主播大秀

It would be fair to say I was more than a little excited when I heard about this gig. I was a young whipper snapper whilst Mercury Rev were touring their timeless 'All Is Dream' album, and I fortunately managed to win a pair of tickets to see them down in Cork. Much to my dismay, the tickets didn't arrive to the day of the gig, rendering them virtually useless as it was a mammoth ten hour journey to Cork. Roll on six years later and I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl as I finally get to see them live.

The Mandela Hall is packed and they start off with a couple of tracks from new album 'Snowflake Midnight', arguably the most ambitious album of the band's 20 plus year career. Tracks such as 'Senses On Fire' and 'Snowflake In A Hot World' are rattled out with more aplomb than on the record itself, captivating the audience with their plush electronic sounds and the crescendos they create. They masterfully float into 'Holes', the opening track from 1998's 'Deserter's Songs', which gets the first big crowd reaction of the night. Frontman Jonathan Donohue, with one of the most gentle and reassuring voices your ever likely to hear live, implores us to sing-a-long, which of course we do. Jonathan informs us that they have been overwhelmed by the reception they have got in Ireland during this tour and says the band want to emigrate here, of course we know he's lying but we lap his fibs up.

One time Flaming Lips memeber Jonathan Donohue is always going to draw comparions to his former band. Both share similiar lead singers in that they both have high pitched wails. But Mercury Rev have always been a bit more out there than The Flaming Lips for me and they show it again tonight as their music tends to have a rawer edge to it that perhaps the Flaming Lips lack, but I shan't compare the two live as it would be unfair and ultimatley foolish of me, like comparing the joys of summer to a warm winter coat.

Although the tracks from their new album retain the lucious soundscapes and atmospherics from previous albums, they have managed to tweek and fine tune a new sound thus reinvented themselves again on this long career. We then see the band showcase some more of their synth sounds as they treat us to 'Butterfly's Wing' and 'Runway Raindrop'. We shouldn't be suprised by this new synth-based sound, as Donohue has worked with the Chemical Brothers, Four Tet, Boards of Canada and Caribou in recent years. Although it's evident that at times the music does become over fussy and meticulious, it's a very slight gripe in an otherwise mesmerising performance.

'Little Rhymes' starts to rapturous applause. Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak and Jeff Mercel have proven their creativity over the gig thus far and step it up a further notch here as they treat us to some sonic wig outs. 'Night and Fog' and 'Opus 40' come shortly after and are enough to send me into a transcendental experience which almost sees me (figuratively) climaxing in sheer joy and amazement at this wonderous music.

They leave to a roaring cheer and before I could get the beaming smile off my face. They come out to do their encore that included the melancholic genuis that is 'The Dark Is Rising' and a splendid cover of the Talking Heads 'Once In A Lifetime'

I've waited for six years, but it was well worth the wait.

Paul Mullin