In November of 1985, Jim Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain told Spin:
“We only do 20-minute sets. There’s no band alive that’s good enough to play longer than 20 minutes.”
Sadly, this ethos didn’t really stick, neither with the band themselves (whose 20 minutes around this time were known to incite actual acts of riot) or with the larger music community, but I’m here to tell you, plenty of other things about The Jesus & Mary Chain have wormed their way into our culture. Waaves and the like owe entire careers to the band’s simultaneous weaponization of both the Ray-Ban Wayfarer® and hiding surf hooks under tons of fuzz and screech, William Reed still gives curly-haired white boys a reason not to die, and no one since the band has really and truly turned tenderly-not-giving-a-fuck into a more compelling lifestyle choice. And that’s saying something. The band’s latest LP, Damage & Joy, is their first since 1998’s Munki and that’s why they’re in town tonight; it’s alright. But that’s not the point. The point is: You owe these guys. Pay up. It’s only 20 minutes out of your life. Also, we should still be considering the 20-minute thing. The guy had a point.
With The Cobbs. Tickets available here.