The Jesus and Mary Chain Tickets

JEsus and MAry Chain....Welcome BAck.....totally happy they are playing again!!!

wasn't really that into the openers, but Jesus & Mary Chain was great. if you're into them at all check it out.

Having been a fan for 24 years I was overjoyed to see them again - but I had tempered my expectations knowing they had not toured in some time and that they were moody and sometimes just don't try very hard. This show was shockingly good. When a band is great it comes through and the JAMC still have the power and presence that many bands could only hope to attain. They were loud and Jim's voice had more power and range than I expected. Jim looked uncomfortable as always but was casual if there was a mistake and thanked the crowd often. More importantly he and William seemed to be getting along and having a good time. During the encore Jim says 'we are going to play some songs from Psychocandy and then get the hell out of here' and they proceed to rip through Hardest Walk, Taste of Cindy and Never Understand. It was like a time portal. They played those songs so powerfully and the guitars were all kinds of noise and feedback. It was as though time stood still for 15 minutes and everyone was 25 again. Amazing.

Played a nice selection of songs from their better material. Seemed to be enjoying themselves as were the fans. Loud and solid delivery on Snakedriver and Head On to start things off. Well worth the investment and a good club to view and hear.

The sound was outstanding, the song selection excellent (except Munki drew the short straw it would seem) and the mopey, low-fidelity JMC sound was out in full force. The sold-out Phoenix is a great venue for such a band as well. So all in all a great show and well worth seeing. So why only four stars? They looked tired, were a bit too sloppy at times (though never for too long) and played a disappointingly short set suited to a festival, not a headliner with a catalog of their size.

The concert was awesome, they played all their best songs. Thoroughly enjoyed the show, hard to believe last time I saw them was 18 years ago.

I was excited to see The Jesus and Mary Chain at a free outdoors concert put on by the city of Buffalo, NY, but by the fourth song I wished they had stopped playing, and I even contemplated leaving. The guitar feedback and distortion was so overpowering that they drowned out every other instrument except the drums, and the feedback was so high-pitched that it grated the teeth. In between songs, the feedback constantly screeched to where you could not hear Jim Reid talking to the crowd. At first I thought it was a soundboard engineer oversight, but after they kept playing this way and after Jim walked up and held his mic to the amplifier I started to get the feeling that either they are horrible live or they have something against playing that venue and purposefully wanted to put on an awful show. Jim brought up a female friend to duet on "Just Like Honey," but the the feedback and distortion were so bad that you could not hear a word she sang, nor anything Jim sang either. Aside from the atrocious sound quality and the band's refusal or inability to adjust the situation, Jim stopped the band mid-song on three separate songs announcing "I f'd up" or "We just suck" before commanding everyone to start over again as if they were in practice. The drummer appears to be a recent replacement for Loz Colbert--I'm not sure if permanently or just for this gig--and he did a standup job above all the other members. However, on one song he had the tempo too slow, and Jim proceeded to ridicule him onstage verbally and with gestures. Toward the end of their set, he asked the crowd how we would rate the band's performance and immediately answered his own question by saying, "a 6 but probably a 5." He was too optimistic with even a 5; I have heard elementary school orchestras sound better than The Jesus and Mary Chain on this night. The entire night, Jim was out of voice and mostly mumbled, although he would have probably been better heard without the overpowering feedback/distortion. In his prime, Jim might have been able to get away with acting like a prima donna, but this night he had no talent to justify it, and his performance and attitude made him look like a fool when he criticized the drummer and the band as a whole when he was the worst musician of them all and the one continually stopping the performance. To end the night, during their last song (I don't even know what they were trying to play it was such a cacophony) Jim once again stopped the band and claimed that he "F'd up again." The feedback and distortion on this particular song were so bad and so loud that when he stopped the song the crowd began cheering even before he spoke. This apparently irritated him like old times because he said a few choice words to some audience members. The best part of the entire concert was when it was over, and this comes from a person who grew up listening to them and still does, but just never again live. Bottom Line: I would not pay one cent to see them, and even at a free event it was a waste of time and only hurt my opinion of them as musicians. I am astonished that they can even get booked at venues playing like this, and I cannot believe people are buying $60+ tickets to see them. Maybe they were having an off night, but that does not explain the horrible sound quality. I recommend people save their money for a better show and remember The Jesus and Mary Chain of old rather than harming your ears and opinions with their latest tour.