Wave your freak flag high, children, for those of you lucky enough to have a ticket to the Mars Volta show April 22 are about to sample rock in its purest form. Welding together a rickety tower of hardcore electronica, arena rock, demonic jazz and samba beats, indie heroes Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez command an army of instruments to create a collection of sounds, the likes of which have never been heard before. Sometimes these sounds are quiet and trippy; sometimes they are ear-bleeding collections of the devil’s own poetry over an unraveling, distorted guitar.
Dynamic duo:
If this collection of adjectives sounds like a hopeless mish-mash to you, it won’t help to look to survivors of past Mars Volta shows for guidance and advice for the journey ahead; chances are, you’ll end up with a tongue-tied friend hopelessly blubbering away, trying to put into words the pure sonic brilliance and energy she experienced at a previous Mars Volta gig.
A better road map might come from Mars Volta’s latest album, Frances The Mute: with only one “single-friendly” song under 10 minutes, the varied tracks form a modern rock opera, smoothly blending its melodic fragments into an event which will consume 76 minutes of your life without pausing for breath. Blistering guitars will shake your stereo speakers or shred gentle effects-laden riffs to fill in the sound. Nonrepeating, poetically biting lyrics will haunt your subconscious. Thousands of keyboards and organs and circuit-bent audio monstrosities will inhabit every nook and cranny of your ears. Rock screams unheard of since the days of the Who and Led Zeppelin assault your sensibilities.
Now picture the same music dispensed with all of the subtlety of a blow torch to a roomful of addicts, and you begin to approach the experience offered by Mars Volta’s live show. For as interesting as Frances the Mute may be in the comfort of your own home, it’s elevator music compared to the presentation offered at a live show. On the record, only the musical composition and instrumentation feed the fire of musical addiction, but during the live show, Mars Volta use any means necessary to create the most aggressive and exciting presentation possible.
To say that a Mars Volta show is “high-energy” would be an understatement of the highest order. Throughout the course of their live set, Bixler and Rodriguez literally destroy the stage with a noisy ferocity that is the envy of any self-respecting punk band, but the silences in between these sonic explosions also somehow manage to maintain the same frenetic energy. Don’t expect too many pauses, though; the Mars Volta have been known to play two-hour sets with nary a break in the music.
Yelling, screaming, kicking and dancing, the musical ghosts of Led Zeppelin and Santana are smiling down upon the Mars Volta, and if you look closely enough you might notice that the entire crowd is smiling, too. Despite personal tastes for prog rock, or electronica, or Latin music or any of the other individual styles that come together to form a Mars Volta tune, one cannot deny that every minute of the combination is simply irresistible.
This is a highly recommended show, and very sold out, so be sure to arrive early to ensure that you get a decent spot on the dance floor. Mars Volta will play RIMAC Arena on April 22.
