Mercury Rev
Queens Hall, Edinburgh
19/05/2011

When The Flaming Lips released ‘The Soft Bulletin’ in 1999, less than a year after Mercury Rev emerged from the commercial wilderness with ‘Deserter’s Songs’, critics eagerly compared the two bands. Each had started out as faintly psychedelic, avant-garde noiseniks who moved towards creating symphonic Americana under the auspices of producer Dave Fridmann. Latter-day Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue had even served a tenure with the Lips in the early nineties.

Over the following decade, the groups’ careers would run in tandem, both consolidating their resurgence with a solid album before eventually succumbing to formula and familiarity. However, while the Lips regained acclaim with ‘Embryonic’, a successful return to their lo-fi roots, their associates strived to break new ground on the electronic ‘Snowflake Midnight’, an experiment which seemed to alienate even their core audience. Thus, in 2011 we find Mercury Rev reviving ‘Deserter’s Songs’ amidst circumstances similar to those in which it was originally recorded, in need of recognition and reassurance.

The difference is that, 13 years on, the band displays an obvious confidence in the material. Opener ‘Holes’ is introduced by swathes of stately guitar feedback, Donahue’s vocals coming in atop almost ceremonial keyboards. The following ‘Tonite It Shows’  is even better, the singer standing flamingo-like on one leg as he conducts its swirling arrangement beyond the drama of the studio version. If watching a band perform a classic album in its entirety sounds like a futile, predictable exercise, Mercury Rev certainly make every effort to confound expectation. Most interesting are the fleshed out renderings of the record’s three musical interludes. ‘The Happy End (Drunk Room)’  is cleverly recast as a robotic guitar work out. Segueing into the evergreen ‘Goddess on a Hiway’, the band seamlessly walks the line between innovation and nostalgia. An encore that includes an electro-tinged cover of Peter Gabriel‘s ‘Solsbury Hill’ and a majestic take on early single ‘Carwash Hair’ closes the night in a dignified  fashion, interest in the group fully restored.

Lewis Porteous