What is going on with the Mercy Arms fellas at the moment?
Thom's (singer) myspace is deleted and his name conspicuously removed from the band members list on their own site.
From an interview Kirin (guitarist) did with Drum Media a while back:
"We spend a lot of time trying to, you know, keep things civilised, but I think a lot of the positives come when we’re at each other’s throats. That’s when the most exciting music is made"
A rift in the band? Not a chance i say
In the meantime, heres a short recap of their most recent Sydney show, several weeks ago.
Mercy Arms at The Beach Rd 21/01/09
Announced amidst whispers from the venue and a day-before announcement by the band online, Mercy Arms returned to the Beach Road in between Big Day Outs to make a whole lot of noise for a typically diverse crowd- most of whom missed out on a lively set from the Waysiders earlier. Shine a Light Down, the most fervent of their album tracks proved on this occasion the least frantic of the lot as technical problems marred Kirin’s line throughout. Nonetheless, the guitarist put on a rousing performance on his birthday- weaving through a set heavy on the band’s earlier material. There were none of the inter-release b-sides played, although most of the band’s 2006 Kept Low EP got a look in- including debut release Shot Right Down, which in true Mercy Arm’s fashion was knocked out in an unpolished frenzy.
To the disinterested, this would have- as per the band’s unfortunately polarising reputation- come across perhaps as a noisy and chaotic affair, but really this is an outfit with too much going on to ignore. It could be argued that the intricacy of the Mercy Arms’ recordings continues to be lost live amongst a storm of feedback and crashing percussion- but to agree so would be to miss the point of supporting Australia’s best young band (for even in 2009 they are merely three years old). These are songs of huge complication, played with fervent passion by a group of seriously talented musicians. If the typical music-going world had in the last few years not eroded the walls of sound put up by The Smiths and even Led Zeppelin in decades past, then this would have been a set to have been appreciated far and wide.
As it was, the appreciative crowd at the Beach Road were rewarded on this occasion with more than just a whole lot of noise.