix sweetshop stand for good reason. A super-strong clouded shell of syrupy, spiky guitar hides a dangerously addictive centre. Nobody has worked out quite what the secret concoction at the core is – it takes quite some time to reach it, after all – but it tastes something like sherbety, sour-tinged pop. An illicit gobstopper and an under-the-counter bon-bon, ‘Psychocandy’, a classic “little miracle” of 1985, is back tonight at London’s cavernous Troxy.

The Jesus and Mary Chain’s debut has become a landmark record, almost mythological in status. Some people here tonight were probably at that infamous North London Polytechnic gig in March 1985, ‘rioting’ or otherwise. Others are witnessing the Mary Chain live for the first time, having experienced their first taste of ‘Psychocandy’ just a few years ago; perhaps having stumbled across it as reference point used to describe the latest chancing gaggle of shoegazers peddling feedback covered wares that fit somewhere on the genealogy that they helped pioneer. It doesn’t really matter which corridor you originally used to arrive to The Jesus and Mary Chain tonight; pulsing around a volatile front of stage whirlpool, the whole of the Troxy is under the same spell.

Jim Reid isn’t as flammable these days, least of all because he’s got rid of his hairspray-suspended bouffant of quiff. His brother William is still a major ingredient in ‘Psychocandy’s illusive centre, but the instability comes from each hollowed-out barrage rather than the teetering threat of staging a mid-gig storm-off. The Jesus and Mary Chain might be older, calmer, and less prone to madcap antics, but ‘Psychocandy’ is just as potent and charged. When Jim Reid growls ‘Just Like Honey’ over looming, pounding drums, and sings “moving up and so alive / in her honey dripping beehive” it’s both smutty and weirdly captivating, not to mention note-perfect. ‘In A Hole’ is still a merciless onslaught of noise. ‘Never Understand’ is still a strange, headlong collision where vintage Shangri-Las-flavoured doo-wop somehow grates up against a wall of barely penetrable feedback, and makes it work.

Sometimes there’s a dread that comes with reunions, or anniversary tours and the like. A lumbering, creaky band desperately trying to flap away the cobwebs with a pay check has an uncanny knack for shattering a mythology. The Jesus and Mary Chain are not one of those bands. Tonight’s show may not prove anything beyond this, but being honest, it never needed to. Embrace the psycho and let the candy do the talking; ‘Psychocandy’ is as relevant and vital as ever.

Photos: Carolina Faruolo

Tags: The Jesus & Mary Chain, Reviews, Live Reviews