Monday night's The Mars Volta show marked a milestone event for many of D.C.'s indie rock faithful: Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, formerly of the seminal alt-rock outfit At The Drive In, returned to the nation's capitol.
The sold-out 9:30 club crowd's anticipation was stoked by 45 minutes of moving and politically charged poetry from Saul Williams, who exited with a call for the release of political prisoners and praise for the band that everyone had come to see.
As soon as the lights dimmed, the crowd erupted and Mars Volta emerged with a Mexican flag draped from an amplifier, clothes skin-tight and hair huge. The set began with "Cicatriz Esp," from the band's only LP to date, "De-Loused in the Comatorium." Bixler-Zavala's vocals could barely be heard over the crowd whose collective voice filled the club. The band carried the song from the epic 12.5-minute record version to well over 20 minutes. This set the stage for the rest of the show. The song ended with a solo from Rodriguez-Lopez, who affirmed the beliefs of critics who tout him as the latest guitar god.
Following the opening tour de force, the band played "Cut That City" from its first EP, "Tremulant," and several more tracks from "De-Loused," including "Roulette Dares (This is the Haunt)," one of the band's more aggressive and cogent songs. However, somewhere along the way it lost all structure and became a jazz-funk fusion spliced with incoherent yelps, cries and mutterings from Bixler-Zavala.
The main set, which lasted an hour and a half, but only included parts of a handful of songs, ended with the band's slow-brooding ballad, "Televators," in which the guitar-vocal interaction eerily reminded listeners of an early Jimmy Page and Robert Plant duo. After the rest of the band left the stage, bassist Juan Alderete remained and slapped, plucked and distorted his instrument much to the crowd's pleasure for a full 10 minutes before the rest of the band returned, joined in and finally played an extended version of "Drunken Ship of Lanterns" before exiting.
The band had incredible stage presence. Bixler-Zavala led with incessant microphone tricks, hips that just wouldn't stop as he gyrated all over the stage, repeated climbs to the top of the speakers, and heaving the microphone stand into the air on several occasions.
However, it is questionable whether anyone got what they wanted or expected, other than, perhaps, the band. The band skipped "Inertiatic Esp," the explosive opening track from "De-Loused," and not a song remained true to its recording. Rather than a show or concert, Monday night's event may be remembered as a session. Fusing rock, jazz, funk and a little punk, The Mars Volta showed the crowd why it has been one of the most talked about bands of the year and why it has received acclaim and criticism on tour and since the release of "De-Loused in the Comatorium"
