Mercury Rev

At a Mercury Rev show one can expect to see atmospheric lights that serve as the perfect landscape for the band’s mind-blowing performance of psychedelic music. Mercury Rev manages to blend together rich, intricate sounds with an orchestral quality that often builds up to epic proportions all while managing to capture a catchy quality to each song that leaves the tune pleasantly echoing through the audience’s mind.
Main songwriters, Jonathan Donahue and Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a. “Grasshopper”, have perfect dynamics on stage when performing, knowing exactly when to hit the right note that will enhance the emotion and energy of the performance. The band plays with your typical rock instruments, guitar, bass, and drums, but often incorporate these instruments with orchestral instruments ranging from, clarinet, flute, and synthesizers. Mercury Rev often garners comparison to other psychedelic band, The Flaming Lips, which is understandable as Donahue was once a former guitarist of the band.
Mercury Rev’s recent setlists have been spanning across most of their career, but draw most heavily from their critical acclaimed and commercially successful album, Deserter’s Songs, an album that NME declared album of the year in 1998. The band is also playing several selections from their newest release, Snowflake Midnight. During the performance Donahue seems just involved with the music as the audience, gesturing with his hands, as well as dancing and entrancing himself to his own music.
Listening to a Mercury Rev album in and of itself is a blissful experience, but seeing their live performance with the mesmerizing lights and the band’s enthusiastic performance enhances the euphoria of the music and makes a connection to the audience that can only be depicted in a live setting.

Mercury Rev have been pushing the boundaries of sonic discovery since Sean ‘Grasshopper’ Mackowiak and David ‘Shady’ Baker got together in the late 1980s to try and make some cosmic American music. Partly successful until Baker’s behaviour saw him having to leave the band, he was replaced by Jonathan Donahue and it was at this point that Mercury Rev became the glorious band they remain today. 1998 saw them release the seminal Deserter’s Songs, a tribute to America’s rich musical history (signalled by the guest spots of two members of The Band) while also being a record of spacey, dreamy ambition that they’ve yet to match. These days, the band (the studio version of which includes legendary producer Dave Fridmann) tend to perform Deserter’s Songs in full when performing live – and when you witness this spectacle live you can understand why. As Grasshopper performs stunning fireworks with the guitar, the shamanic presence of Donahue beguiles you with the childlike wonder in his high, reedy vocal. To experience "Holes," the modern classic "Godess on a Hiway" and the blues thud of "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" is to be in the presence of greatness. Although new songs are few and far between these days, it never feels like you’re missing out on new Mercury Rev material as these tracks sound as fresh as they did over fifteen years ago.

That was special. With only 7 songs I drifted through my teenage bedroom to epic elation with tears of joy along the way.(i only cried twice)

Jonathan explained how they stumbled into Maida Vale as naive kids to do a Peel session many moons ago (the 1st of 3). They pinched instruments from the main studio to try out on the recording, kept the engineer on his toes & about 6 hours late to close up.

He also touched on his downward spiral when he was given a rebirth by The Chemical Bros. Ed & Tom got in touch to ask him to do some vocals as they loved his work. They fanned the flames of his confidence to reboot his enthusiasm. The rest isn't history, its ongoing, go and see them while you can.

The Dark Is Rising finished the set, Grasshopper bought the set to a slow melodic peaceful end. Silence fell upon a dazed audience until Jonathan slowly approached the mic & in his soft tone just said 'thanks'. The room erupted, I've been to 100's of gigs in my life but never seen that happen and doubt i ever will again.

You can watch highlights on the BBC iplayer for a while but listen to the full set via Lauren Lavern's page, awesome.

Set List-
The Funny Bird
The Queen Of Swans
Autumn's In The Air
Holes
Central Park East
Opus 40
The Dark Is Rising

The swell – that’s what I remember most vividly from seeing Mercury Rev live. The sheer grandiosity of the flourishing of strings that happened in their opening number "The Dark Is Rising" – a sound so powerful that even thinking back to it can make the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand dutifully to attention. Though 1998’s classic "Deserter’s Songs" is their undisputed masterpiece, with cuts such as "Holes," "Goddess on a Highway" and "Opus 40" still mainstays in their set, it’s often most fun to hear them delve in to their stranger, more psychedelic and rougher round the edges early work - such as that on "Boces," or "Yrself Is Steam" - providing as it does a fascinating contrast to the majestic grandiosity displayed by the band they’ve since become. Though not a powerhouse of a singer, live there’s an endearing fragility to front man Jonathan Donahue’s voice that lends the whole affair a very humble feeling, and a sense that remarkable things are capable of being created by the most unassuming of human beings. A hugely influential band in many senses of the word, it’s perhaps that aspect about Mercury Rev live shows that proves to me the most inspirational.

Celestial experience - truely amazing! The Rev’s spaced-out tunes and dazzling light show were perfectly suited to the atmosphere inside St Nick’s cathedral. The show built up to a spectacular finale for the last few songs and left the whole crowd glowing as they poured out into a cold winter night.

An amazing band, a terrific venue and a good crowd. Mercury Rev were sublime, the sound quality was spot on. This is the best gig I've been to for a long time and I've seen some good bands. I left the gig feeling elated and softened at the same time.

Unexpectedly one of the best gigs I have ever attended - intimate setting, surprise set list, excellent sound & lighting and engaging between-song raconteuring. A treat from start to finish.

Unbelievable gig. Fantastic sound, great set including 5 songs from Deserters Song and a few more older than that. A must see band on this form. Catch them in the uk while you can