The Mars Volta are a little like Phish to Rush's Grateful Dead; like Trey Anastasio's band of hippie heroes, Mars Volta are funkier, jammier, louder, and more Latin-tinged than the band whose place they're poised to inherit in today's music world. Like Phish, as well as (initially) Rush and the Grateful Dead, the Mars Volta are also insanely prolific, almost always on tour, ignored by rock radio, detested by hipsters and worshiped by dedicated musicians. They're also probably the geekiest guys to have a hit record since Rivers Cuomo was on Happy Days.
Against a backdrop with a naked lady and a snake that recalled Pink Floyd's psychedelic album art, the current eight-man lineup took the stage with the blistering 'Roulette Dares' from their debut, De-Loused in the Comatorium. They dragged the song out to three times it's length before treating the crowd to similarly convoluted tracks from their upcoming album, The Bedlam in Goliath. For nearly three hours the Mars Volta maintained their acid-freakout pace and energy over countless jams, time signature changes, and genre shifts, with the only noticeable consistencies being Blixer-Zavala's shrill vocals, Rodriguez-Lopez's effects-heavy, jazz-rock guitar, and the relentless pummeling of new drummer Thomas Pridgen, who seemed ecstatic to utilize his skill outside of Wicked Wisdom.
Awkwardly, almost clumsily running into the audience and climbing onto the amplifiers, Blixer-Zavala was somehow never winded by all his activity, and his searing, Robert Plant-sings-2112 vocals drove compositions like 'Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus' or the new 'Wax Simulacra' almost as much as Rodriguez-Lopez's frenetic, John McLaughlin-inspired improvisation. Dressed and coiffured like King Crimson's kids at a Boston concert, the duo looked liked they'd stepped out of the early '70s, albeit in a natural manner that never resembled the tired retro of someone like Lenny Kravitz. For all their pre-punk influences, the Mars Volta have a distinctly modern sound, encompassing sonic outbursts and guitar-nerd technology that lies soundly in this decade and employing those techniques with an energy and noise level unlike those of their spiritual predecessors.
At times the Volta got a little too jammy even for their own good, playing the same few bars again and again and again while the unflattering acoustics of Terminal 5 reduced the band's energy to a percussive drone. But thankfully, the band were indulging the crowd as much as themselves. Most alternative bands jam to show that they can get away with playing whatever they want at risk of alienating the people who pay to see them, but the Mars Volta's music-theorist fanbase ate it right up. The crowd applauded the extended versions of songs like the throbbing 'Viscera Eyes' and absorbed the liberties that the multi-instrumentalist backup band took with the music. Watching the band douse the wailing guitar assaults with free jazz saxophone, heavy percussion and Rick Wakeman-inspired keyboards, it was certain that they had found a fanbase that was receptive to new ideas and let the band stretch out creatively.
Late in the set, Bixler-Zavala dedicated a track to everyone who hoped that they'd keep making the same album again and again. No such hopefuls were in the house that night, and 20 minutes of 'Day of the Baphomets' was a worthy closer. There was no encore, and no sign of the band's one semi-hit, Frances the Mute's comparatively accessible 'The Widow.' I doubt that most Chili Peppers fans will be as open-minded when they don't play 'Give it Away.'
David Fricke rules, and he wrote a good piece about the show, w/some groovy pictures...
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