The Mercury Program Concert Review

 By Mike Stringham

The Mercury Program Concert Review by Mike Stringham

On Thursday, November 15th I saw The Mercury Program (themercuryprogram.bandcamp.com) at Brooklyn Bazaar. It happened to snow half a foot that afternoon/night and I was working until 8pm. All my coworkers said not to go because it was too dangerous (the roads were terrible), so guess what I did? Ignored them of course! It feels like I’ve been going to BKB a lot lately, especially for shows that I’ve been reviewing for WMSC. In back to back months I’ve done reviews for math rock/post rock bands that are playing their hit albums in their entireties at the same exact venue (cue my TTNG [https://thistownneedsguns.bandcamp.com/album/animals] review also on this site).

I made it on time to see the opener for this show, Square Peg Round Hole (squarepegroundholemusic.bandcamp.com) who are an instrumental three piece within the post rock realm. Each member of the band played several instruments; acoustic & electronic drums, keyboards & synths, and xylophone. I thought that was cool, and showed that each person had some versatility. I got a Múm (https://fatcatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/finally-we-are-no-one) vibe for one or two songs that they played, which was cool since i love that band. Square Peg Round Hole also had an interesting lighting set up, with two mirrors and a lightbulb, which made it look like there were 10 lightbulbs in the mirrors on each side of the stage. The light set up also was triggered by some part of the musical ensemble, which reminded me a little bit of Purity Ring’s (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZqsyBiYZFQ3BbU68-5CLJIjv2MPP6mxH) light set up, which is exclusively triggered by their songs. Anyway, their set was cool.

The Mercury Program played a set of songs spanning their catalogue and then a second set performing their seminal album A Data Learn The Language (https://themercuryprogram.bandcamp.com/album/a-data-learn-the-language) in its entirety. Surprisingly, there were about a hundred people at this show, which is way more than I thought there would be. Seeing and hearing this album played live was a true treat. It was played flawlessly to a brave crowd that withstood mother nature.