Blending the visceral impact of Punk with the majestic bombast of Prog, The Mars Volta pummeled and dazed its fans with frenetically disjointed gigs, likely a result of the band’s voracious drug appetite. The band’s 2003 debut full length, De-Loused in the Comatorium, was a concept album, a first-person narrative detailing the inner universe of someone in a drug-induced coma.
Since then, The Mars Volta’s albums have been widely varied while maintaining an overall concept. Lacking a true central theme, the band’s latest album, Octahedron, has been described by Bixler-Zavala as the Pop album they’ve threatened to make all along. Often employing a methodology where constantly rotating players are given music to play without hearing the other components of the song, The Mars Volta has grown into an astonishingly accomplished musical entity, combining elements of Metal, Pop, Punk, Indie Rock, Jazz and Funk that’s most assuredly not your father’s Prog.
They play Bogart's. Get show details and Sound Advice here.
