mercury & Ritt Momney Together, “In The Round” at Thalia Hall

Apr 18

4.12.26 - Chicago, IL

Ritt Momney is most likely a name you associate with his 2020 cover of “Put Your Records On” (originally by Corinne Bailey Rae) that hit the Billboard 100. But with such explosive success on a song that he didn’t originally write, Ritt Momney (whose real name is Jack Rutter) found himself caught between continuing to create 2000s covers that had potential to keep the success going or return to his creative process - he chose the latter.

To return to his roots and distance himself from the capitalistic mindset of the music industry, Rutter returned to his home in Salt Lake City to ground himself. This is where his most recent album, BASE (2026), was born. The name of the album is a reference to this return to creative roots, stripping everything else down to just the base of creating music.

Joined by Tennessee indie rock band mercury, the albums accompanying tour kicked off in no better place than Salt Lake City, Utah, and a week later made its stop at Chicago’s historic Thalia Hall.

But this wasn’t an ordinary show at Thalia Hall; walking up the stairs under a gorgeous chandelier, fans walk past a sign reading “RITT MOMNEY ‘IN THE ROUND’ WITH MERCURY”. In the center of the typical GA section, is a short stage with a mirrored reflector in each corner (for visibility or sound projection I’m unsure). Fans had already surrounded the perimeter of the stage, the energy in the room prepared for not just a live show, but an experience of music.

At 7:30pm on the dot, the lights dimmed and a hush fell over the room, nothing but a flashlight lighting the way for mercury to make their way through the crowd and onto the stage. Lead singer Maddie Kerr carries an ethereal energy wherever she goes; with her long vibrant red curls and a flowing skirt, she takes the stage alongside her bandmates. A moment of silence, before the room fills with electric guitar, followed by the rest of the band.

“Born in Early May” opens mercury’s triptych project from 2024 Together We Are One, You and I. Kerr describes this project as the product of her navigating a painful, insatiable and confusing era of her life. While the instrumentals of mercury’s tracks are dark with a raw indie rock sound, Kerr’s voice contrasts with a delicate, lighter softness. However the two blend together to convey desperation, messiness, bitterness: the pain intermixed with glimpses of hope that come with growing older.

“Crick” follows, the third track of the aforementioned EP, a song that will resonate with anyone that has spent an unbearable amount of time wrestling with the weight of their emotions: “I’ve got a crick from my overthinking. . . I wish I had the words to say, to say what I was feeling when I felt it”. “Swarm the Hive Mind” follows from their EP of the same title also from 2024, the light reflections on the audience resembling ripples in a pond across the crowd.

The band sets up for the rest of their set as Kerr informs the audience that this stop of the tour was the one both mercury and the Ritt crew were most excited to play. Not only to be attributed to how wonderful Chicago always is, but specifically the uniqueness of this “In the Round” show. Kerr asks permission from the crowd to play a few brand-new unreleased songs (products of being in the midst of the album-writing process, they reveal), to which the crowd erupts in cheering approvals. With a smile, and a sweet laugh, Kerr introduces “Roar”, keeping true to the grungy mercury sound, but a little slower than the previous songs on the setlist. “Not A Ritual” follows, with an uptick in tempo and a heavier rock sound. Kerr speaks a bit more before the next tune, informing the crowd that this is their first time playing it live. She explains how one of her bandmates sent her this song he had been writing, and it began pretty much entirely fleshed out, with minimal finishing touches being done to create this “big rock song”, “Mess”.

I overhear a few audience members noticing how soft and mellow Kerr’s speaking voice is, “she has such a calming tone”, in contrast to the intensity of the songs she sings. Kerr writes a lot about the heavier, complex emotions that come with transitioning through different phases of life - lyrics and instrumentals that reflect a fierce release of grief, love, anger, pain, sadness. It’s as though her gentle voice soaring over the heavier instrumentals reveals glimmers of hope and joy that shine through the darker moments of these phases.

Returning to the final track from Together We Are One, You and I, a slightly gentler sound but all the same conflicting expressions of self-searching as Kerr’s other songs - “removed my clothes, the color left my face / lowered my body into the water, sought out the deepest part of the sea, I didn’t wanna be seen”. A nod to the title of this EP, named for the unity amongst humankind in feeling all the messy emotions Kerr was experiencing when writing it, she speaks on how much she loves performing in the center of the room. “It feels like we’re all together, sharing this moment. It’s where we belong, we belong all together”.

mercury’s set closes out with their most recent single, “Heaven”, as Kerr sings her heart out through conflicting lyrics of painful loss and hopeful acceptance: “try to forget how it felt like heaven, throwin’ my hands up I accept it all, something’s got a hold on me. . .how could I forget? It was nothing like heaven, throwin’ my hands up I accept it all, something’s got a hold on me”. The final chords fill the room, blending with the crowd's cheers and applause at the band’s amazing set. Members of the band take a few moments to reset the stage, but when they finally step off the platform and into the crowd to make their exit, the room fills with cheers again, fans stopping members of the band to praise their performance and take photos together.

Maddie Kerr took time to talk with every fan that stopped her on her way out to the merch table, where she continued conversations with fans, including myself. She was sweet, humble and genuine in every conversation, truly radiating with gratitude for each fan that she took the time to speak with.

