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Ravens & Chimes Come Home

With the mercury rising on a strangely balmy January evening, Ravens & Chimes‘whimsical performance at Mercury Lounge Monday night (Jan. 7) wasparticularly pertinent. Led by earnest frontman Asher Lack, the indiepop six-piece served up a set of danceable and frequently etherealtunes from their debut LP, 2007’s Reichenbach Falls. With araven stuffed animal perched over the stage, courtesy of bassist AbePollack’s Mom, set opener “This Is Where We Are” showcased the band’spenchant for haunting vocal harmonies and psychedelic syntharrangements. Justifiably, Ravens & Chimes’ sound is frequentlyassociated with the Arcade Fire, but the band finds their elementsomewhere in between Leonard Cohen and Vampire Weekend.

Audiencemembers delightedly sang along during “January,” and Nora Kelleher’slilting flute added depth and richness to the song’s vibrant,riffage-induced vibe. The band downshifted later in the set with themore subdued and melancholy “For m,” which allowed Lack’s lamentinglyrics to shine through brightly. Closing their near hour-longhomecoming set with a revved-up rendition the Cohen classic “So Long,Marianne” was a wise move as the crowd bobbed their heads giddilystraight through ’til the end. This marked a solid finale to the band’srecent tour, and for now it’s back to the drawing board. “We’re headingback out [on tour] at the end of February/beginning of March,” Lackshared with SPIN.com pre-show. “If we’re lucky, and all signs point toyes, we’re going to start writing some new material [in the interim].”Given Monday night’s gig, New York eagerly awaits what’s next forRavens & Chimes.

We asked: Ravens & Chimes’ album title for Reichenbach Falls was taken from the classic Sherlock Holmes short story, The Adventure of the Final Problem. Which book should Ravens & Chimes use next for inspiration?