Ariel Pink: Live At The Mercury Lounge

, Ariel Pink and band played a rather short but often brilliant set at New York’s Mercury Lounge showcasing the mercurial popsters hazy take on 80s pop, drenched in distortion and AM radio vibes.

Ariel Pink is arguably the leading light of glo-fi, that take on nostalgia through the prism of ephemera ranging from childrens tv, cheesy pop and electro retro. On record, the man known to his family as Ariel Rosenberg certainly ticks all of these boxes but is a notoriously shambolic live peformer and while this gig did suffer from the occasional hapbazard stop-start (notably live favorite “Round & Round” was inexplicably cut short), any attempts at mindless whimsy were kept to a minimum as the band powered through the set, egged on by a very, very eager audience.The most obvious reference point to these ears is vintage Todd Rundgren; while the latter’s skewed pop genius is something which Ariel Pink has not having attained just yet, it is certainly something he can aspire to.