The Reid brothers, at the core of Jesus and Mary Chain, must have struggled with the bright daylight during their White Stage performance at Fuji Rock. The band trades in all forms of darkness, from wanting to destroy rock and roll when they came on the scene 40 years ago with their signature move putting their backs to the audience and shrouding the whole stage in smoke.

But its a much different band now. Do they have something to prove touring with a new album, “Glasgow Eyes,” which is more uptempo, colorful, and, how do we say it, more accessible to mainstream audiences? The band played from this album, which drew a good response from the audience.

Then the band veered to the old classics, the ones that seesaw between loudness and quiet, seminal records in the early 80’s pantheon such as “Psychocandy” and “Darklands.” Classic cuts from these LPs really got the crowd swaying, such as “Some Candy” and “Head On.”

And then there was “Just Like Honey,” a beautiful crooning number almost devoid of feedback and buzz, just plain simple melody and harmonizing.