The Orpheum Theater was the perfect venue to hear musicians James Mercer and Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) perform in their band, Broken Bells. Similar in many ways, both architecture and artist mirrored eachother in their aged yet highly respected qualities.

One of the most profound parts of the night was simply reveling the amount of time these two musicians have been around, and how admired they are in the music industry. But besides their notoriety, both executed their talents last night just as well.

Opening with a track on their new album, “Perfect World”, the stage was set for an ethereal experience. The lighting and animated backdrop exposed an intergalactic theme present throughout the band’s latest album release, “After the Disco”. The atmosphere created by the dreamy lights and moving background highlighted James Mercer’s heavenly voice. And what an experience that was on its own.

Mercer’s vocals were one of the most impressive aspects of the show. The fact that a man of his age at this moment, where he’s probably performed at over hundreds of shows, is still capable of belting out lyrics and reaching the notes that he did, is astonishing. James Mercer is truly an ageless talent. His partner-in-crime, Danger Mouse, showed skill no less commendable. Switching between keyboard, guitar, and drums, Danger Mouse fully exposed his multidimensional musical genius. The band as a whole was very well-rehearsed. Maybe it’s because they’ve been in the business for so long, but even besides experience the Broken Bells was very well put-together.

Other highlights of the show included a brass section of trumpets and trombones that added to the rich sound the group exhibited with every song. Another addition was a line of choir singers to the side that served for a soulful backup. These women particularly enhanced an smooth a Capella intro the “Leave it Alone.”

The only fault I found in the concert was the little time Mercer or Danger Mouse spent talking or interacting with the audience. They simply flew through songs on-by-one. It made the show go by faster than I would have liked, but the pace was understandable given the amount of times these two have performed. This was just another venue to them and they probably preferred perfection in performance over stalling superficial conversation with the crowd. On that note, the crowd itself was another disappointment. Maybe it was the older age of many audience members, but nobody really seemed into the performance. The energy of the crowd is usually something that enhances a concert, and that was definitely lacking at the Orpheum.

More standouts from the performance were witnessing James Mercer jam out on an acoustic to “Float”, the intergalactic intro to “Meyrin Fields”, a stellar showcase of “Sailing to Nowhere”, and an impressive execution of “Medicine”, fit to hypnotic X-Ray images of the human brain. The Broken Bells “closed” with “The High Road”, but came back out to play an encore ultimately ending with the group’s most popular single off “Perfect World”, “Holding on for Life”.

And that’s exactly how I felt during while James Mercer sang those last melodic lyrics. I never wanted the night to end.