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The Mars Volta @ Brisbane Convention Centre
22 Jun 2008, 09:02
Sat 21 Jun – The Mars Volta
The eight members of The Mars Volta walk onstage to the Fistful Of Dollars theme, as is their custom since 2005. They take their places behind their instruments. A few drums are hit to warm up. Then - lift off. They launch into an unreleased new composition that's become known to fans as Jakob. Vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala exhibits childlike energy from the moment the music begins. He's constantly whipping his conspicuous white microphone cord and writhing around the stage. He fawns before the photographers by lying on his stomach and singing into an onstage fan. A moment later, he scatters the photo pit by jumping down and parading before those in the first row. He tears a black sheet from the front of stage and climbs back up to wear it as a cape, microphone cable held between his clenched teeth, before discarding the impromptu prop into the crowd's maw.
While the singer's antics are amusing, they soon take a backseat to the band's astonishingly precise musicianship. To confine their music to the 'progressive rock' tag is erroneously shallow. Their navigation of improbably complex, consistently intense compositions over two-and-a-half hours is testament to their talent and concentration. The eye is restless throughout their performance: eight members produce an abundance of movement and sound. An enormous painted backdrop is replaced by two equally impressive pieces as the set proceeds. The show's sound is seemingly hiccup-free - an admirable and applaudable effort when considering the enormity of the group's bombastic style.
Following the unfamiliar new song is Viscera Eyes, from 2006's Amputechture. It follows a more conventional structure than many of their other songs; the riff repeated throughout is one of the few times during the show that second guitarist - and former At The Drive-In and Sparta member - Paul Hinojos is audible above his bandmates. He's busy throughout, but appears to follow the bass progressions while Omar Rodriguez-Lopez adds layers of effected lead guitar. The band's creative visionary has stated that his vast array of effect pedals are his allies in a war against the guitar; Rodriguez-Lopez utilises dozens of them tonight to modify the output of his custom white Ibanez. A stunning reading of Viscera Eyes concludes, and it's difficult to comprehend that the band has already reached such lofty heights nary an hour into the show.
Central to the band's intensity is Thomas Pridgen, who has manned their drumkit since 2007. Complex rhythmic structures that'd spin the head of any mere mortal are handled with consummate ease. Incomprehensibly, he's constantly applying fills and variations to the skins of his transparent kit, all the while playing with a grin and maintaining each song's core metre. His skill, precision and dexterity are immeasurable. I struggle to recall a more impressive individual performance.
Goliath is attacked at breakneck speed, as Cedric spits the chorus at full pace and his bandmates apply proverbial rollerblades to keep up. An extended, minimalist section in the middle of the song finds my attention wavering, but it's soon reigned in as Pridgen utterly pummels his kit during the climax. Three songs from 2008's The Bedlam In Goliath are represented tonight. Each of these songs form compelling arguments that their most recent material is their most accomplished: Adrián Terrazas-González's saxophone-led section in the latter half of Aberinkula is perhaps their most exciting arrangement conceived thus far. Juan Alderete's serpentine bassline keeps the piece together, before Rodriguez-Lopez replicates the spiralling woodwind riff on his guitar.
A fearsome reading of Ouroborous finds Pridgen's frenetic drumbeat driving both guitars, which take on a swarming quality akin to stirring up a hornet's nest. Amputechture cut Tetragrammaton is sliced and mixed almost beyond recognition. Yet, this is the very nature of the band's live show. The FasterLouder review of Tuesday's show in Perth mentioned that it's futile to wish for particular tracks: instead, better to become immersed in their sound and energy on each given night.
To confine the band's creative output to the abstract notion of time is doing them a disservice, but it's a forty-minute long version of Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus that closes the show. Fittingly, it is the set's towering climax. Toward the end of the song, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez stands in the centre of the musical cyclone. The head-nodding and foot-tapping figure of The Mars Volta's producer and creative director indicates that he's pleased by their performance tonight. He faces Thomas Pridgen and conducts him - and by extension, his attentive bandmates - to start and stop playing on command. It's far from a master-servant exhibition: each face is smiling as the trick ventures toward the ridiculous and hilarious, but one admires the alternating restraint and unbridled intensity that Rodriguez-Lopez demands of his fellow musicians.
To mention this concert among the most impressive this reviewer has witnessed almost cheapens the experience. Superlatives don't do them justice and adjectives are inadequate. A truly outstanding performance by an exceptional group of musicians.
