Despite being a lite version of the usual full bodied and dripping with fat Mars Volta experience, Cedric, Omar, and co. at the Pageant this fall were as filling as the experimental rockers could be. The Pageant must have been close to capacity as people of all shapes and sizes crammed themselves onto the floor to catch a glimpse of singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s subtle but no less thought-provoking hip thrusts.
The full Cedric experience, of course, would be wanting without his white mic and stand, wielded alternately as a bullwhip or lance with all the confidence that’s also evident in his astounding voice. True to their recorded work, Cedric’s succession of bubbly vocal distortion and calculated falsetto sends shivers through the spine. The other face of The Mars Volta, Omar Rodriquez Lopez (the afro-sporting, skinnier than thou guitarist who once joined Cedric in fronting the grungier 90′s era At the Drive-In) imbued Hendrix in style and sex, if not mechanics, when not caught in the longer, jammier motion of Volta.
Girdled by favorites from the popular De-Loused in the Comatorium, the middle third of the show was a rather more indulgent experience of classic Mars Volta narrative. The mesmerizing stage back-drop was a pastiche of moving images – Native American, skeleton, fossil– and iridescent colors that filled out the wall of jam experience. But to my dismay, the relatively concise 1 hour 45 minute set paled when recalling the three+ hour marathons of tours past. With no opener and no encore, some sense of wanting remained as the lights suddenly came on and background music came up. Perhaps as the antidote for the usual overexposure of the Mars Volta live, it did indeed leave people wanting just a little bit more of the quixotic storytellers.
