Broken Bells Cover Sparklehorse and Neil Young in Chicago

Sunday night, fans braved freezing weather to see Broken Bells play XRT's sold-out Holiday Concert for the Kids show at the Vic Theatre in Chicago. Armed with a five-piece backing band, the Shins' James Mercer and producer/multi-instrumentalist Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, spent the next 75 minutes performing tracks from their 2010 self-titled debut and a couple of surprises.

While Mercer stuck to his guitar, Burton seamlessly maneuvered from the piano to the drum kit to the guitar, sometimes during the same song. After playing 'October,' 'Your Head Is on Fire,' 'Trap Doors' and the clomping melodies of 'Sailing to Nowhere,' Mercer mentioned the next one was "My contribution to Brian's awesome record, 'Dark Night of the Soul.'" He was referring to 'Insane Lullaby,' the track he guested on for the collaboration album between Burton and late Sparklehorse frontman Mark Linkous. With the pair alone onstage at first, they quietly performed the song until the rest of the band rejoined them to amplify the beats.

Broken Bells demonstrated their rhythmic chops on percussion-and-bass-heavy tunes 'The High Road,' 'The Ghost Inside' and 'Vaporize, while new song 'Meyrin Fields,' the B-side for their 'The Ghost Inside' single, saw them at their most electronic, with booming and glitchy effects. "That's the new s---," Mercer said after playing the song.

For the encore, Mercer and Burton returned to the stage alone, this time for a cover of the 1970 Neil Young classic 'Don't Let It Bring You Down.' As he strummed his guitar and Burton hit the piano, Mercer did his best impression of Young when he warbled and belted out the wisdom-filled song. The rest of the band returned for the funky 'Mongrel Heart' and closed out the night with 'The Mall and Misery,' during which Burton exchanged his guitar for the drums. Near the end of the song, Mercer and Burton walked offstage and left the rest of the group to play out their instruments. After a few minutes, only a subtle high-hat shimmer remained as the band walked off, leaving the audience to head back out into the cold evening.