FasterLouder
The eight members of The Mars Volta walk onstage to the Fistful Of Dollars theme, as is their custom since 2005. They take their places behind their instruments. A few drums are hit to warm up. Then - lift off. They launch into an unreleased new composition that's become known to fans as Jakob. Vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala exhibits childlike energy from the moment the music begins. He's constantly whipping his conspicuous white microphone cord and writhing around the stage. He fawns before the photographers by lying on his stomach and singing into an onstage fan. A moment later, he scatters the photo pit by jumping down and parading before those in the first row. He tears a black sheet from the front of stage and climbs back up to wear it as a cape, microphone cable held between his clenched teeth, before discarding the impromptu prop into the crowd's maw.
While the singer's antics are amusing, they soon take a backseat to the band's astonishingly precise musicianship. To confine their music to the 'progressive rock' tag is erroneously shallow. Their navigation of improbably complex, consistently intense compositions over two-and-a-half hours is testament to their talent and concentration. The eye is restless throughout their performance: eight members produce an abundance of movement and sound. An enormous painted backdrop is replaced by two equally impressive pieces as the set proceeds. The show's sound is seemingly hiccup-free - an admirable and applaudable effort when considering the enormity of the group's bombastic style.
Following the unfamiliar new song is Viscera Eyes, from 2006's Amputechture. It follows a more conventional structure than many of their other songs; the riff repeated throughout is one of the few times during the show that second guitarist - and former At The Drive-In and Sparta member - Paul Hinojos is audible above his bandmates. He's busy throughout, but appears to follow the bass progressions while Omar Rodriguez-Lopez adds layers of effected lead guitar. The band's creative visionary has stated that his vast array of effect pedals are his allies in a war against the guitar; Rodriguez-Lopez utilises dozens of them tonight to modify the output of his custom white Ibanez. A stunning reading of Viscera Eyes concludes, and it's difficult to comprehend that the band has already reached such lofty heights nary an hour into the show.
Central to the band's intensity is Thomas Pridgen, who has manned their drumkit since 2007. Complex rhythmic structures that'd spin the head of any mere mortal are handled with consummate ease. Incomprehensibly, he's constantly applying fills and variations to the skins of his transparent kit, all the while playing with a grin and maintaining each song's core metre. His skill, precision and dexterity are immeasurable. I struggle to recall a more impressive individual performance.
Goliath is attacked at breakneck speed, as Cedric spits the chorus at full pace and his bandmates apply proverbial rollerblades to keep up. An extended, minimalist section in the middle of the song finds my attention wavering, but it's soon reigned in as Pridgen utterly pummels his kit during the climax. Three songs from 2008's The Bedlam In Goliath are represented tonight. Each of these songs form compelling arguments that their most recent material is their most accomplished: Adrián Terrazas-González's saxophone-led section in the latter half of Aberinkula is perhaps their most exciting arrangement conceived thus far. Juan Alderete's serpentine bassline keeps the piece together, before Rodriguez-Lopez replicates the spiralling woodwind riff on his guitar.
A fearsome reading of Ouroborous finds Pridgen's frenetic drumbeat driving both guitars, which take on a swarming quality akin to stirring up a hornet's nest. Amputechture cut Tetragrammaton is sliced and mixed almost beyond recognition. Yet, this is the very nature of the band's live show. The FasterLouder review of Tuesday's show in Perth mentioned that it's futile to wish for particular tracks: instead, better to become immersed in their sound and energy on each given night.
To confine the band's creative output to the abstract notion of time is doing them a disservice, but it's a forty-minute long version of Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus that closes the show. Fittingly, it is the set's towering climax. Toward the end of the song, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez stands in the centre of the musical cyclone. The head-nodding and foot-tapping figure of The Mars Volta's producer and creative director indicates that he's pleased by their performance tonight. He faces Thomas Pridgen and conducts him - and by extension, his attentive bandmates - to start and stop playing on command. It's far from a master-servant exhibition: each face is smiling as the trick ventures toward the ridiculous and hilarious, but one admires the alternating restraint and unbridled intensity that Rodriguez-Lopez demands of his fellow musicians.
To mention this concert among the most impressive this reviewer has witnessed almost cheapens the experience. Superlatives don't do them justice and adjectives are inadequate. A truly outstanding performance by an exceptional group of musicians.
FasterLouder
