Mount Eerie + Wyrd Visions @ Sala Rossa

To preface this review, I should admit I'm a little bit biased: my adoration of Phil Elverum's music started when I was 13 listening to the Microphones' The Glow Pt. 2 before I even really knew what it was to love music. It's been a part of my sonic landscape for a very, very long time and has been internalized in ways I probably don't even realize.

I missed the first band, but caught the second opener, Wyrd Visions. A friend of mine who has seen him before described it as "mesmerizing". I can't really think of a better word than that. I was transfixed with the dreamy reverb to the point where I wished I had a chair to sit down in while I listened, and it left me humming "W-Y-R-D V-I-S-I-O-N-S across the sky-y-y" for days afterwards.

I was almost a bit afraid to see Mount Eerie. When you have such unrealistically high expectations for a band/person/film/anything you're usually let down, I mean how can reality live up to the absurd ideas that you build up in your head?

Except that they did. Mount Eerie was completely, totally amazing. They were not pretentious, rude, or dismissive of the crowd, nor did they gloat and over indulge in applause. They nailed all the pretty, lovely songs, like "The Place I Live" and my personal favourite off the two new albums Clear Moon and Ocean Roar, "I Walked Home Beholding", as well as the loud, rock and roll, "death metal" inspired stuff, like the last track of Ocean Roar simply titled "Instrumental". I was totally enchanted and happy and could have listened all night, as the guy beside me yelled when Phil announced they would be playing their last song, "Play 50 more!" It was dreamlike without being too sweet, and abstract without getting too spacey, and I left feeling completely blissed out and transcendental.

-- Leilani Fraser-Buchanan