Suddenly and unexpectedly, Jesus and Mary Chain came to Hong
Kong to play a gig. And after buying the ticket on the Internet, I could see
them in less than 2 weeks, on 23 May.
But I have wait for them for so long. The first time I was a
few days late when I got to London and they passed me by. The second time I was
also late but they got an extra show in London (if my memory was correct), but
I chose to see another band and I passed them by (coz someone once told me that
their live was not good, and I had been too rational but stupid). That was one
of the biggest regrets of my life. I was already regretting it while I was
watching the gig that didn’t really matter. And I thought I could never see
JAMC in my life. They soon broke up anyway.
Perhaps thanks to the film “Lost in Translation”, they came
back in recent years. Though the song doesn’t really match the ending of the
film, and I probably saw the whole film just to see it come up.
First came the local supporting act the Yours. Though the
band name sounded quite dumb, the songs they played were fine and they played
well. And in colorful long-sleeve shirts and tight jeans, they looked good too.
They reminded you some good things about Shoegazing.
Middle-aged now, Jim Reid still looked fine, but I couldn’t
quite recognize his brother William. Or perhaps that fat Bob look-alike wasn’t
really him? (He didn’t sing Darklands, a proof, as I hoped anyway) Surprisingly
Jim was wearing a more formal jacket and loose-fit jeans, looking more like a boring
businessman than a cool rock star. Similarly dressed were other middle-aged
players of guitar and bass. Gone was the old signature look of tight black
leather jeans and black leather jackets.
A little to my surprise, Jim sung well and the band played
well. And the wrong pitch incident that made them restart a song over and over
added some unexpected fun to the supposedly serious ‘rock legend’ gig. (Yes,
this is really live, no MMO singing, which came to my wicked mind once, since I
couldn’t believe Jim sing almost perfectly well) Indeed, their attitude has
always been anti-serious, seriously cool they might seem in their MVs and
interviews. Jim asked if we enjoyed ourselves. Yeah! And so was he.
Surprisingly, he talked more than I thought. I used to think that cool Brit
bands say little during the gigs, perhaps only a few words like ‘cheers’ now
and then.
‘Psychocandy’ and ‘Darklands’ are the records I cannot do
without in my life, but I don’t really care much about their later records,
despite a few gems, like ‘Almost Gold’ and their cover version of ‘My Girl’. I
found most of those later songs too ‘Americanized’, or too Rock and Roll. But
what I love most about them is their ‘Scottish-ness’, catchy and refreshing
happy-sad tunes embellished in an atmospheric psychedelic soundscape with
guitar distortions and noise. That ‘indie’ feeling seemed to have lost since
they made the ‘Automatic’ album in the US. There are two distinct qualities of Jim’s
vocal, one is cool and dry and older, the other warm and succulent and younger.
The later records are often of the former voice, while the earlier ones more of
the latter. And I prefer the youthful one.
For more than an hour, they played moresongs from later
records. I must admit though they sound familiar to me I don’t really know them
well. Still, all songs sounded fine and cool there. They rocked and I enjoyed
every song they played. Before the encore, only Almost Gold, Happy when it
rains & Just Like Honey were my favourite songs. Luckily they played another
three ‘Psychocandy’ golden oldies at the encore: Hardest Walk, Taste of Cindy
& Never Understand. And it’s only at the end I really jumped wildly.
‘Psychocandy’ and ‘Darklands’ are eternally youthful,
despite around 25 years of age. Indeed, I never could imagine they would grow
old in my life. And they even sounded newer than most new records nowadays, for
JAMC didn’t really follow the trend but created their own sound. (I remembered
once a local ‘music critic’ ignored them as nothing new, comparing to some
earlier psychedelic music. My verdict was that his ears were incapable of
discerning the nuance and regards all psychedelic ‘noise’ same-same. And it’s
not just about the ‘noise’ anyway.)
(Most bands and musicians were fashion victims and just jumped
into the bandwagon of hip genre of the times. Every time it is tiring to hear
loads of similar music, and it’s their ‘era’ sound that makes them grow old so
easily.)
Yet it seemed that they played the newer songs better than
the older ones. Jim’s voice now lost the warm tone and fragility when he’s
younger. The melody lines were somewhat simplified and sounded more rigid like
skim-milk, but it’s always the whole milk that is really tasty. And like freshy
skin turned dry and its elasticity lost, it made the old songs grow old in the
true sense. And they could only be a pale shadow of their former youthfulness,
which is now really Far Gone and Out. Yes, I wished they had played this song
too.
That said, I was not really disappointed. On the contrary,
it’s a happy pilgrimage to my long-time favourite band, and perhaps even my no.
1 favourite band. In the end, I was totally exhausted, but also totally happy.
And such occasions are rare. No regrets, all bliss. (Despite the slightly
ripped-off price of HKD580. Yes, nowadays, concerts are not for the poor
anymore. But they once were, like many other once ‘basic’ things.)
2 or 3 small things about MY Jesus and Mary Chain:
1. My top favorite JAMC songs are: About You, My Little
Underground, Something’s Wrong, Hardest Walk. (But of course I like almost
every song in the first two albums.)
2. “About You” is the no. 1 song in my iPod, and I think I
have listened to this song at least a thousand times!
3.
Once upon a time I heard on the radio some noisy Beastie Boys stuff, followed
by JAMC’s ‘Darklands’. Suddenly only then I realized how good JAMC were. The
monotonous noise of the former simply accentuated the heavenly beauty of the
latter that I never felt before.
