More than a quarter of a century has now passed since I first saw Mercury Rev in this fair city. That January night a couple of miles from here in The Cockpit – another iconic Leeds live music venue that has since sadly bitten the dust – the psychedelic rockers from upstate New York opened with ‘The Funny Bird’ and ‘Tonite It Shows,’ a couple of stirring tracks from Deserter’s Songs, a seismic record released just a few months beforehand and one that effectively reignited their then stuttering career.
25 years later and with a strange symmetry, Mercury Rev start their set tonight with the exact same two songs. Also present and correct from The Cockpit are two of the group’s founding members, Jonathan Donahue (vocals/guitar) and Grasshopper (guitar), all of which might suggest that Mercury Rev are just another band who are happy to trade upon past glories. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In the interim Mercury Rev have released another six studio albums, records that have traversed a wide range of often experimental musical styles from electronica to jazz and ambient soundscapes to a collection of covers by the 60’s female trailblazer Bobbie Gentry. And their live line-up sees the core duo of Donahue and Grasshopper now augmented by four more musicians two of whom – Jesse Chandler and Marion Genser – had played on the band’s latest album, Born Horses.
Released only a matter of a few weeks ago, Born Horses is represented here tonight by two songs – ‘Ancient Love’ and ‘Your Hammer, My Heart’ – both emphasising the ongoing evolution of the Mercury Rev sound. They are bold, majestic, almost symphonic pieces and when Jonathan Donahue is not emotively reciting their cosmic themes in his spoken-word he has his back to the audience as he conducts the band cascading through the songs’ expansive melodies.
Before their arrival, though, and as if to acknowledge the fact that he is also in this country right now on yet another lap of his Never Ending Tour, Mercury Rev deliver a most muscular reading of Bob Dylan’s ‘Love Sick.’ All those years ago in Leeds they had encored with Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s ‘Cortez the Killer’ and clearly still have the confidence and class to cover the big tunes.
‘Runaway Raindrop’ from their 2008 album Snowflake Midnight possesses a serene beauty all of its own, enhanced by some carefully understated saxophone from Jesse Chandler. ‘Goddess on a Highway’ – one of five songs drawn from Deserter’s Songs – is positively galvanised by Grasshopper’s stuttering guitar licks as it plays out over a glorious synthetic sweep of keyboards. And then an emotionally-charged ‘Holes’ and a quite epic ‘Opus 40’ herald the arrival of a euphoric valediction courtesy of ‘The Dark is Rising.’ This is the sound of a band 25 years further on down the road and now stretching out to the peak of their considerable powers.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of Mercury Rev at Brudenell Social Club
