The Mars Volta '08 Tour

Did they play anything off of Deloused?

Seein 'em in March in Paris. WOOP! Can't wait.

The Volta are seriously the best band out right now.

I'm seeing them in March, and on the basis of this thread I thought i'd throw Amputechture into the CD player...but I open the CD case...it isn't there. I've never lost a CD, and I have absolutely no idea where it could be.

DaytimeDilemma wrote:

The Volta are seriously the best band out right now.

Agreed.

Seeing them in March too!

Not the kind of music I can comfortably listen to on CD, but can't wait to check out the live show.

Seeing them Friday... wow, 2 1/2 hours... holy hell.

Hi there!

After a busy week, as promised, my review of the Mars Volta-show, 17.02. Hamburg, Dock's

3 years ago today was my first Mars Volta-show, which took place at the same venue. On February 24th 2005 the show was very intense but also very short (70 minutes). I was longing for a new tour to come and very enthusiastic about the Euro-tour-announcement. I knew three friends who'd come with me, for them it was the first Volta-show to attend.

After appr. 2 hours we arrived in Hamburg and after a longer while finding a parking space we found one in a street where two large black busses where standing and we were joking "what if these are the tour busses" ... but they were...when we started walking into the direction of the Dock's we recognized Cedric getting on board of one of the busses ...we kept walking on and he disappeared...it was kinda surreal and we also did not want to behave like silly teenage-fans running and sobbing...but the possibility of meeting the guys kept us near the busses. Checking out the front of the venue and walking halfway back looking for a place to eat we met Marcel and Thomas giving autographs on vinyl covers of other fans who recognized them in front of a gas-station. We shook hands with Marcel and even before I could say hello to him, Thomas moved towards me and gave me a 'half-hug' (right chest onto my left) shaking hands and asking how we're doing...normal friendly and warm persons...chatting about the Hamburg show from 2005...then the guys left us going to the bus - it was very, very cold this day (Marcel remembered that it snowed in 2005)...

The Dock's takes an audience of 1.200 people...we stood waiting 1 1/2 hours before the doors opened and a long long time we were there with a group of ten to fifteen people, when the doors opened there were maximum 150 people...

...how are the shows attended in the States and how long did you (and how many other people) wait before?

Fortunately a HIM-poster in the club's door missed a large piece --> two good things to do with a HIM-poster: destroying a HIM-poster and giving us the view to watch the Volta-soundcheck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do0hTxCOlbw

European rock-shows are not seated...I'd guess us standing in the 5th or 6th row in front...when the show started the pit pushed us a little back I was no in the mood to push and 'dance' that way) with the exception of our friend Christoffer who could take great pictures from the second row:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yltiJIWs9Q

(...more videos and photos to come when I fixed my webspace...)

The show started half an hour later than expected but THEN...it was one long, mind-blowing monolith of a show (2.5 hours without a break).

Two negative things to mention: Cedric's voice was not at it's best that night - he missed a lot of notes for I had to press my teeth together and looked a little irritated into the also irritated faces of my mates...

Thomas is an awesome drummer, BUT he would do a better job if he would calm down when the whole improv gets calm...it's like he's always on fire or has to prove something...he should have relaxed somtimes and let the calm mood grow...to make the peaks more worthy...

... did you experience it similarly at your show?

Here's the setlist:

Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
Viscera Eyes
Wax Simulacra
Goliath
Ouroboros
Tetragrammaton
Agadez
Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus
Metatron
Drunkship of Lanterns
Ilyena
Day of the Baphomets


It's a great pleasure watching Omar and Thomas...Omar was smiling and laughing a lot when watching Thomas and so Thomas...they pushed one another... like in this case:

"Cygnus..." was my favourite of that night. "Frances" is my favourite album, that's one reason maybe... but...the improv...W-O-W...see, when they got to the final riff of the song which fades out on the album...they kept on improvising on it, Omar was soloing, they changed the emphasis on parts of the riff and after a few minutes they were getting faster and faster and faster...then dropping the tempo, dropping it...it became so slow that every note made me expect it to be the last one, but they kept on playing...the "motor" of the whole thing (at every improv but especially at this one) was/were Omar and Thomas, Omar getting closer to him, pushing him, conducting the whole thing with moving his guitar and looking at Thomas... ...they became faster, faster again...dropping it again, getting faster, dropping it, dropping it... a-m-a-z-i-n-g...

...

I was done an hour before the end of the show...it was sooo intense...

...


When we went upstairs on the balcony of the club for to get our jackets we could take a look to the backstage room directly behind the stage (someone left the door open), waving to Cedric wo sat there eating and waving back...

...driving out of the street where we (and they) were parking we met Cedric again to thank a very tired looking man (and maybe disappointed because of his singing?) through the car window...

I'm curious about your reviews...is there another thread that became more frequented than this one here?

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your respond...

ROCKandROLL!

Can't wait to see them on march 5th @ the Olympia in Paris. Been looking forward to this gig for months ... by the way has there been an opening band in Hamburg? Real Nice Review by the Way!

4/1 in Orlando. Can't wait!