What better way to end the weekend than soaking up the good vibes of Quilt on Sunday night at Mercury Lounge. Their harmonious psych folk show was a gentle segue into Monday, along with the mesmerizing qualities of Young Magic, who played right before. Listening to Quilt was just about tantamount to laying down in the grass under a shady tree and closing your eyes to just feel the breeze. Or a mild acid trip. Either way, I bet Grace Slick would be really into Quilt’s music.
It’s clear this is a band that loves spending time in nature and takes much inspiration from it, and I couldn’t help but translate what I was hearing in my mind to going to some happy place that only exists far from the city. Their guitar lines are like winding rivers, rushing through the brushes of percussion, while their vocals fly effortless like birds overhead. Even though we were in a dark venue deep within the dense city that is New York, this was a mental time machine journey to another place and time, with distorted guitar and 3-part harmonies for the soundtrack. Every song turned into what almost felt like a spontaneous scenic detour of a jam, and then it would always smoothly circle back to a familiar place.
They played most of the songs off their latest LP from Mexican Summer, and threw a new one in, which featured guitarist/keyboardist Anna’s vocals more prominently in the first verse. The last song was exactly what I was hoping the closer would be, “Penobska Oakwalk.” Throughout the set, they were separate, but also together. They didn’t have to keep looking to each other for cues. In fact, all they had to do was close their eyes, and all the parts locked in seamlessly from there.
Also conducive to the night’s mind trip was Young Magic. Singer/songwriter Isaac Emmanuel and singer/guitarist Melati Malay used guitar line trills, samples, a small percussion rig, and vocal howls to create songs like mantras or meditations. There were words, but they existed in waves of atmosphere and droning ambience. The sounds were accompanied by mesmerizing visuals from classic films, combining to create what felt like a stronger gravitational force that could dig down deep into the psyche. It was actually pretty emotionally intense at times, like opening unknown portals to other planes of consciousness. Young Magic are musical hypnotists.