A short while after mercury leaves the stage, the room falls quiet and dark once again, with the signaling flashlight guiding the Ritt Momney crew to their places on the center platform. A low, humming synth plays as the band adjusts their setup and prepares their instruments the room nearly pitch black. Jack Rutter’s voice sings overtop of the synth, opening with the title track of his recent album, “BASE”. This track sings of the return to the base of his creative process in the making of this album, “I’ll love what I’ve found, build a base, tie it down and I’m back home”. After the instrumental outro, the band moves seamlessly through the next two tracks from the album, “LIGHTSHOW” & “I’DDO”, singing themes of finding joy in simplicity.

The gentle piano introduction and Rutter’s soft voice in the intro of the next tune results in cheers from the audience - “Wormwood” from Ritt Momney’s 2019 album Her and All of My Friends, the only full-length album they had out when the “Put Your Records On” cover went viral. “Paper News” from the same album follows, a song that strangely foreshadows some of the creative struggles Rutter detailed experiencing in the creation of BASE - “living the dream, at least what the dream used to be. There’s people I don’t know that know me. I’m quite well off, relatively. Writer’s block accompanied by some depression, without these songs what am I worth?”

There’s a man dancing around the balcony-level seats, freely moving through the way one would alone in their living room, enjoying every moment of the experience. As a photographer, the lack of lighting in the room made it difficult to capture the night, but it was a clear intentional choice to use minimal light in the performance. A few orange floor lights creating a dim glow around the stage in addition to the unique set up of the audience surrounding the band, reminded me of a typical Midwestern campfire night. Warm light, people huddled close together, music and togetherness being the focus of the evening and nothing else.

Moving forward a few years to his 2021 album, Sunny Boy, the room immediately fills with fans singing along from the first line “she’s holding her breath like she’s scared of it leaving, she’s biting her tongue like I did last night” (“HEADSTART”). A driving beat introduces “Escalator”, and an epic guitar solo closes it out. “Command V” opens with its series of questioning lyrics “Am I on your side? Or just on mine? Are you still there in every way that you were? Am I on time?”, longing for a love that seems to be unreciprocated towards our protagonist.

*Jack Rutter (“Ritt Momney”) & his wife Lindsay performing “DOG”*

Moving back to the BASE tracklist, “IF” is a little poppier and upbeat than the previous songs that have been performed. At the end of the song, Rutter steps away from his keyboard set up and takes the center of the stage with his acoustic guitar. Speaking for the first time since the start of the show, the band members take turns soloing as their introduced by their lead singer, smoothly transitioning into “RIGHTBACK”. The audience fills the room with applause for each bandmate and at the closing of the song, as Rutter returns to his keyboards.

“Thank you, Chicago!” he speaks into the microphone, and the crowd screams back. He invites a special guest to join him on the stage, introducing his wife Lindsay as she takes a seat beside him at the piano. They begin the sweetest piano duet, “DOG”, Lindsay’s harmonies floating through the room as couples leaned into each other, held each other - “I can believe like a bird in a storm, in a love that goes nowhere”. The room is as in love with these two as they are with each other, praising their performance as Lindsay steps off the stage. “I love you wife” Rutter calls, informing the room that she’s been in charge of the merch table, and has spent her time in each city thrifting clothing that she can use to sew the album cover to and create unique merch to sell at the shows. Rutter finishes the next song with just his voice and his piano, “CAT”. He moves to his acoustic guitar in center stage once again, and talks about the next song a bit as his band makes their way back to the stage.

“This next one’s about the Utah Jazz. Do y’all like the Bulls?” [audience cheers] “They could learn a thing or two from this song.” Rutter wrote the song towards the end of the album writing process, claiming he didn’t have anything deep to write about in the moment, so he wrote something fun about one of his interests of the time - Utah basketball. While on the album this isn’t the case, during the live show the song began with a sound clip from a basketball game, squeaking shoes and a sports broadcaster’s voice being heard as the guitar intro began. “THE TANK” details the Utah Jazz losing games on purpose, a humorous way of analyzing the hope that comes with failing (or “tanking”), a sort of “it can only go up from here” kind of sentiment.

Suddenly, the band starts cheering for “Rocco”, and the audience joins in, though I’m pretty sure none of us knew who Rocco was at the time. Eventually he’s properly introduced as mercury’s Justin, joining the bands for the next few songs, “Not Around” and “GUNNA”. Justin leaves the stage, applause accompanying his exit as Rutter also acknowledges that Chris, one of his guitarists, is also a member of mercury. “III” brings a room full of audience members singing along and phone flashlights swaying, fans raising their voices to a shout for the cathartic line “I don’t want to be seen, I just want to be heard”.

Returning to his keyboards for the end of the set, “Dress Song”, mercury’s Maddie Kerr and Lindsay dancing together in the balcony seats as the band played. “LOVE AROUND YOU” follows, a sweet piano ballad with simple instrumentals and beautiful harmonies. As the song comes to an end, Rutter speaks into the microphone “so, that was our last song. Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, they just told me it’s the all-ages curfew, so we’re cut off”. The crowd is loud with disappointment, “we have a cover we were going to play as an encore”. With this, the crowd begins chanting, audience members hanging in limbo, the band unsure what to do. Eventually the decision is made for them when the venue announces that they really do have to close up for the curfew, and the show comes to its abrupt end.