Barrowland, Glasgow
The Mars Volta are back and, if anything, their hair aggregate is even more impressive, all the better for band members to toss in a classic rock style. This righteous Los Angeles outfit were never ones to stand still first time around and since reforming and releasing their latest self-titled album last year, they have evolved again, moving in a marginally poppier, more obviously song-based direction which shows off frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s soaring vocals to impressive effect.
Live, however, they are still out there, freewheeling through a mostly thrilling hundred-minute set which played to their varied strengths from the hell-for-leather punk prog propulsion of Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) to the bilingualL’Via L’Viaquez, a snake-hipped nod to the Latino heritage of most of the band members.
Those who arrived early enough were treated to a flexible set from Mars Volta associate Teri Gender Bender and her “sexual sexual” three-piece band, limbering up for the main event.
The Mars Volta are their own beast – truly progressive rockers – but there are nods to trailblazing forebears from Santana to Led Zeppelin and now, it appears, Pink Floyd, with a languorous saxophone and guitar duet at one point. They all but lost the crowd with one lengthy, quiet noodle, but regained them with a soulful smooch – did we detect the rare use of “baby” in a Mars Volta song? – followed by some of their signature rocking athleticism and even a brief singalong to Cicatriz ESP, which they segued with a burst of Can’s Vitamin C.
In the end, they only played a couple of tracks from the new album, delving back to their debut, Deloused in the Comatorium, for an epic soul jam rendition of Drunkship of Lanterns, followed by showstopping power ballad The Widow before accelerating to the finiah line with the taut Inertiatic ESP.
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