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The Mars Volta
- Thread starter MakiSupaStar
- Start date
Ok, I just got a text message from Maki and he says that the show will be broadcast on 103.1 in the LA area. So anyone who is down there can tune in!!!!!!
Just when I was beginning to think that Maki LIVES here at TB 24X7...
C'mon dude!! It is almost 6 am the following morning and you don't have a TMV review up yet?!?
WTH?!?
C'mon dude!! It is almost 6 am the following morning and you don't have a TMV review up yet?!?
WTH?!?
Any post show report on what they played? Did they kick the habit of jamming over 4 songs for 2 hours?
I have come to the following conclusions. I texted as much to Jady yesterday. The Mars Volta is a great big greasy monster perpetually slapping you in the face. It's relentless non-stop jamming. Actually, an amazing thing. They played for just shy of 3 hours. Everything sounded really good in the mix, unlike some of the complaints I've read in previous posts. My buddy who is also the drummer in Fuzzymoto has seen them twice before. He said they have gotten a lot better, and this was by far the best sound/mix he's seen.
They've got a new drummer. This dude is an excellent drummer, but kind of young, IMO, lacking the subltey necessary for flowing with the dynamics of this band. He'll learn, but he's changed their sound from the old drummer. Basically this kid was soloing straight for 3 hours. It was really crazy. He's very low end heavy, which is fine with me, and there were moments in there where I felt like I was in a jungle somewhere in the congo listening to a dude banging on a hollow log. He's got some serious tribal undertones going on. I'm looking forward to seeing that develop.
Juan, of course, is a ripping bass player. There were moments where he was just cranking out some thick woody grooves. From my perspective, he faced the drummer a lot, so I couldn't see his fingers, but he was playing fingerstyle the whole night. Very impressive. He had a billion effects, I did notice him hitting the EHX bass balls a couple of times, but as far as what else he had turned on in his chain your guess is as good as mine.
Omar (that's the guitarist right?) was doing some crazy stuff with loopers and delays and was cranking solos in and out of himself. He's a very talented player. Fun to watch, and it was cool when they broke down to do their more subtle kind of duet moments between him and Cedric.
The played stuff from the new album, but also a lot from Amputecture, FTM, and I recognized a couple of jams from DeLoused. It was hard because you'd be about a quarter of the way into the jam when suddenly it strikes you that you know this song. In a lot of ways their approach to music reminds of me of the Grateful Dead, especially when they are coming out of Space. Of course, they're playing totally different material.
Hats off to Cedric though. That guy is an amazing front man, and his vocals were really coming through cleanly. In many ways, I was reminded of what Led Zeppelin might have been in their heyday.
I'm still digesting what I saw last night. But all and all, I think this show would fall in my top ten of all time shows I've seen. I'm still doing a mental comparison to stuff I've seen, and considering this show for my top 5.
