The Mars Volta @ First Avenue

For fans of the musical output of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, it’s not a hard task to make the distinction between where the different motivations behind the sound of the Mars Volta and At The Drive-In take root. Whereas the Mars Volta has always been known for their esoteric, drug-addled influences, their work in At the Drive-In was typically characterized by a more straightforward guitar-bass-drum approach that both relied on the tried-and-and-true aesthetics of modern punk rock and hinted at the more abstract ideas that would eventually consume the two. It’s no secret that when most devoted ATDI fans finally got around to listening to the Mars Volta the reaction was somewhere between puzzlement and shock. For some the change was welcome, others took years before they “got it,” but many never even gave the band a second listen. Either way, the criticism never really had any substantial impact; Omar and Cedric clearly didn’t second guess any of the artistic decisions they were making at the time, and over the short-span of their prolific career they have accumulated a massive following that continues to grow as the years pass.

[video courtesy of mrbassman4]

From the beginning, Cedric and Omar never shied away from their surprising stylistic shift in interviews, and the Mars Volta’s tendency towards ornate, psychedelic visuals and uninhibited free-form jamming during their live shows which made their dedication to the new direction glaringly obvious. However when the duo and their troupe came to First Avenue in Minneapolis on Thursday night for an early evening all ages show, the intimate venue full of adoring fans was treated to more much scaled back, focused performance from the band.

[video courtsey of mvinge]

The Mars Volta’s lineup has been trimmed down from 8 to 6 members since their last visit, and in performing in a venue 1/2 the size of the last they avoided the usual pomp and extravagance to execute a tight, no frills set that allowed the band’s unbelievable musicianship to take center stage. Considering that the band is on the road to support Octahedron (i.e. their “acoustic album”) the stripped down nature of the set wasn’t a shock, but with rumors of an At the Drive-In reunion starting to swirl this year, their move to a more rocking, less-jammy set almost seemed to hearken back to the raw energy of their earlier years in the music scene.

Though I was a bit bummed to see the horn section absent at first, the Mars Volta immediately proved that their revised band format still could maintain (and even exceed) the same level of intensity and orchestration that they are known for. With some of their former excess now trimmed back, the precision picking of Rodriguez-Lopez and the blasting percussion of Thomas Pridgen commanded the attention of everyone in the venue. Throughout the set the two were locked into an unbreakable groove, and everything else onstage seemed to feed off the energy that they projected. It was most evident when they were at their loudest and funkiest, such as during the angular riffing of a new track like “Cotopaxi,” or the mind-boggling multitude of unison stop-starts in an early gem “Eunuch Provacateuer,” but even during the more subdued moments they exhibited a refreshingly tight interplay that showed Pridgen has grown into his role in the band.

Bixler-Zavala was equally energetic throughout the set, flailing about and doing somersaults as if he were still a youngster, and his challenging vocals never faltered or sounded strained. He clearly enjoyed playing to the responsive audience, and his brief off-the-cuff mid-set comments about his reverence and love for the venue showed that Volta was feeling right at home.

Throughout the set his cup of tea was consistently filled by a stagehand, and the steam never stopped misting through the light beam of his LED-lit podium.

Around the solid backbone that Omar, Pridgen, and Cedric created, Ikey Owens’ keyboard work and Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez’s percussive, electronic, textural layering created a curious and eerily soulful backdrop which cannot be understated. Even though the band avoided the extended jams this time around (some songs such as “Viscera Eyes” were even shortened), Ikey and Marcel’s contributions to the overall mix make the sound that is undeniably “The Mars Volta.”

Thanks to this being a one band show, the guys from First Avenue were able to appropriately tweak the board so that the set sounded bright, clear, and crisp from my vantage point on the floor, and the splendid lighting job complemented their backdrop nicely to keep things fresh visually.

To those who paid the $30+ bill to enter the door, the brevity of it all was the only gripe worth mentioning once all was said and done. I have had the fortune to see the band live in the Midwest many times since the year De-Loused hit the streets, and each show I’ve attended has topped the previous in every conceivable way: audience capacity, visual effects, stage presence, and even average song length. Typically their name is the only one on the bill and they play a three-hour set consisting of seven or eight mammoth compositions.

For better or worse, the show at First Avenue on Thursday was much different. The music began promptly at 7:00 p.m., and after 13 songs and only 90 minutes later the concert attendees were back out on the corner of 1st & 7th. There was no encore and no massive jam to send the fans home. In fact, it was even much shorter set than most shows the band have performed on this tour so far.

Although it left more than a few audience members a bit unhappy, the condensed show likely helped Cedric, Omar and their bandmates to project a strong performance from the beginning until the end. For my part, there couldn’t have been a finer setting to watch the theatrics. Although it would have been great to watch the band engage dig deeper into their improvisational side in front of the smaller crowd, the band’s modified approach was just as successful and even more entrancing than I expected. The music was still just as other-worldy, but with their raw setup the strength and complexity core compositions was easily revealed for all of us to see. The Mars Volta already has another new album waiting to be released hot on the heals of Octahedron, and if this performance on Thursday was any indication, it looks like the ever-productive team of Bixler-Zavala & Rodriguez-Lopez may be planning yet another unique stylistic shift for their dedicated fanbase to digest.

Setlist:
Son et Lumiere
Inertiatic ESP
Drunkship of Lanterns
Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
Cotopaxi
Viscera Eyes
Goliath
Ilyena
Eunuch Provocateur
Halo of Nembutals
Teflon
The Widow
Luciforms
Wax Simulacra

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Also: At The Drive-In “Relationship of Command” (Best of the Decade)