Back in the 90's, Adam Franklin was the singer and lead songwriter for Swervedriver: one of the UK's seminal shoegaze bands and labelmates of both My Bloody Valentine and Ride. Swervedriver never quite reached the same success as those other bands, but that takes nothing away from the dreamy wall of sound they managed to produce during their eight years together.
Franklin has kept the fires burning ever since, playing small indie venues under his own name. He kicked off his latest tour on Tuesday at Mercury Lounge, playing to a less-than-full room. (I guess folks were still trying to recover from the holidays.) The vocals were mixed way too low, but Franklin and his band still managed to wow – especially on the last song before the encore, which approached the ear-ringing roar of MBV. They ended things by walking off stage with their guitars playing an endless loop, not unlike a lot of the new music I've heard of late. (More pics below.)