The Mars Volta @ ThebartonTheatre, Adelaide,(19/03/2007)

Wed 21st Mar, 2007 in Gig Reviews

This is the way rock and roll was meant to be; outrageous, loud and dangerous, with the potential for anything. This is what The Mars Volta brought to Adelaide’s Thebarton Theatrefor a Monday night performance that produced everything you would expect from a band with TMV’s live reputation, and more.

As part of the tour in support of the band’s latest offering, Amputechture, the show was originally scheduled for last November. The unconfirmed rumour is that the arrival of new drummer Thomas Pridgen left the band with too little time to prepare properly to meet the original touring commitments.

This probably accounts for the extra edge of anticipation that rippled through the packed-house Thebarton audience as the house lights went down and what sounded like the theme music from an old spaghetti Western filled the theatre. The trumpets quickly gave way to a roar as eight human-shaped silhouette’s melted across the darkened stage toward an impressive array of instruments.

With a mesmerising psychedelic backdrop, frantic onstage contorting and the eerie splendour of an ageing theatre, epic songs like Cygnus…Vismund Cygnus from Frances the Mute took on an even greater magnitude.

Black-clad Cedric Bixler-Zavala was a livewire from the start, with trademark wails, microphone acrobatics and an early trip out into the crowd. Though Cedric apologised throughout the evening for being too sick to do some song’s justice, he managed to pull off an amazing performance that included a lengthy catalogue of bizarre frontman antics.

The highlight of these antics was a leap from a stack of amplifier’s onto the theatre’s balcony. This was followed by a rampage of throwing drinks and knocking beers off the afore-mentioned balcony, before storming out through a rear exit and then reappearing at the back of the crowd below. The moment was rounded off with a charge through the audience and a leap back onto the stage.

Impaling himself on a music stand, bashing a drum cymbal in the midst of the crowd, or writhing across the stage, Cedric demanded attention like a kid throwing a screaming-fit-tantrum. But in the midst of all this chaos, guitarist and partner in crime Omar Rodriguez-Lopez still managed to draw the eye as he led the band in a steadily churning psychedelic groove. While at times sounding ragged and on the verge of total disaster, Omar’s high energy playing offered the perfect foil to Cedric’s shrieking and convulsing, with voice and instrument ocassionally difficult to distinguish.

However, where The Mars Volta really lived up to their awesome live reputation was the way the whole set seemed to gain momentum. Everything got steadily more intense. The music. Cedric’s antics. The crowd’s reaction. When the performance finally climaxed after an unrelenting two hour onslaught, and the band left the stage to roars of appreciation and approval, there was no need to demand an encore. There was nothing left to prove.

And that’s the way rock and roll was meant to be.