Thursday, May 19 – The Mars Volta basically give a “kick you in the balls and laugh” type of live performance, as evidenced by last week’s show in St. Paul’s unfortunate Roy Wilkins Auditorium.
The sold out show was mostly male, high school to college age skaters, stoners, drinkers and rockers — a strange mix that witnessed one of the best large-scale concerts the Twin Cities has seen for a few years.
In an interview last week with the St. Paul Pioneer Press, guitarist, producer and songwriter Omar Rodriguez-Lopez said, “As much as I love making records, the live medium is the most exciting. The studio is methodical, doing things over and over. Playing live is the exact opposite. All the blemishes show, and the uncontrollable elements make for a real musical experience. I always used to hate it when I saw a band live that sounded just like the record, with nothing there to give me an inkling of insight into these people’s personalities. I’m much more interested in the mistakes and the realness of a band. (With the Mars Volta), there’s always these other things happening beneath the surface.”
As a big fan of the last two TMV albums, I can assure you their live performance IS exactly the opposite of the live album.
An assault on the senses, TMV took no prisoners as they delivered song after song stretching across their last few albums. The crowd swayed, moshed, toked and cheered as solo breaks stretched into the 15 minute mark with a ground swell of organ, flute, sax and bass guitar solos giving way to Rodriguez-Lopez’s scarring distorted guitar solos. Between songs, a mélange of ambient sound did nothing to give the ears an auditory break from stimulation.
With a moderate stage set up and minimal stage lighting, the seven piece group did a fantastic job maneuvering their echo bounce-backs from the cavernous Roy Wilkins Auditorium. When will promoters learn this place is an aural nightmare?
The treat of the evening was watching Midwest white kids mosh to gypsy-prog rock sung in Spanish, “L’Via L’Viaquez.”
Overall a tremendous 130 minute concert that left me holding my crouch, whining for mom.
The Mars Volta were recently confirmed on the System of Down summer tour coming to a city near you.
