Mercury Rev @ Norwich Arts Centre

It’s 1993. I buy Boces by Mercury Rev on tape and I play it to absolute death. Over the next 20 years I play the Rev’s subsequent albums to death. I love the Rev. To death.

If you could have told the 18 year old me that one day I would be heading into a sold out Norwich Arts Centre (capacity 260) to see one of the best and most influencial American indie bands of all time, I would have literally told you to sod off with your damned lies. But that’s what’s happening tonight, and my heart is bursting with excitement.

Mark and James, who you may know from a range of Norwich musical projects over the last two decades, are our support for the night. With a mixture of keyboards, classic indie guitar and occasional vocals, Broads create beautiful pensive soundscapes with samples woven in to make subtle and delicate tracks. Visuals would have added focus to the performance - musically it’s unique and intriguing but overall I felt it lacked a little energy.

Time for Mercury Rev and bloody hell, they had me from the overture. They’ve brought their own lighting guy with them tonight and from the short but ever so sweet instrumental introduction onwards the impact of that element is significant. Washes of bright colour, managed beautifully, make the show look incredibly professional and give the performance a stronger sense, as if it needed it, of a massive band used to playing much bigger venues. Good work Martin’s Lights, what a treat.

First track Queen of Swans is a belter. Lead singer Jonathan has a glitter-infused beard, a bottle of wine and an awestruck face that is full of joy and quirk throughout the show, smiling and staring into the eyes of individuals in the crowd as he sings, hanging on the mic stand, and whipping the band up at times. His voice is a little wobbly on occasion and he doesn’t hit every single high note, but that’s the beauty of his distinctively creaky, understated vocals anyway, so it makes no difference.

Grasshopper, Rev’s guitar hero, dressed in black and complete with trademark shades is absolutely incredible. His skills are undeniable, with the solos blowing me all the way out into the solar system, but his way of integrating his instrument into the rest of the band’s sound is so subtle and clever that you really have to listen out for it. There are moments when I feel like he is too good, and I can’t really handle how this guy’s making me feel. I’m not sure what to do with myself..I only know that I’m in heaven. The end of one song is stretched out for at least three minutes of sustained sound, and it literally feels like the music is slowly filling my heart up with love, like petrol with a petrol pump. That sounds dickish. I know. I'm sorry. But that was how it felt. They sound as good as they do on record, spot on every time, but with the added volume and flourishes you only get live. I'm really glad they play a number of songs from their latest album, as on record it feels at times a little stodgy - live those tracks really come into their own and stand alongside the others as new classics for sure.

The band all put in 110%. Carlos on bass and Jason on drums are spot on all the way through, and the flautist/keys player more than makes up for the orchestra that is such an integral part of most of the band’s work. They play The Funny Bird, and the wall of sound created by Grasshopper is so gut wrenchingly powerful and euphoric I can barely stand up. Jonathan sings “You’re the only one I know” looking right into my eyes. After Central Park East, my favourite track from their latest album goes down a storm, we get Holes, perhaps their best known song. We all sing along and our souls are warmed from our collective memory of how many years we’ve loved this tune, but also the pure joy you feel when that song being performed live right in front of you. It barely feels possible.

A couple tracks from Snowflake Midnight are majestic, particularly Snowflake In A Hot World, which seems to take a step above the rest of the songs tonight, such is its majesty. Of course we’re treated to Goddess On A Highway, another favourite which gets us all hands-in-the-air singing “And I know it ain’t gonna last” back to Jonathan. Opus 40 ties up the set before an encore of the sweeping epic The Dark Is Rising. The silence and simplicity in the quiet parts of this song set against the huge bombastic parts is what makes the magic - it’s just so tender. Jonathan’s child like voice pipes up amidst the storms like he’s the last boy on earth - lyrics like “I dreamed that I was walking and the two of us were talking of all life’s mysteries..the words that flow between friends” are so simply beautiful. We don’t get crowd pleasers like Endlessly tonight, nor Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp, but hey, we’re not greedy, just glad they came.

There’s a sun-touched glitter to Mercury Rev, a shimmer, a spooky, mysterious otherworldliness that sets them apart from other indie acts. The combination of Jonathan’s pixie-like presence, with its wide eyed stare, and Grasshopper’s New-Yorker-with-Sicilian-roots solid persona, with his slight smile whilst playing and his lunges across the stage shouldn’t work, but it does. It works better now than ever before.

Afterwards the band hang in the bar, signing merch, having photos taken and meeting their fans. You can see from the body language of some of the audience members when talking to these guys that they are telling them exactly how much their music has meant to them for perhaps half their lifetimes, and how much they appreciate them coming to little old Norwich to play for us..considering that today they play to tens of thousands at Glastonbury. That’s a long drive and I hope they had as much fun as we did.

Mercury Rev gave the perfect performance for me tonight, and the knowledge that they usually play such huge places, and there they were in our little yet well loved Arts Centre was incomprehensible to me at times. We were the lucky few indeed, and it will never be forgotten. Thank you the Rev - you make my heart ache in the best way.