Mercury Rev, New Century. 14th March 2025

It’s been a few years since I last saw Mercury Rev. That was a rather special night with them playing Deserter Songs in a theatre. Magical stuff. That’s Mercury Rev all over though isn’t it, magical. Listen to their latest record, Born Horses, it’s like a balm for the soul. Jonathan’s breathy vocals transport you like you’re listening to a mediation tape, a really good one. As I walk into New Century the warm up music is instrumental and dreamy. It might be something I should recognise, Eno perhaps but it sets a lovely tone as well mannered patrons mill about and chat thoughtfully. I’d be very happy to hear a set dominated by Born Horses, but that doesn’t happen. Instead it’s Deserter Songs that leads the way and we start with ‘Funny Bird’. Jonathan tailored in Dickensian velvet orchestrates the drums, Grasshopper’s guitar and duelling pianos. It’s powerfully ethereal. ‘Tonight it Shows’ is injected with a bit of pace. It’s not a massive departure, but certainly more immediate than its recorded counterpart. I’m fine with this, I like a bit of live interpretation and this gets my head bobbing. Even if the drums are a touch heavy in the mix, everything levels out as Jonathan straps on a bass guitar, the keyboards lift and they all lock in. It’s fantastic. As is ‘Vermillion’ with its gentle flute line weaving through the harmonic melodies. I’m stood right by the speaker stack which might not be helping the delicate structure of these songs, but Grasshopper sounds awesome. Now time to admit that I’m not great with every Rev record. I know three or four really well, but there are gaps. Which is where ‘Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower’ comes in. If I’ve heard it before I don’t remember, but it doesn’t matter. It’s great, a big driving beat that really packs a punch as Jonathan dances like a beatnik and the women on keyboards attacks some kind of squeezebox instrument. What an absolute belter. I really must fill in those gaps. A cover of Vangelis’ ‘Tears in Rain’ does stand out a bit as you might imagine, with Jonathan wielding a futuristic looking trumpet, but it’s nice enough. It appears it might be wrapped inside another song and this seems very plausible, but I couldn’t tell you more. ‘Goddess on a Hiway’ puts us back on more familiar ground. This too is given a more ferocious facelift. Okay maybe ferocious is a bit much, but it’s pretty zippy and even gets the lighting desk reaching for the switches, throwing beams out to the beat. ‘Ancient Love’ slows things with a lowkey samba beat and keys lightly tinkering over the top as Jonathan delivers the spoken words lyrics. There’s a lot of this on the new record and I’m here for it, although it does work slightly better recorded. It’ll still take you somewhere in the live setting though and as we dig in deeper, it becomes a bit of a centrepiece. Perfectly twisting through a trippy orchestral landscape, Jonathan miming theatrically as Grasshopper delicately rings his guitar and a saxophone plays. There’s some big songs to come, but I can tell this is going to be the pinnacle for me. ‘Tides of the Moon’ follows, from All is Dream, a record that felt very much a sequel to Deserter Songs, this song though is left alone with its dreamy lush soundscape. ‘Holes’ will be many people’s favourite. Its childlike gentleness is just beautiful and live, it’s perfect. You can feel the room swell with love. ‘Opus 40’ next swells it further with that Beatleseque piano and bassline. This is given the extended psychedelic wigout treatment and sounds fabulous. I’ve gotta say the fella on the drums is a funky motherfucker. ‘The Dark is Rising’ is chosen to close, because, well what could possibly follow that. I’ll not lie, I was hoping for more from Born Horses, but it’s still a great set. It’s been 90 minutes and feels like 5. Absolutely marvellous.