Since it first formed 35 years ago at the University of Buffalo, Mercury Rev has gone through a lot of phases before settling into the kind of poetic grandeur it gave its high water mark, 1998’s Deserter’s Songs and that continues to inform their latest work, last year’s Born Horses.
It’s the kind of big, synth-washed saturation with guitar embellishment and booming drums that would satisfy an arena crowd. It was strange and wonderful, then, to see Mercury Rev in the first week of their tour playing a club as small as the Atlantis in DC. Bringing the same kind of theatricality to their performance that they’ve brought to their sound, the touring quintet assembled on stage to the strains of Ravi Shankar and an Antoine de Saint-Exupéry audiobook.
Frontman Jonathan Donahue, in a double-breasted coat, cap, and ascot, looked like a Pied Piper, using elaborate arm motions to swim through the sound or suddenly crouch to conduct or simply present the forces on either side of the stage, conjuring up their sounds like a wizard.
One was the only other original member of the band, Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak, in shades, playing an electric guitar that wasn’t so much individual notes or even chords, but more a cascade of glistening effects. Opposite him was the booming drums of Joe Magistro. Behind them, also in shades, were a pair of multi-instrumentalists, mostly working a pair of synthesizers, though Jesse Chandler also picked up an occasional sax or flute to bring something different to the mix.
Marion Genser, in her blonde hair and black shades, conjured up the image of early Debbie Harry as she waved her own hand signals when not at the synth—or the nearby harmonium. Behind them were the starburst shards of their light show, which like their musical setup, was cleverly jerry-built for function—they’re all projectors, casting unseen images on the ceiling as they make colorful, constantly changing backlighting for the band. (The faces of the synth duo were also lit by little lights on their keyboards, a nice touch).
Lest you think they’re touring to promote the new album, they just played one selection from Born Horses, “Ancient Love,” with its whispery, nearly spoken lyrics. It came in the middle of their 11-song set, which, likely in a concession to fan desire, they began and ended the show with anthems from Deserter’s Songs—“The Funny Bird” and “Tonite It Shows” to start, and the glorious “Holes” and “Opus 40” at the end, sandwiched between a pair from the 2001 Deserter’s follow-up, All is Dream, “Tides of the Moon” and “The Dark is Rising.”
Though Donahue smiled at the reaction the band got, there was very little spoken between songs. At one point he seemed to play an odd synthesized horn that almost took the shape of a gun in its black graphite case. He was largely able to replicate his distinctive, higher-pitched chirp from the records, though the higher notes on “Opus 40” were sometimes a challenge.
The songs melded together well, as if they were different movements of one big opus of their own. And though the louder than expected sound sometimes skipped the delicacy of which they were capable on recordings, they certainly delivered.
Mercury Rev’s history is well entwined with that of the Flaming Lips. Donohue was their guitar tech and then briefly their guitarist for a bit. Former Rev member Dave Fridmann produced 10 Flaming Lips albums and won a Grammy for their At War with the Mystics.
All this to say that for all they share sonically, musically, and in cosmic approach, it’s odd that one band plays bigger places while the other is kept to much smaller rooms. So much the better for fans, where the proximity adds to the band’s swirling power.
