Black was the theme for tonight, as skinny jeans and leather jackets filed into the half empty Palace. On stage, The Rakes did their fairly mediocre indie thing and received a suitably mediocre response. Kind of Joy Division meets every middle-of-the-road band you can think of, The Rakes were neither here nor there. Some pounding drum beats and jagged guitars, but no one, crowd and band alike, really seemed to care.

Once the slightly built Rakes were done, it was time for the act everyone had come for. With a sincere feeling of excitement quickly spreading throughout the venue, The Jesus and Mary Chain strode on and played an hour or so of their greatest hits. While there were too many big songs to name, some obvious highlights were Sidewalking, Snakedriver, Head On and Blues From A Gun. And although one could easily be overwhelmed by this group’s multitude of amazing singles, it’s more the way The Jesus and Mary Chain go about performing them that’s truly impressive.

Clad head to toe in black – except for a white Ramones t-shirt worn by lead singer Jim Reid – they stand almost motionless ripping through one fuzz driven number after another. There’s no bollocks, no gimmickry, no tall tales between songs: just pure dirty guitar-driven pop. With a seemingly detached and disinterested attitude, it’s almost as if they’re unaware of the 1500 people screaming in front of them. It’s this honesty and anti-rock star image that makes the band so cool.

Add to the mix some super noisy guitar, darker-than-dark lyrics and thumping basslines, all mixed into three minute pop songs like Cracking Up or Some Candy Talking, and it’s obvious why these guys are so revered. Sure, they might be a lot older now, and they don’t have those haircuts we all loved, but it’s just doesn’t matter. When you can deliver such a glorious sonic assault as tonight and plough through a stupidly rich back catalogue, who cares? The whole show was a delight.

With an overly impressive set already behind them, the Reid brothers and co. ambled back to give us a classic Jesus and Mary Chain encore. Drifting through the 1987 hit Darklands, the night came to an explosive climax with a totally psyched-out version of Reverence. And as five Scottish men wandered off stage, leaving a multitude of feedback in their wake, punters were left to contemplate the magnitude of what just happened. Gig of the year?