Live And In The Flesh
The Mars Volta - May 12, 2005 & 2008
Fresh out of college and the summer of 2005 was already off to an amazing start with concerts. I was lucky enough to have Queens of the Stone Age kick things off in March. Following it up was my first Nine Inch Nails show at the Kool Haus in Toronto on May 9th, just a few short days prior to my very first Montréal gig; The Mars Volta! There was a group of about four or five of us that made the trek into the city on a Thursday night. None of us had seen them before, so we were all pretty excited to finally have the opportunity to catch one of their live shows.
The Mars Volta had just released their second full length album, Frances the Mute, and we knew we couldn't miss them out on the road touring in support of this masterpiece. By the time we made it downtown the lineup was wrapped well around the corner of the building, and we headed to the back of it down the block. We weren't really expecting to get up close and personal on the railing for this show, so we weren't too worried about it. While we were waiting in line we could see Omar and Cedric coming and going from their tour bus parked out back. This definitely kicked the excitement up a few notches as we waited for them to open up the doors to begin letting everyone in. They were playing at Métropolis, a relatively small club, but still capable of holding around 2,300 people. The biggest advantage that we picked up on right away was the balcony they had set up above the general admission area. We headed straight upstairs as soon as we entered, just to see what it had in store for us. With the elevated standing up there, there wasn't a mediocre view in the house, not to mention them having servers walking throughout the aisles making it that much easier to grab a beer or two during the show without having to leave our placement.
There wasn't an opener for the gig that night, and it wasn't long before the band took the stage. They unveiled their huge backdrop featuring Arachne, a talented mortal weaver who challenged Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts, into a weaving contest, which had lead to her being transformed into a spider. Firing things up with Drunkship of Lanterns, one of my favourites from their debut De-Loused in the Comatorium, had us loving them from the beginning notes. The energy and the passion that they were exuding right out of the gates was simply amazing. You could clearly tell that they were excited to be back out on the road again showcasing some new material after touring extensively for De-Loused in the Comatorium. Before they dipped into some new songs, they treated us to a couple more earlier cuts, Concertina from their debut EP Trumulant came next, followed up by Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt, another De-Loused track. I was pretty excited to be getting some of their older stuff thrown into the mix as well, as I never ended up catching them out in their early days. Watching Jon Theodore wailing away on the drums was incredible, additionally Ikey Owens on the keys was a site to see. These incredible musicians were able to shine just as strong throughout their set compared to Omar tearing up the guitar, while Cedric poured his heart and soul into his microphone.
Next up was the jaw-dropping Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus, their epic thirteen minute intro track to Frances the Mute. By this point in the show our minds were already blown and we couldn't believe how they were continuing to top themselves one incredible jam after the next. They were able to weave each of their songs into one another which helped the show flow flawlessly, and it was incredible to experience. L'Via L'Viaquez, another Frances track followed that up before they headed back to De-Loused once more for the classic Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of). Just when we thought they were wrapping things up with their single, The Widow, they came out and blew us all away with the half hour long Cassandra Gemini masterpiece. It seemed like the band were on the stage for much longer than the eight song setlist that they had just finished jamming through.
We couldn't believe what we had just experienced by the time the band had left the stage. The Mars Volta certainly set the bar pretty high that night for live performances, and this show in particular has remained one of my favourites over the years. Not only was it my first Mars Volta show, but my very first concert in Montréal, and at a venue that has certainly become my concert hall of choice whenever we do make our way into that city. I couldn't have imagined it turning out any better than it did, and I was now well hooked into the live music scene.
Little did we know that exactly three years to the date, we would find ourselves back out at another Mars Volta concert, but this time in Toronto. We had actually just caught them for our second time at The Phoenix Concert Hall four months earlier in January of 2008, and we couldn't believe that they were coming back so soon. We hadn't made it out to any concerts at The Sound Academy down by the water in Toronto, and I can't say that I was too impressed with the venue. It seemed to pale in comparison to the other two venues where we had seen them previously. The Phoenix was great, and Métropolis was amazing, but the Sound Academy seemed to really ruin the night for me, for whatever reason. Whether it was the terrible location of the bar access compared to the main area, or the large number of visual obstacles throughout the entire venue, it didn't lend itself well to a live music setting at all and I was pretty disappointed. Also, it's out in the middle of nowhere with basically nothing around to help kill the time while waiting for the doors to open.
Nonetheless, we were able to catch The Mars Volta yet again. The Bedlam in Goliath, their fourth studio album had dropped early that year and we expected to have a heavy dose of that album's tracks mixed in throughout their set. They started their set off with Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of), and then Viscera Eyes and Wax Simulacra following it up. By the time Goliath was playing the set began to seem strangely familiar to the last show that we had caught back in January. So far is was basically the same show, track for track, until they decided to change things up a bit by throwing in Ouroborous, one of my favourites off of Bedlam. That seemed to be one of the only differences that night, as they continued on with three more songs that they had ran through the last time. I'm sure the familiarity of the setlist didn't help with the disappointing venue choice, but we made the most of it. The only other different track that they mixed in was their Aberinkula finale, which was a nice way to finish off their relatively short nine song setlist.
I never really know what to expect getting out to see the same band twice in such a short amount of time. This was probably the quickest two shows I've seen by one artist together, and unfortunately they didn't blow us away as much as they did in January, or three years earlier, but it was still great to get out to see them once again. It's certainly difficult to pass up such talent whenever they do make their way through, as you just never know how long it may be until they tour again, or if they ever will. Now that The Mars Volta have disbanded, I'm glad I took whatever opportunity I had to make it out to the four shows that I was lucky enough to attend over their short-lived thirteen year career under The Mars Volta moniker.