Holding Mercury holding court at the Arcada for fundraiser show

Posted November 16, 2009 10:00 pm

Marie Wilson

"The Police Chasing the Killers in Getaway Cars."

Matt Hoffer uses this combination of musical group names to describe his band Holding Mercury.

"We're sophisticated pop. We don't expect to be indie rock darlings," said Hoffer, the group's lead singer and guitarist. "We're a pop band, but we like to put on a rock show."

Holding Mercury's next show will bring the band to the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles on Friday for a charity battle of the bands.

Holding Mercury will be one of two main acts at a fundraiser St. Charles resident Suzanne Positano organized for her brother, Steve Jessen, after he was diagnosed in July with a type of cancer called glioblastoma.

"He used to play in bars all the time when he was young," Positano said about Jessen. "I just thought this would be really inspirational for my brother."

While this is not Holding Mercury's first charity show, it is a far cry from the band's most recent gig - an appearance at the taping of "Loveline," a syndicated radio call-in program that discusses young adults' problems with sexuality, relationships and addictions.

"It was a fun experience because there's a whole subculture there with that show," said Ashok Warrier, Holding Mercury's guitarist. "There's young people with problems on their mind and we got to see that up close and personal and play for a crowd that probably wouldn't hear us normally."

The members of Holding Mercury also think Friday's show - an all-ages event with seven high school bands and two other acts - may expose them to a different group of listeners: the high school music scene.

"We love playing for them because they're into music and will pass the band along," Hoffer said. "Youth and music go together."

Hoffer got his start in music as a teenager living in St. Charles. When he was 13, he started playing speed metal songs with his friend Andrew Titchenal, Holding Mercury's bassist, while the two were away on trips with their traveling hockey team.

Warrier jumped into the high school rock scene of the Barrington/Hoffman Estates area where he grew up, while Holding Mercury's drummer Jason Batchko has studied percussion in his hometown of Highland Park, as well as on a trip to India.

"All-ages shows seem to go really well for us," Batchko said. "Kids really like us."

Batchko attributes the band's success with youth to the fun and accessible nature of its music.

"It's energetic, easy to understand and listen to even though it can actually be kind of complicated musically," Batchko said.

Despite the band's appeal to a young crowd, Holding Mercury does not direct its songs to a certain audience. The group focuses on writing interesting rock tunes with memorable pop hooks. And that's just what Holding Mercury is doing now, as the band is writing songs to prepare for a possible CD release in 2010.

"I like to think of us as one of the bands that could bridge the gap between what people call indie rock now and commercial rock," Warrier said. "We try to extract the good and leave out the more mundane of both worlds."

Battle of the Bands featuring Holding Mercury & Joshua When: 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20 Where: Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St., St. Charles Tickets: $10 at the door Information: (630) 276-3825

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