Do you believe in magic? Do you believe in fairytales? No? Then you're lucky Mercury Rev are around to do it for you...
Of all the many, many reasons to love Jonathan Donahue's bunch of mavericks, it's their fearlessness that stands out most. In an industry where most bands are afraid to admit their music is anything more than diverting entertainment, Mercury Rev want nothing less than miracles, even if it makes them look absurd.
While their nearest contemporaries, the Flaming Lips, hide their soft hearts behind humour, Mercury Rev parade theirs proudly. There's the florid lyrics, the songs called "Lorelei" and the images of dolphins and ballerinas projected onto the back wall. It would be easy to laugh at their search for magic if it wasn't for the fact they so often find it.
So when Donahue chattily describes "Holes" as a song that "fell from the sky", it's as good an explanation as any for its overpowering beauty. When "Secret For A Song" is soaring, guitars chiming under its great swoon of a chorus, it's hard to think of anything earthbound that could create something so heavenly.
Donahue has grown into a more confident performer than a few years ago, when he was a largely silent figure, writhing to the ebbs and flows of his music. But if he's relaxed enough to tell a few anecdotes tonight, he also knows when to let his music talk. And what music - from the sighing, climbing chords of "Little Rhymes" to the crashing strings of "The Dark Is Rising", all played gorgeously in the exceptional acoustics of the Apollo.
Mercury Rev themselves are more fairytale than band. They're the ugly prog duckling that turned into a swan, they're Hansel & Gretel lost in the dark forest of their imagination. And more than anything they're the Pied Piper, playing music so lovely it's impossible not to follow them.
Where they go from here is anybody's guess.
