Last week I saw Mercury Rev at the Independent in SF. Very loud and bright show. It's a small club, but these guys bring enough lights and projection gear to be able to light up a larger stage. However, they're kind of an acquired taste, and to my knowledge have never been really popular, so two nights at the Independent is a good thing.
They've been around since the late 80s, but my first exposure to them came maybe 3-4 years ago when I heard their song "The Dark Is Rising" on KUSF (or maybe some internet radio station) and I thought, "gee I really like this song, the bombastic strings, the melodramatic structure and uber-romantic lyrics sung by this guy's head voice/falsetto" ...
I dug a little deeper and discovered that David Fridmann helped form the group. He produces lots of "indie" stuff (I actually hate that term, and I'm sorry I just used it) including The Flaming Lips -- so being a Lips fan, the deal was sealed.
Their music was synched to a film clip/montage projection presentation that filled the wall behind the five piece band: wall of noise guitar, keys, excellent bass player (played sans pick, thank you very much) and drummer who liked to rock out. The singer, Jonzthan Donahue, sings w a high "head" voice that will sometimes go falsetto (as opposed to your normal chest voice), and likes to sort of conduct the other guys with these wizard-like arm gestures (think of someone like Harry Potter throwing fireballs w both hands and shouting "Sha-Zam!"). They have an unabashed dramatic style, lyrics that may not go too deep, but they want to set a transformative feeling and mood, and give whatever substances you may be on a nice, loud place to explore. I drank water.
The Duke Spirit opened. Super cool band, lots of coolness in the attitudes, but they're great. they do a sort of shoegazey/velvets/Bjork thing -- the singer's cheekbones could cut glass (and she knows it).
It was a fine time, and I know at least one person here (urth) who wanted to go, so I wrote this w him in mind...
happy hanukah!
