TAS Live Review: Villagers at Mercury Lounge, November 3

There’s no escaping the Irishness of Villagers. As I waited in a very crowded Mercury Lounge last Wednesday night, I heard the word "grand" and the expression "fair play" more than is usual for that part of the Lower East Side.

The opening song on Villagers' debut record, Becoming A Jackal, shares half the title of the definitive James Joyce short story, "The Dead." Villagers' frontman, guitarist and songwriter Conor O'Brien, who is sometimes a solo performer and sometimes a piano player and occasionally sings a capella, sang "I Saw The Dead" softly and knowingly, murmuring, "Let me show you the back room, where I saw the dead."

Villagers chose not to open the show Wednesday the way they did Becoming A Jackal. Instead, O’Brien hit the crowd with the startling lyric of "The Meaning of the Ritual:"

My love is selfish
And it cares not who it hurts
It will cut you out to satisfy its thirst

Villagers' default mode is quiet, but they swelled and soared as the night continued. "How many of you are from Ireland?" O’Brien asked, commenting that it explained the gig's sell-out and the noisy crowd.

It was only their second show as a full band in New York, the first one being the previous day at the Knitting Factory, and I had the feeling of seeing a soon-to-be big thing at the beginning. Villagers have already played quite a few big gigs in Europe and have become a buzz band there. Becoming A Jackal was even nominated for the Mercury Prize this year.

O Brien looks young, but he commands the stage. He seems completely unaffected and on this night, focused on expressing himself with zero self-awareness. He played a four string acoustic guitar with tape over the hole, backed by electric guitar, bass, keys, and drums.

I caught the drummer, James Byrne, playing with one stick and one mallet which might suggest something about Villagers’ sensibility: simple, accessible, but totally unconventional. 

Villagers' Set List:

The Meaning Of The Ritual
Home
Becoming a Jackal
Pieces
I Saw The Dead
Set The Tigers Free
Cecilia & Her Selfhood
27 Strangers
To Be Counted Among Men
The Pact (I'll Be Your Fever)
That Day
Ship Of Promises
Memoirs
On A Sunlit Stage