Quicksilver Daydream at Mercury Lounge

Adam Lytle

Born in Pontiac, Michigan, and raised on a farm in Maineville, Ohio, Adam Lytle took piano lessons as a youth and played guitar in bands while in high school. About 10 years ago, he pursued his musical vision by relocating to Brooklyn, New York. There, he recorded two EPs and one album with Wild Leaves, but when that band went on hiatus, Lytle reinvented himself in 2016 under the alias Quicksilver Daydream, using an analog tape recorder purchased from a dead man's estate. A DIY debut album, Echoing Halls, was released on June 16, 2017. Almost immediately after that release, Lytle began reworking some of his older songs for what would become a five-song EP called A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame, which will be released tomorrow, February 9, 2018.

At Mercury Lounge tonight, Lytle on vocals and guitar was backed by lead guitarist Joey Deady, guitarist and Mellotron player Glenn Forsythe, bassist Brett Banks, and drummer Cole Emoff. Quicksilver Daydream's sound owed a serious debt to 1960s psychedelia, with Lytle's cloudy vocals and the band's trippy guitar lines and shimmering ambient backdrops. Lytle performed like a singer-songwriter, but not the standard folkie or confessional model; his lyrical flow was rooted in an avant garde movement from an earlier era and his adept band provided intriguing musical accompaniment that gave electric flesh to the skeleton. Quicksilver Daydream's strength was in wrapping this imaginative initiative around a vintage genre. More experimental than commercial, the songs were vehicles for Lytle's creativity, which paired light melodies with somewhat darker and more complex arrangements. The captivating allure of Quicksilver Daydream's set was that a listener could not predict where the compositions would venture next.

Visit Quicksilver Daydream at www.quicksilverdaydream.com.

Setlist:

1. Hang On
2. Echoing Halls
3. Raven's Eye
4. Ferryman
5. House of Many Doors
6. Waking Eyes
7. Gathering Days