BY WYNDHAM LEWIS

Mercury Rev was always well known for its drama.  Having formed in film school, experienced multiple personnel changes, released several great genre-stultifying records and weathered many of rock's most enduring clichés (drugs, artistic differences, etc...) the band has always packed an arena's worth of drama into a cult sized band.

Their less well publicized trick is that - over the course of the band's two decades of performing - they have also learned to play an arena sized show with zero regard for the size of venue.  This was apparent at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston when they took stage in front of a mostly-full 650 capacity room and marched through a set that overloaded the senses of sight and sound while delivering a perfect dose of the best kind of drama.

There is a certain sleight of hand that accompanies the band's live set.  Records like Deserter's Songs, All Is Dream and the new Snowflake Midnight possess an orchestral complexity and pacing that does not prepare you for the volume and drive of the live act.  Opening with ‘Snowflake in a Hot World' and ‘Holes' the tone for the evening was set; and set no less by the band's two non-longtime-players Jason Miranda on drums and Anthony Molina on bass who gave each song a depth and rib rattling low-end.

That by no means implies that they took the limelight from the band's big three; stealing Jonathan Donahue's on-stage thunder would be nearly impossible.  It may also result in his casting lightning bolts from his fingertips as he did many times during the evening between intermittent bouts of air drumming, doing the monster, conducting an orchestra and posing.  Singing like an art-school Neil Young, he moved alternately like Steve Smith, Fred Munster, Zubin Mehta, Christ and Gob Bluth (not necessarily in that order).

Grasshopper and Jeff Mercel are the band's more stationary elements both historically and on stage.  But it is their guitar and keys/effects/percussion that fuel the bombastic flourish. Tracks from the above-listed albums drew the evening's most enthusiastic fan response and to nobody's disappointment, monopolized the set.  ‘Holes,' ‘Funny Bird' and ‘You're My Queen' kept very recognizable arrangements but were significantly more muscular in person.  ‘Spiders and Flies' and ‘Opus 40' closed out the set.

The encore erupted with ‘Dark is Rising,' a tune that sounds like an overture to Jesus Christ Superstar and Fantasia, and Donohue's dramatic flair again keep pace.  Appropriately, ‘Senses on Fire' ended the show with an outro that pitted Molina vs. Miranda in a fro-shake-off that provided the perfect visual for the particularly groove heavy moment.  Ultimately the stage was left bare with only an electronic throb accompanied by the pulsing lights that played sixth member throughout the evening. 

Entering the show earlier, patrons were greeted by signs posted down the clubs narrow corridor warning of strobe light usage and asking at-risk individuals to enter at their own peril. (The Flaming Lips post similar caveats at their shows.) This information solicited a double take and could only vaguely be made out on the return trip towards the exists as the retina-searing light show both upped the drama quotient and ruined our depth perception for the balance of the evening.   

The audience was ultimately left sated and with a bit of the Tommy-s. 

***

Dean & Britta opened "bring your own cult following" night on a far more subdued note.  Alternately playing Nancy Sinatra to his Lee Hazelwood and/or Jane Birkin to his Serge Gainsbourg, Britta Phillips paired up with Dean Wareham to do what they do well: looking and sounding cool.

My brother once described Wareham's previous band Luna as "the band that someone else's girlfriend is really into,' and it always seemed like an apt description of the - once removed - distance that they seemed to embody in their music.  As Dean and Britta they have the same sort of "we'll get there when we get there" vibe and her chilly vocals add a texture that always seemed absent on Wareham's pre-Britta records. 

Set highlights included the band's best original ‘Words You Used to Say' and an unexpectedly revealing shot of Britta's pipes when she wailed "baby!" during ‘You Turn My Head Around.'  The strength of her voice made you wish it came out more than once a show.

A note-perfect rendering of Serge and Jane's ‘Bonnie and Clyde' provided an appropriate cultural paean for the five piece band and the set's other highlight.  Britta threw herself into the role with the rouge, bleu et blanc go-go dress and knee-highs, and Dean gave only a slight wink with his effortless French and Galaxie 500 t-shirt.

Bonsoir mes amis!