Live review: The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

Oct. 22, 2009

The Fillmore

The Deal: Progressive rockers perform energetic hour-and-45-minute set for a crowd of roughly 700.

The Good: The band hit the stage and opened with “Inertiatic” and what seemed to be one never-ending song for nearly two hours after that. The music was fast, furious and non-stop for the duration as guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López picked, strummed and riffed his ass off.

Singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala hit every note and danced his ass off — kicking the microphone around, flipping the stand in the air, giving James Brown’s footwork a run for its money and simply being one of the most entertaining frontmen in music these days.

The band seemed to hit its peak with the mellow “The Widow” toward the end of its set, as most in the crowd sang along. Bixler-Zavala only addressed the crowd once, mentioning the band’s origins in At the Drive-In. “A lot of people weren’t happy when we started this band,” he told the crowd. “But life is about creating visions between the faithful and the morons.”

The Bad: The small crowd. Though I might blame some of that on a strict photo policy that makes it difficult to show people what they’re missing.

The Verdict: A visual and sonic experience that’s hard to describe, and a definite “must see.”

Setlist

Inertiatic

Goliath

Cotopaxi

Roulette

Viscera

Halo

Eunuchs

Ilvana

Teflon