Reviews

The Academy, New York City, October 22, 1994

LIVE! The Jesus & Mary Chain / Mazzy Star
by Eric Weisbard - SPIN Magazine

TWO BANDS, and for the whole evening not one word was exchanged between performers and audience; the spotlight never even shined in the musicians' eyes. Wouldn't have been proper.

On the first Mazzy Star tune, Hope Sandoval played a little harmonica when she wasn't singing. On the second one, she counterpointed David Roback's guitar and the bass, drum, keyboard, and violin players with some clearly audible tambourine. During the third song, she picked up a shaker. See, not all Mazzy Star is alike. One moment, virtuoso Roback is making his guitar sound as shivery as a theremin, the next he's found a way to play blues in slow motion.

You can eat well on such distinctions (terrific minimal drumming, for instance), and we did, though when Mazzy Star went off without playing an encore no one shouted; it was enough. "Superstar in your own private movie," goes a lyric from 1990's She Hangs Brightly album. Mazzy ain't so Warhol Underground now, though- not with an MTV hit-so when it came time to play "Fade Into You," the band did the honorable thing and raised the lights a little bit; from ultraviolet to turquoise.

The Jesus & Mary Chain seemed garish by comparison. At best, the group's classic rock'n'roll sounds like the Ramones doing "Crimson and Clover," like motorcycle gospel (reverence reserved for humming guitars and Bedrock chord progressions), like singer Jim Reid's innate disdain had momentarily been suspended-a Goth just learning the joys of catching a wave. Or they drift along quietly, on such tunes as "Come On" (from Stoned & Dethroned), which has a definite Mazzyish feel. Sandoval came out to encore "Sometimes Always" with Jim Reid, just like on the album, except her mike had feedback, and she must despise Jim Reid, because have you ever seen a duet where neither singer acknowledged the other's presence and one walked off after her last line, before the song was done? Amusing, actually. But tell me: Why does a band as capable both of austerity and of vulgarity need to whip out every bloated drum machine-Primal Scream cliche you ever despised in the English?

"I Hate Rock & Roll" was the first encore, a little non-album snippet on which guitarist William Reid sings lead and actually sometimes says he loves rock'n'roll, too. Ain't it just a bitch sometimes, trying to decide?