POP MUSIC REVIEW : No Sign of Retreat From Mary Chain

What a difference a day--and an audience--makes.

The Jesus and Mary Chain, which headlined on Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium, is one of the half-dozen most compelling bands in rock.

In many ways, in fact, the group’s exquisite songwriting craft and fearless instincts for emotional extremes makes it this generation’s Velvet Underground.

But there is such a radical edge to the London-based outfit, led by brothers Jim and William Reid, that it has been able to develop only a cult following in this country despite five splendid albums dating back to 1985’s “Psychocandy.”

By joining last summer’s “Lollapalooza” tour, the celebrated caravan of alternative pop and rock acts, the Mary Chain hoped to finally break through as a commercial force.

But the group had a horrible position on the bill--it had to play outdoors in daylight, which was all wrong for a group whose music is built around stark, deeply-rooted psychological longings and obsessions.

Another problem was having to follow Pearl Jam, a band that isn’t in the Mary Chain’s league artistically, but that is red-hot now. The frenzied aura of Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder made the Mary Chain’s “shoe-gazing,” anti-performance approach appear simply lame to most of the young rock audience.

That mostly indifferent reaction from the “Lollapalooza” crowd could have broken the will of a lesser band, and the Mary Chain indeed appeared confused and defeated by the time the lengthy tour ended in September.

On Saturday at the Palladium, it was easy to expect the Mary Chain to deliver a cautious, “greatest hits” set, possibly even toning down its guitar feedback assault in hopes of being more accessible to the average fan.

There was, however, no sign of compromise or retreat.

From the tenacious, take-no-prisoners tone of the Mary Chain’s performance, you’d have thought the Reids had been triumphant on the “Lollapalooza” tour and were now celebrating by pushing their own limits.

Playing with blistering confidence and aggression, the band--still shoe-gazing as they were shaded most of the evening by a haze of smoke and oblique lighting--delivered a biting and hard-edged set. William Reid’s guitar feedback forged a white-noise dynamic that recalled the most glorious, ear-and-psyche-assaulting moments of German industrial rock masters Einsturzende Neubauten.

The band placed such an emphasis on sonic power that even the quintet’s softer and more melodic numbers--such as “April Skies” and “Head On”--were given over to the relentless aggression. One casualty was the lyrics. For anyone hearing the band for the first time, it was impossible to hear almost any of Jim Reid’s vocals.

But this show seemed aimed at the true believers--as if the Reids realized after “Lollapalooza” that the only way to meaningfully expand their audience is to keep following their own musical instincts, not to try to hook again into the currents of the moment.

Saturday’s support bands--Curve, Spiritualized and Medicine--all reflect Mary Chain influences, among others. Curve is what the Mary Chain might be like with a female lead singer (say, Siouxsie Sioux), though with less absorbing songs, while the other bands--both with marvelous debut albums--reflect considerable individual vision and bear watching closely, especially as they gain more experience live.