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PHOTOS: mercury – Minneapolis, MN 6/17/2024

If there’s a rock scene, there must be an underground. Right now evidence of subterranean rock culture is weaving its way onto stages at legendary spaces like DC9 in Washington, Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, Velvet Underground in Toronto, Canada and made-famous-by-Prince 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis. The acts taking these stages today look like Tennessee-based band mercury.

Mercury are currently wrapping up a tour with Dreamer Boy. These young performers certainly have their own brand of rock to share with audiences. It’s a shoegazey type that draws influence from Mazzy Star, whose (as legend has it) song “Fade Into You” blasted while mercury’s singer Maddie Kerr was born. Kerr’s songwriting is at the forefront of this very loud band.

Kerr wrote mercury’s track “I Don’t Know You Like I Used To” in 2022. The song has garnered over 3 million Spotify streams. It’s been featured on the popular “Undercurrents” and “New Noise” playlists.

But the most important songs mercury is playing on their current stretch of tour dates came out earlier this June. They are figuratively and literally attacking stages to perform songs from a new collection called Together We Are One, You And I. This triad of tracks came out June 7 via Big Loud Rock. Its first tune “Born In May” is a reference to Kerr’s borderline-immaculate birth. She tells audiences how special the track is to her heart before distracting them with rupturing guitars and a strong vocal performance.

“It was the first time in a while I’ve allowed myself to put my emotions into words and to tell myself that it’s okay, I’m allowed to be hurt,” Kerr said of the song. Listen to “Born In May” and watch the official short film accompanying Together We Are One, You And I here.

Loudness is commonplace throughout mercury’s set. Their guitarists and bassist clash from shoulder to shoulder and swing their instruments around the stage. Kerr herself is barely seen throughout the set. She might stand in the center, but she looks like one rocking mop of hair eating a microphone.

Kerr is somewhere in there harmonizing.

Mercury is wrapping up its ongoing live run this month with more performances at notable venues. On June 28 they will play The Blue Room at Jack White’s Third Man Records Nashville location, a homecoming of sorts for these Tennesseans. Mercury will also headline Gold-Diggers in Los Angeles on August 24.

PHOTOS: mercury – Minneapolis, MN 6/17/2024:

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Ben Pagani

Music Projects Manager at Beyond The Stage Magazine

Joining BTS as an intern in summer 2021, Ben stayed with the team as a writer and has been an editor for several years. Ben’s journalistic background includes 4 Emmy award wins for news producing. They grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and lived in Cleveland, OH for several years before finding a new home in Minneapolis, MN. They’ve found new and exciting ways to tap into the local music scene no matter where they’ve lived. Working at BTS has now opened the gates to chatting with top global artists. When they aren’t writing for BTS, they can be found riding a bicycle or spinning records while DJ’ing across the midwest.