It's not easy to transfer the fragile brilliance of Mercury Rev's music to a live setting, and previous Irish concerts by the band have been less than magical. Last week, however, the splendour showed, as Jonathan Donahue and Sean "Grasshopper" Mackiowiak led a six-piece ensemble through a dreamlike musical terrain.
Donahue's plaintive, high-pitched vocals - like Neil Young lost in a dank forest - floated over The Funny Bird, Tides Of The Moon and Lincoln's Eyes. The classical arrangements swirled around the circular venue, while Grasshopper's psychedelic lead guitar swarmed above.
Songs from the band's new album, All Is Dream, make worthy companions to Deserter's Songs. Holes, Tonite It Shows and a rock-'n'-roll rejig of Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp shared head space with Chains, Night And Fog and Little Rhymes. Donahue was clearly getting comfortable in his frontman role, engaging the crowd with a smile or a gesture and at one stage even holding his arms aloft like some weird, countrified Jesus of cool.
Goddess On A Hiway brought this ghostly musical juggernaut to a head, while an extended Opus 40 delivered a prismatic finale worthy of Pink Floyd. Just in case anyone wasn't convinced, the band returned to the stage with a version of Black Sabbath's Planet Caravan, then slew all doubt with Hercules and The Dark Is Rising. As Aidan Walsh would say, rock my brainy head.
