Free of all societal expectations, musical constraints, or personal expectations, Mercury Rev has always been a sort of avant garde project, but their originality and conceptual melodies as a genuine band has kept them not just alive, but alive and well.
“It isn’t very often that we play New York City. It’s one of those strange things where you just don’t find yourself at your own barbecue very often,” says Mercury Rev vocalist/guitarist Jonathan Donahue, during a recent phone call from his home in the Catskill Mountains.
He’s referring to his band’s upcoming show on April 12 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, and he estimates that it will be one of only a handful of times that they’ve played in that borough, despite the fact that he and his bandmates formed the band in upstate New York more than 30 years ago…