29-06-2012

THE MAAAAAARS VOLTA

Tuesday night. Okay. Big show. The Mars Volta at the AB. Pretty siked, cause they're one of my favourite bands.

The first band was Le Butcherettes. They were... special? I don't know. They're these 2 mexicans girls that play an eclectiv mix of music I can't put my finger on. Omar from The Mars Volta joined them on bass, which was pretty cool. Aside from the eclectic music, the singer/keyboard player/guitar player was quite the entertaining factor. Dancing like she was possessed, warped into the musical dimension only to be snapped out of it by ending a song and hearing the audience applaud. She'd go into the audience and dance, and she'd sing next to the microphone and she'd fall on the ground and she'd speak Spanish and she'd do all these crazy stuff. Besides that, the music was cool but not really mi copa de té. Enjoyable show, that's for sure.

The main event was of course The Mars Volta. They came up to this silly tune (I forgot what it was), and Cedric exclaimed the winged words "LET ME FEEL YOUR BUTTHOLE" and then they started. It was magical. It was insane. It was crazy. These guys are so... special? I don't know how they do it, but they seemingly all know what they're doing and know how the songs work but sometimes it feel like everybody is just doing whatever the fuck they want to. The bass player was probably the most consistent guy in the entire band. He actually kept the rhythm kind of and he was able to provide an element of stability in the chaotic universe of one-bar tempo changes, seemingly irreconcilable guitar parts and atmospheric keyboard parts that are barely noticeable yet probably brought a lot to the whole experience. I loved watching Omar do his thing on the guitar. In the beginning I really recognized riffs and progressions that came back, sort of like a real song, but that's definitely not his trademark. Omar's style of playing is expressive, enthusiastic, experimental and yet he makes it look very natural.
On top of that there's Cedric, AKA the best dancer in the entire world and one of my icons in the musical world, who sings these incomprehensible neologisms, arcaisms and loan words in an extraterrestial context using reverb in an adequate way. This man's voice is incredible. I was wondering why there was a mug of coffee/tea on the stage, but apparently it was of Cedric and I completely understand. If I had a voice like that I would not dare to drink something alcoholic, sugary or anything that would slightly alter it in a possibly bad way.
The Mars Volta is really an ensemble. The members stand out on their own at the same level as they stand out as a group. They know what they're doing, which is pretty hard to believe. For example, they ended one song with an outro that was deceiving up to 3 times. I remember from my Esthetics class in high school that there's a classical composition by I think Mozart that has the same technique. It seems like an ending (which is classically the root note) but it's slightly off each time. Marvelous. Just another example of how well-cultured, intelligent and talented these guys are.
The setlist consisted of most of the new record, Noctourniquet, and they ended with Goliath off of The Bedlam In Goliath. I wasn't really bummed out because the show was great as it was, but I would have liked to hear them play an older song. I guess I should've went to see them a couple years ago then, probably. Mea culpa.

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