There are certain things you come to expect from The Mars Volta; two to three hour long sets, enigmatic visuals, and an array of songs from their impressive back catalogue. Although it would be too harsh to suggest that Volta disappointed at their recent Adelaide show, it likewise wouldn’t be fair to say that they delivered on these counts.
The Mars Volta, whilst a band, are acknowledged as being the creative union of guitarist, Omar Rodriguez Lopez (who writes all the music and produces all of their records), and singer, Cedric Blixler-Zavala (who writes all the lyrics and vocal melodies). But due to an ever-changing line up of support musicians, they maintain that the music is performed by “The Mars Volta Group”.
Forming the group on this tour was Lars Stalfords on keyboards/laptop, and new drummer, Deantoni Parks, who played with an intense scowl and deep concentration throughout the entire performance.
Following a DJ in lieu of a live support act, the band appeared on stage to a grateful but sparse crowd. Despite their male-dominated audience and thoroughly rock sound, The Mars Volta don’t seem to attract the quintessential head bangers and overzealous moshers that might usually be expected in such a setting. But this doesn’t seem to deter Blixler-Zavala’s own tendency to jump around and enthusiastically throw himself to the floor.
The audience was obviously excited and grateful, but nonetheless somewhat perturbed by the new material that Volta exclusively played for over an hour. Blixler-Zavala stated his belief that the audience deserved to hear almost a whole set of new material (though the jury’s out on whether this was what the audience wanted), and the band certainly served up the different sound they’ve been promising.
Some of the new material retained the dissonant, atonal melodies and heavy riffs of their older work, but the other side to Volta – their quieter, slow-burning, melancholic yet sexual moments – was also on display, with Blixler-Zavala showing a great deal of blues and soul-influenced vocals. Volta’s performance reinforced the notion that they are one of the only working acts in the world to obviously owe a lot to the work of Funkadelic, with Rodriguez Lopez’s epic wah-pedal infused leads a nod to Eddie Hazel.
They also played a cover of Marianne Faithfull’s ‘Broken English’ within this set of new songs, before leading into the first of only three old songs of the night, to many cheers and much applause; first up was opening track, ‘Inertiatic ESP’ from Volta’s 2003 debut, De-Loused in the Comatorium, followed by ‘The Widow’ and finally, ‘Goliath’. The band walked off stage and the house lights were quickly turned on to signal there would be no encore, as is usually Volta’s MO.
Apart from the intensity of Parks’ drumming, and the always energetic and passionate performances from Rodriguez Lopez and Blixler-Zavala, the visual element of their past tours was missing, as was the inclusion of a second guitarist, an extra keyboardist and saxophone players to the onstage line-up, showing that even the band itself had a more stripped down feel.
Many punters appeared let down by the absence of their favourite Volta tracks in the set list, but it was likewise apparent that the band is excited to be playing fresh material. It may be a new direction, but it’s certainly not a bad one.
– Dunja Nedic
