Mary Timony played Helium (and Yes) at Mercury Lounge (pics, setlists, video)
Mary Timony’s bands Ex Hex and Wild Flag have been through NYC many times in the past few years, but as she said onstage at Mercury Lounge on Friday (6/9), the last time she’d played Helium songs at an NYC show was in 1998 (!). Following the reissue of much of Helium’s discography back in May, though, Timony has been on tour playing the songs of the band for whom she’s perhaps best known. NYC had three chances to hear these favorites this time around: Thursday, June 8 at Rough Trade, which was part of Northside Festival, and then two shows at Mercury Lounge the next night.
The pictures in the gallery above are from the early Mercury Lounge show, where, at one point, bassist Brian Betancourt broke a string, prompting the rest of the band to cover part of Yes’s “Long Distance Runaround” while he restrung. At the late show, they actually played that song in full with Joan “As Policewoman” Wasser on vocals. (Joan played in Aldous Harding’s band the night before.) Watch video of that below. Apart from that, it was all Helium favorites like “Pat’s Trick,” “XXX,” and “Superball.” Check out setlists from the early and late shows at Mercury Lounge (identical apart from the Yes song) plus video, below..
Noveller opened all three NYC shows with a set of complex, layered guitar work, including material from her February 2017 album A Pink Sunset For No One.
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Mary Timony's bass player broke a string. She ran out of banter so she started playing Yes. 🌜🍄🐉 pic.twitter.com/wBNlVpMb4O
— Suzy Exposito (@HexPositive) June 10, 2017
Setlist: Mary Timony plays Helium @ Mercury Lounge (early show), 6/9/2017
Pat’s Trick
XXX
Trixie’s Star
All the X’s Have Wings
Leon’s Space Song
The Revolution of Hearts, Parts I & II
Vibrations
Honeycomb
Walk Away
Ancient Cryme
Encore:
Lady of the Fire
Superball
Baby’s Going Underground
Setlist: Mary Timony plays Helium @ Mercury Lounge (late show), 6/9/2017
Pat’s Trick
XXX
Trixie’s Star
All the X’s Have Wings
Leon’s Space Song
The Revolution of Hearts, Parts I & II
Vibrations
Honeycomb
Walk Away
Ancient Cryme
Encore:
Long Distance Runaround (Yes cover) (with Joan Wasser)
Lady of the Fire
Superball
Baby’s Going Underground
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photos by Amanda Hatfield
