Frog Eyes, Drug Cakes and Café Yerba Mate at Mercury Lounge
He just wanted a Green Tea, but what the kind people at Reboot gave Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes was a Café Yerba Mate. That first experience of the popular health drink did not sit well, and left the front man in a very interesting mood for Wednesday night's show.
Usually headliners take forever to take the stage and start their set, especially late on Wednesday nights, when Ive got work the next morning. This was not the case with Victoria, BC-natives Frog Eyes. Lead singer/guitarist Carey Mercer standing on the stage of the Mercury Lounge, waiting for the rest of the band to join him, began to perform on his own, seeming to be unable to contain his excitement to perform. Soon joined by the rest of the band, the frantically unhinged songs hit the crowd with a crushing blow. Always center-focus, Mercer played with the type of energy that was sure to sweat out that terrible Yerba Mate, which he complained about many times throughout the set. He also offered much-needed breathers between songs with really odd stories that acted as fake meanings for his songs. One such story was an amusing tale of a drug cake.
A bunch of great new songs were revealed, while the rest of the set list came primarily from 2007s Tears of the Valedictorian. In the live setting, the songs were seemed much less exhausting than on record. We also nearly got to hear a future #1 country hit titled My Bad, but the bands new touring keyboardist refused to play it, despite Mercers persistent pressure.
After what seemed to be a short set, probably due to the fact that Mercer spent half the time talking rather than playing, he announced that the next song would be their last. After a moan from the crowd, he quickly eased the crowds disapproval with the words Well probably not, hinting at the inevitable encore. Obviously not keen on the whole encore process, no one left the stage, or even put down an instrument. The audience was thanked for their encore, and then treated to 2 more songs, including an incredible version of Bushels.
While fairly new bands are quickly selling out much larger venues, Frog Eyes still seem like a well-kept secret, in a music world that has so few well-kept secrets.
Prior to Frog Eyes stunning set, Philadelphias Papertrigger played an incredible set that seemed like itd be impossible to top. With only an EP to their credit, they handed us a bushel of fine tunes that seemed to find a link between Captain Beefhearts oddball jazz and Radioheads sonic gloom. Although they had their share a crazy moments, and a giant stuffed fish running down the keyboard stand, Papertriggers performance never quite reached the junkyard circus feel of fellow Philly residents and beefheart lovers Man Man.
Photos by [Jonny-Leather]