A few hundred fans turned up at Crowbar this past Friday night to hear and witness the return of The Mercury Program [pictured, photo by Phil Bardi]. While the foursome has been playing together over the past several months (they released their first studio album in seven years, Chez Viking, last November), this was their first live outing since they'd taken an extended (more than four year) hiatus from performing.
Lovitt Records labelmates Fin Fang Foom provided support on this tour and played a strong opening set, lead singer/bassist/keyboard player Eddie Sanchez delivering lyrics in an agonized wail over the trio's dark, dense, heavily expansive experimental rock, which was marked by electro fuzz synth textures and pulsating drums. They were much louder than I expected, the sort of band that makes it impossible to hold any type of a conversation because you can't even hear yourself talk over the washes of sound filling your eardrums.
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2010.