The Jesus and Mary Chain kicked off their brief tour of the west coast with a show Thursday night at San Francisco’s Fillmore. Born by brothers Jim (vocals) and William Reid (guitar) and known in their early years for short-but-riotous gigs before eventually imploding in the late 90’s, the band which reunited in 2007 had not performed in North America since 2008. So it was a healthy dose of anticipation that the sold out crowd awaited their set … patiently waiting as the cold bottles of water and Stella that were carefully arranged by the road crew slowly warmed on the empty stage.
Taking the stage with little fanfare, the band launched into Snakedriver with little more than mood lighting to set the tone for the bare-bones setup. Despite commenting early on that he was sick and “might fall down,” Jim’s vocals sounded spot-on … he may have been out of sorts but that didn’t stop him from delivering when it mattered and when the Mary Chain busted out Head On as their second song, the previously-reserved crowd kicked into high gear.
Not that everything went off without a hitch; several instances of mis-queues, mis-tunings, and mis-communication underscored the fact that this was the first show of the mini-tour. Thankfully the band took it all in stride with Jim quipping at one point, “anyone know a rehearsal studio around here?” The crowd was forgiving and chuckled along … hopefully appreciating it as the stuff that makes a show unique and memorable.
Despite the missteps, the band truly sounded great with William bringing the wall fuzz as he chugged along on guitar. The 75 minute set was only interrupted by random women crawling across the stage at one point to the clear amusement of William and Dexy Valentine from Magic Wands joining the band on stage to help out with vocals on Just Like Honey. Certainly not a bad way to ring in the almost weekend.
Setlist:
- Snakedriver
- Head On
- Far Gone and Out
- Between Planets
- Blues From A Gun
- Teenage Lust
- Sidewalking
- Cracking Up
- All Things Must Pass
- Some Candy Talking
- Happy When It Rains
- Halfway to Crazy
- Just Like Honey
- Reverence
–Encore–
- Hardest Walk
- Taste Of Cindy
- Never Understand
Supporting acts: Magic Wands, Phantom Ratio
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