This is the third time I’ve seen The Mars Volta after Brixton Academy and The Roundhouse last year. Still, this gig was quite different.
If you’ve read my other The Mars Volta posts about the previous gigs, you would know what to expect from this one. Cedric dancing and hardly saying anything other than good night and thank you. Omar doing some crazy riffs. Their relentless assault of song after song. The bands loudness compared to others. And, no encores.
So I’ll try not to bore you and will keep this real short. I will try.
Their soldout show at ICA was quite special as the theatre was real small (around 350+ only) and as such, was quite intimate. I watched Asobi Seksu here earlier in the year, and really enjoy the place as a music venue.
This should have reminded me of one very important thing which I will be considering next time, wear some bloody ear plugs. The Mars Volta is a loud band live but this mixed in with a sound system which is clearly too much for the sound venue will really destroy your ears eventually. Ears were still ringing until the next day.
In typical The Mars Volta fashion, there was no support band and sometime after 8:30 in the evening, the familiar Mexican/Western intro they use played, with the band following shortly.
They started their relentless assault with Goliath, followed by a new song, Cotopaxi. I’ve never good with song titles and remembering them so I will cheat and grab the setlist from Setlist.fm again.
- Goliath
- Cotopaxi
- Wax Simulacra
- Viscera Eyes
- Halo Of Nembutals
- Ilyena
- Teflon
- Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
- Desperate Graves
- Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus
- Luciforms
- The Widow
- Drunkship Of Lanterns
It was a great set being a mix of songs from all five albums. Almost 2.5 hours of The Mars Volta.
A few things were a bit different though. Cedric seemed to dance less than he did before but he did sound much better especially on the new songs. Also, they somewhat had more breaks between songs now. In the past, someone would be continuing a guitar riff, a drum roll, or an effect over into the next song.
Omar’s quitar solos were still pretty intense and you really see the emotion and passion in how he performs and handles the guitar.
Cedric did talk more than just a simple good night and thank you though. Sometime towards the end of the evening, there was some technical difficulty with the lights which he requested repeatedly to be turned back on.
The Brixton gig is still the best in my book, but this gig allowed me to get closer to the stage and see them better. It was pretty wicked to see each member of the band do their own stuff. In the past, my view was almost restricted to watching either Omar or Cedric.
This was an intimate evening with The Mars Volta shared with a small number of true fans. As you may have guessed, I’d rank this right after the Brixton Academy gig.
I may be preluding myself since on July 13, I will be seeing The Mars Volta for the fourth time, this time at Somerset House.
