Jesus and Mary Chain Get Its Act Together

Remember the 20-minute performances?

Remember the nights with no encores?

Remember the way the band was so intimidated by trying to re-create the alluring textures of its albums that it seemed almost apologetic for even stepping on stage?

Then you remember the old Jesus and Mary Chain.

On Thursday night at the Universal Amphitheatre, the new--and improved--Jesus and Mary Chain stood proud.

The concert ran a full 75 minutes.

The group did two encore numbers.

And the band’s leaders, brothers Jim and William Reid, played with a confidence and inspiration that made the idea of a live Jesus and Mary Chain album--once unthinkable--seem inviting.

Place your bets with confidence: the Jesus and Mary Chain, which has still not ignited commercially in this country despite its influence and acclaim in Britain, will eventually be headlining arenas here.

And it will be closing the show, to impassioned applause, with the very songs--notably “Just Like Honey,” “April Skies” and the new “Head On”--that rock-radio programmers have been ignoring here for five years.

Like R.E.M. and the Cure, the Mary Chain has had to rely on college or alternative radio airplay and concert performances to build an audience because mainstream programmers reject the music as too radical for their audiences.

The problem in relying on live shows for the Mary Chain was that the concerts were even more radical--for the reasons outlined above--than the mix of sweet, almost sentimental melodies, brutal guitar feedback and dark, obsessive themes that made radio programmers uneasy.

It wasn’t unusual for even people who loved the albums to go away from the live dates vowing never to pay good money to see those jerks again.

But the brothers Reid (Jim sings, William plays guitar) finally gained enough confidence on stage to put together a show that is conventional enough to satisfy a general audience, but still challenging enough to invigorate the hard-core fans.

In some ways, the Mary Chain is a great ‘60s band struggling for a place in the ‘90s.

It’s not that the band copies the sounds of the Byrds, Doors, Stones or other groups from that so-called “golden age of rock.” The link is in the boldness of vision.

Underlying the Reids’ assault on worn ‘80s pop-rock sensibilities is a focus on issues about extreme emotions that updates the tense, pop-rock artiness of the Velvet Underground. The music is dressed in a swirling, almost intoxicating storm of sound.

Apart from the specifics of the brothers’ themes is the same cry for identity and fulfillment that fuels so much of our most compelling art--a cry that, in the most powerful moments, injects the listener with the joys of being alive.

It’s a process that singer Jim Reid virtually defines in a line from “Head On,” one of the most accessible numbers the band has recorded:

Makes you want to feel,

Makes you want to try.

Makes you want to blow

The stars from the sky.

At the Amphitheatre, the Mary Chain was almost invisible to the audience as the band played “Head On” early in the show--just flickering images, illuminated by flashes of back light as they stood amid pillars of mushrooming smoke.

Playing in this obscurity could have been a statement to the audience that it’s the music, not the personalities, that matters. Or it could simply have been a strategy for dealing with the band’s lack of performance instincts on stage.

Either way, it proved effective. There is a dreamy, trance-like quality to much of the Mary Chain’s sound and there is a seductive sense of oneness achieved in the Amphitheatre by having both the performer and the audience in virtual darkness.

Ironically, the darkness on stage comes at a time when the Reids have found ways on record--as in the recent “Automatic”--to broaden and brighten their music without sacrificing its soulful integrity. There may be a time--possibly the year the brothers reach the Forum--when they will be able to welcome the spotlight as they play these songs.

But in darkness or in light, the Mary Chain’s music is among the most inspiring and illuminating of their generation.

The group--which was joined Thursday by the promising, if sometimes overwrought Nine Inch Nails and the previously reviewed Nymphs--was scheduled to perform Friday night at the California Theatre in San Diego as part of its extensive U.S. tour.