Adam Pierce’s entrancing musical project Mice Parade cross-pollinates the expansiveness of post-rock and ambient electronics with the complexity of jazz, and live, the effect is euphoric.
For last night’s performance at (le) poisson rouge, Mice Parade’s lineup was an indie experimental super-group of sorts with Dylan Cristy (of The Dylan Group, manning keyboards and electronics), drummer Doug Scharin (of HiM, and previously Codeine, Rex and June of 44.), singer Caroline Lufkin (a solo artist who creates dreamy electronic soundscapes), accomplished guitarist Dan Lippel and producer Jeremy Backofen on guitar rounding out the crew that joined Pierce (mostly on guitar, and briefly on drums and electric mandolin) onstage. And though Mice Parade has rarely performed live over the past few years (save the two-week tour the band just completed), with that much talent on stage, it would have been difficult to go wrong. The six performed to a rapt crowd, dazzling them with electro-acoustic excursions and moving fluidly through a set that focused mostly on Mice Parade’s self-titled album from 2007, though the group brought out two new songs (giving fans hope for a forthcoming record). Mice Parade ended with the gorgeous and densely layered “Mystery Brethren,” which is a cover of Jim O’Rourke’s remix of Mice Parade’s “Mystery Brethren Vironment,” a fitting encore to a brilliant evening.
