Their critically acclaimed debut album De-loused in the Comatorium was a dazzling melange of every genre under the sun and some that haven鈥檛 even been given a name yet. Live, not only did they faithfully reproduce this bold concoction but they teleported their sound into another dimension.
 | | The Mars Volta (pic: Karen McBride) |
What transpired was an awesome ensemble performance. There was a mind boggling selection of percussion, a flute, a saxophone, sci-fi samples, seriously funky keyboards and a bass player who periodically stole the show with his understated slinkiness. A lesser band would have produced a disjointed mess from these daring ingredients but it鈥檚 testament to the superior musicianship of the Mars Volta that for two solid hours, they held the audience enthralled.听 The band says silence between songs is a distraction. An intriguing concept, but surely an absolute nightmare for a drummer, even more so when you have to negotiate tricky and often competing time signatures. Jon Theodore easily mastered this Herculean task, due in no small part his rumoured training in the art of Haitian voodoo drumming!
 | | The Mars Volta (pic: Karen McBride) |
There was little opportunity for Bixler to speak to the crowd. In fact his only utterance was to dedicate a song, fittingly, to a fellow disciple of the bizarre, author Hunter S Thompson.
But this was no spectator sport. The audience were eager to sing along to the catchy Roulette Dares - no mean feat when you have to grapple with lyrics like 鈥淭ransient jet lag, ecto mimed bison.鈥 There was also a lighter-waving moment as the crowd swooned along to the huge ballad The Widow, a stand out track from their latest album, Frances The Mute. Edgy, entertaining and ingenious, the bubbling cauldron of sounds ignited diverse emotions. The driving aggression of Omar Rodriguez鈥 guitar had some thrashing around in a mosh pit while others stood mesmerised by the band鈥檚 musical dexterity. One man nearby was simply heard to mutter: 鈥淚 want to go home and have sex!鈥 You have to be willing to de-programme your ears to accept something other than the three minute, verse-chorus dogma that dominates modern music. But it鈥檚 worth it. Taking an interplanetary trip to the brave new world of The Mars Volta is a cosmic experience. | 
