Live Show: Mercury Rev (11/24/2008)


Photo by Abbey Braden courtesy of ATP

Listening to this show makes me wish I hadn’t missed most of their set at ATP NY:

Mercury Rev
Novembre 24 2008
Ancienne Belgique, Bruxelles
Belgique

01. Intro
02. Snowflake In A Hot World
03. October Sunshine
04. Holes

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What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

The badassity of All Tomorrow’s Parties has yet to wear off on me, as I have been jamming hard the new albums from three of the bands I caught there:

Mogwai (Glasgow, UK)

Mogwai‘s newest album seems to be getting a bit overlooked and underestimated by the blog-a-lites, and it reminds me of Explosions In The Sky‘s record from last year in many ways. Obviously there are many parallels between these two bands, but I think each band’s most recent work may be their best. Both are a refined, culmination of a specific sound exploration that marks the pinnacles of what they can achieve. And both albums will be ultimately perceived by most as more of the same from bands that do not stray far from the conventional post-rock sound they have mastered. Yes, the armies of artists that have followed in their foot steps have pushed the boundaries of what an instrumental rock band can do far beyond anything on The Hawk Is Howling. But, every single song on this album has one of those blissful moments that you can never seem to get enough of, and there are very few albums I can think of that are capable of that:

Mogwai : Danphe And The Brain

Mogwai : The Sun Smells Too Loud

Mogwai myspace

Buy The Hawk Is Howling: [MP3] [CD] [LP]




Mercury Rev (Catskills, NY)

While a part of me certainly hates hardly being aware of such an old, established band until recently, my lack of expectations for their newest album allows me to appreciate it in a different sort of way than those versed in Mercury Rev. Every review I read about Snowflake Midnight is so concerned with the band’s past and each analysis is fully in the context of their previous work. Taking it as an intro point to this band, I hear an album with a movie soundtrack vibe commanding mature, interesting songwriting and a sincere, ambitious vision. I can’t wait to go back through their discography and learn what I’ve been missing:

Mercury Rev : Snowflake In A Hot World

Mercury Rev : Butterflys Wing

Mercury Rev myspace

Buy Snowflake Midnight: [MP3] [CD] [LP]




Growing (Brooklyn, NY)

I remember listening to Growing‘s Color Wheel back in the beginning of last year. Every time I would try to sit down and listen to it, I just wasn’t in the right mood to digest it. You have to be in a certain frame of mind to truly be able to enjoy the low key, trippy instrumental, slow developing loop stuff this duo deals in. I eventually moved on and forgot about that album until recently being impressed by their live show and then digging in deep to their newest, All The Way. Tonight, I went back and listened to Color Wheel again by myself with my headphones on, and it felt very satisfying to finally be able to appreciate such a great record. Their newest is just as good, so check it out:

Growing : Rave Pie Only

Growing : Innit

Growing Myspace

Buy All The Way: [MP3] [CD] [LP]

All Tomorrow’s Parties NY Day 3 (Sunday & Wrap-Up): I Think I’m Gonna Need A Bigger Set Of Earplugs

All Photos by Abbey Braden courtesy of ATP.

Saturday night we got back very late to our hotel so I proceeded to order vodka and cranberries by the handful and shoot as many as possible before the looming last call at the bar. I clearly overshot my target and ended up waking up Sunday with a ludicrously painful hangover to start off the day. Most of the afternoon consisted of me trying recover. It finally subsided and I was able to make it to the very end of the Mercury Rev show. As soon a I walked in the backdoor of the venue, there was like a sonic boom blast of sound from a particularly epic part of their set, and you could tell they had this soundsystem at full blast in anticipation of My Bloody Valentine. I wish I could have seen more of Mercury Rev, because the last few minutes I caught were amazing. I’m about to dig deep into their new CD and their old stuff because i wasn’t familiar with them until now.

We stuck around up front to wait for Yo La Tengo, a favourite for all of our ATP crew. The guards or somebody decided starting on Sunday that they would make everyone leave the venue between each performance and have everyone wait outside, which really seemed rather purposeless. At one point a security guard unsuccessfully tried to get the massive crowd filling an entire room to form two lines to go in and it was hilarious. The guards never cleared out the venue area again after that.

We still managed to get front row, and enjoy their top notch set. I was hoping for a full on noise jam set from Ira Kaplan, and while it ended up being a rather balanced sort of set, full of soft, pretty parts and loud, psychedelic stuff, Ira still shredded plenty enough for me. Yo La Tengo is just one of the best bands of alltime in my opinion, to still be writing relevant, amazing music and playing such impressive live shows after 24 years. Here’s video from their set:

After that, we literally ran across Kutcher’s to the second stage to catch …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. We missed only a little bit of their great set, and I’m glad I finally caught these guys. In comparison to the rest of the mindblowing shows of Sunday, Trail Of Dead might have seemed a bit less enjoyable, but still could have been the highlight of lesser festival.


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