Here is the setlist:
01. Roulette Dares
02. Viscera Eyes
03. Wax Simulacra
04. Goliath
05. Ouroboros
06. Tetragrammaton
07. Agadez
08. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus
09. Aberinkula
10. Drunkship Of Lanterns
Mighty fine setlist, although I will say I would probably axe "Viscera Eyes". It is my least favorite TMV song of all time, or maybe my second least favorite behind "The Soothsayer". But that's my only minor complaint, they still played it with gusto and it was still fun to watch. The new material sounded great. I was particularly impressed with "Agadez". I like that song well enough on the album, but live they really did a great job with it.
The sound was pretty good, the bass and drums especially came through flawlessly. Cedric's vocals sounded pretty damn good the whole show too, although it sounded like they were still adjusting his mic a little bit during "Roulette Dares". The keys, horns, and guitars would usually come through pretty clean, although there were a few moments where everything was going on at the same time, and it all kind of washed out into a wall of noise. With that many dudes on stage going to town on an instrument (or 2, in some cases), I'm sure its a difficult thing to avoid.
Visuals were good. The backdrops were absolutely gorgeous, best I've seen outside of the Tool shows. The lighting was well done, and complemented the frantic energy of the set very well. Particularly cool was this rotating cylindrical light assembly they had at the back of the stage, which they lit up towards the end of the show.
As for the performances, almost every song was modified in some way, whether it be with an extended intro or noodling off into the weeds in the middle of the song. In particular, "Tetragrammaton", "Agadez", "Cygnus", and "Aberinkula" had long drawn out intros, where Cedric would sing some of the lyrics to those songs while the band played some cool, chilled out grooves. They would do that for a few minutes, and then they would launch into the song full-bore. I liked it, it was like we got an alternate, mellower version of the song, followed by the original version of the song. I thought it was a cool idea, and that it worked pretty well. As for the excursions into wankery, "Roulette Dares", "Goliath", "Cygnus", and "Drunkship" all featured some pretty extensive noodling. A couple times it seemed to go on maybe a minute or two longer than I had the patience for, but for the most part it was all pretty good stuff. I can't remember for sure which song it was on, maybe "Goliath", but at one point Omar and the guy on sax went back and forth like they were dueling. Omar would rip off 10-15 seconds of some wailing guitar work and then look over at the sax guy, who would then go nuts blowing his lungs out to match him. It was pretty cool.
Energy wise, the whole damn show had a crazy pace. Thomas Pridgen is a madman, that is the only way to describe him. The guy must lose about 15lbs every show. The only minor gripe I would have is that he seems completely unable to slow himself down ever. During the slower parts of some of the older songs, he would still keep a bit of a frantic pace going. It still worked fine, it was just a little unexpected. But he's fun as hell to watch, he looks like he's just having an absolute blast playing with this band. And Cedric, jesus I don't know where he finds the energy. I heard a quote one time, where someone described James Brown as the only performer who could "out-dance the audience". I think that applies to Cedric as well. I was about 30 feet or so from the stage, in the middle of what I like to call "the tidal wave", where people aren't really moshing or anything, its just so packed and everyone is jumping and grooving and you get kinda knocked around and pushed off your feet a bit. Well for the first few songs, everyone was matching Cedric's antics. The more he ran around and jumped and climbed, the more energetic the crowd got. About two thirds of the way through, Cedric was still bouncing off the walls, but as I looked around people were definitely wearing out. Everyone still went crazy during the faster parts of the songs, but at some of the mellower times you could see everyone collectively catching their breath. By the time I left, I felt like I had just finished a hockey game or something. Awesome show + kickass workout. Sweet!
Anyway, overall it was a great time. Its kinda funny, because typically when I go see a show, part of how I judge the performance is how tight the band is. The Mars Volta is a bit of an enigma in this regard. They are not "tight" whatsoever. The timing is all a bit off, the guitar work is fairly sloppy, and Cedric seems to decide at random whether he'll cram the lyrics in or just wail. But it all works, its awesome. It all has this incredibly free-flowing feeling, and if you just go with it, its an absolute blast.
0 comments:
Post a Comment