Concert Review: Air Traffic Controller Land Perfectly In Mercury Lounge
Air Traffic Controller (ATC) brought a jam-session to Mercury Lounge. While concert and jam session may seem like an interchangeable term, the difference lies in ambiance. A jam session has an ease and fun that goes beyond a concert’s entertainment by making the crowd feel apart of the band. As ATC asked the crowd to “OOO!” and “AAAHHH” amongst their hooks and melodies, their breeziness of their music elaborated the talent of their musicianship.
As I walked into Mercury Lounge, I saw a group chilling outside. Little did I know, that group was about to give my life a “ dance break”, where I could escape my day of mundane routines, and move to songs like “The House”, “People Watching”, and “Hurry Hurry”. Each track was more than songs about love and relationships. Instead, they were about trying to feel like you “fit in” to your own life. From family to society, sometimes, our relationships feel “automatic” rather than genuine, and our inability or desire to analyze how to make them authentic leads us to bouts of shame. This was a rather rich message that entered ears and hearts with a wealth of instrumentals. Simply put, these guys know how to play. Each band member plays their instruments with a close intimacy that you would save for a life-long friend, which is why they know how to bring out the emotion of a guitar or drum rather than another note and key. Their level of musicianship became a radiant platform for the epicene harmonies of Dave Munro and Casey Sullivan.
When Dave and Casey sing together they build an androgynous harmony that makes them sound angelic. Having a gorgeous, seemingly “genderless” union makes their songs like, “What You Do To My Soul”, “Warrior”, and “Water Falls” feel like tracks for the soul; the aspect of us that has no social labels, but still has to learn how to deal with them. Dave Munro’s voice, in particular, was made for folk-rock. He rides through keys like a road-way was made from his voice box through his body. He puts all of himself into performing his songs, and you cannot stop watching, especially if you studied singing, how he aims and hits every pitch like a rock-star baseball player. Casey’s voice is smoked and luminescent like a blooming street-light amongst city-fog. She guides you through tracks as if she sees you as the road to “somewhere”. The difference brings in the crowd to that “jam session” feeling, where everyone is having a good time watching their friends play rather than watching a concert of entertainers. For More Information On Air Traffic Controller Click Here.
