By DJ Astrocreep
My last scheduled home town gig of the year sees me take in Scottish shoegaze troubadours The Jesus and Mary Chain for the first time, whilst also in a new venue for the first time. Content is based in the old Cain’s Brewery complex and is almost like a Tardis – you don’t realize just how big it is until you’re inside and the room just keeps on going! Acoustically, the venue is great, with well laid out speakers meaning the sound is loud without needing to be ramped right up and destroying the clarity. Brighton’s Ciel are our only support for the evening, which hints at great things to come.
Ciel are absolutely spot on. A three piece with minimal messing around between songs, just blasting through what is rather elegant and impressive post-punk with little time for chatting between songs. Its very approachable and enjoyable and both the sound and lighting engineers do an excellent job of providing a fitting backdrop for them to put out their music. A 40 minute set rushes by in the blink of an eye, with a mix of already released songs and a couple to come from their forthcoming debut next year and the amount of nodding heads around and in front of me tells me they’ve earned themselves some new fans among the fairly busy room.
The mood seems almost sombre as The Jesus and Mary Chain take to the stage, with a rather muted shout of acclaim as the Scottish troubadours take to the stage. I later realize that this is almost like a reverent silence, showing just how focused the crowd are on paying attention to the band. Despite the generally shoegaze nature of a number of their set, I’m still a touch surprised that the crowd seem fairly lethargic, though the noise between songs shows that their efforts are hardly going unappreciated.
Just as with the support band, the lighting and sound are immaculate, showing the benefit of having dedicated people doing both on a tour. The band are so tight… note perfect with a performance that both credits and belies their 40 years in the business. While that tightness is there that you’d expect from such an experienced act, they still have slowed a step, instead showing a presence worthy of what is a top level performance. It’s also of note that there is extremely little interaction between the band and crowd, something that seems almost alien in the current climate of fans expecting access to the bands at pretty much any time.
It’s a surprise that we get the likes of hit ‘April Skies’ as our second song of the set but it gets people moving that little bit. ‘Some Candy Talking’ and ‘Sidewalking’ are both high points, the latter in its almost sleazy feeling fuzz, while the set just blasts on, hitting the first hour before you even realize it.
It’s also noticeable that the setlist is changed up from previous nights, meaning you couldn’t just glance through and know what to expect and when. We also get the bit more uptempo stuff towards the end, venturing into almost straight fuzzy rock ‘n’ roll, which strangely and sadly doesn’t seem to wake the audience up any. We get singer Michelle from Ciel on fo’r Sometimes Always’ towards the end of the main set before a couple of songs encore brings a night of gorgeous soundscapes to a close.
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