USA & Canada - agosto/settembre/ottobre 2009

The Mars Volta
Outside Lands Festival
August 28 2009 8:00pm
San Francisco, CA

If you are in Denver, get ready. If you are not, pack your bags. The Mars Volta is headlining the beautiful Red Rocks Amphitheater on Sunday September 13 for the 2009 Monolith Festival. This is going to be an epic event that includes our good friends the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Girl Talk, MSTRKRFT, Method Man and Redman, Of Montreal, The Dandy Warhols, DOOM, and more. Tickets are on sale now and selling quickly. Get tickets at www.monolithfestival.com.

Via Dodge Theatre's Twitter...


DodgeTheatreGSR: Just Added Today - The Mars Volta - Dodge Theatre - Saturday 09/05/09 at 8:00 PM
about 1 hour ago from web

Shows have been announced and more will be announced shortly.

8/30 Hollywood Palladium (Los Angeles, CA)
9/1 Hollywood Palladium (Los Angeles, CA)
9/5 Dodge Theatre (Phoenix, AZ)
9/8 The Pageant (St. Louis, MO)

Tickets on sale Saturday 7/25 @ 10AM!!

For more info, go to: http://www.livenation.com/artist/the-mars-volta-tickets

Santa Barbara Bowl Show announced on Ticketmaster website. Tickets on sale August 1st at 12 Noon.
This is an awesome outdoor venue to see The Mars Volta.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/090042F6...1&minorcatid=60

September 16, 2009 - Dallas,TX, The Palladium Ballroom

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C0042F6...1&minorcatid=60

8/28 Outside Lands Festival, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
8/30 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA
9/1 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA
9/2 Santa Barbara Bowl Santa Barbara, CA
9/5 Dodge Theatre Phoenix, AZ
9/8 The Pageant St. Louis, MO
9/13 Monolith Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
9/16 The Palladium Ballroom Dallas, TX

September 4, 2009 - San Diego, CA, SOMA

http://www.somasandiego.com/main.php

September 10, 2009 - Minneapolis, MN, First Avenue (Mainroom)

http://www.first-avenue.com/event/3461/mars-volta

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?storyID=19031

September 11, 2009 - Chicago, IL, The Congress Theater

http://congresschicago.com/index.php?section=1

(scroll down, listed in between two wrestling shows that are on the 6th and 18th)
http://chicago.decider.com/events/no-performer-name,117282/

September 14, 2009 - Kansas City, MO, The Midland by AMC

http://www.midlandkc.com/

(look under "Just Added" at top, right-hand side)

September 19. 2009 - San Antonio, TX, Municipal Auditorium

http://www.krox.com/Concerts/Details.aspx?ID=112198

8/28 Outside Lands Festival, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
8/30 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA
9/1 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA
9/2 Santa Barbara Bowl Santa Barbara, CA
9/4 SOMA, San Diego, CA
9/5 Dodge Theatre Phoenix, AZ
9/8 The Pageant St. Louis, MO
9/10 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
9/11 The Congress Theater, Chicago, IL
9/13 Monolith Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
9/14 The Midland by AMC, Kansas City, MO
9/16 The Palladium Ballroom Dallas, TX
9/19 Municipal Auditorium, San Antonio, TX

8/29 Golden Gate Park (San Francisco, CA)
8/30 Hollywood Palladium (Los Angeles, CA)
9/1 Hollywood Palladium (Los Angeles, CA)
9/2 Santa Barbara Bowl (Santa Barbara, CA)
9/4 Soma (San Diego, CA)
9/5 Dodge Theatre (Phoenix, AZ)
9/7 Cain's Ballroom (Tulsa, OK)
9/8 The Pageant (St. Louis, MO)
9/10 First Avenue - Main Room (Minneapolis, MN)
9/11 The Congress Theater (Chicago, IL)
9/13 Red Rocks Amphitheatre - Monolith Festival (Morrison, CO)
9/14 The Midland by AMC (Kansas City, MO)
9/16 Palladium Ballroom (Dallas, TX)
9/17 Verizon Wireless Theater (Houston, TX)
9/19 San Antonio Municipal Auditorium (San Antonio, TX)

10/4 Kool Haus (Toronto, ON)
10/5 Metropolis (Montreal, QC)
10/11 Sonar (Baltimore, MD)
10/7 House of Blues Boston (Boston, MA)
10/8 Roseland Ballroom (New York, NY)
10/10 Electric Factory (Philadelphia, PA)

at mars volta practice. playing inertiatic for the first time in years

omar wants everyone to know he's getting circumsized the day of the palladium show

a tour neanche iniziato, annullato lo show di Santa Barbara.

Full Setlist (99% sure of the order):
Goliath
Cotopaxi
Roulette Dares
Eunuch Provocateur
Viscera Eyes
Halo Of Nembutals
Drunkship Of Lanterns
Luciforms
Ilyena
The Widow
Wax Simulacra

This Eunuch was definitely different than past versions I have heard. Much heavier

It should be noted that:
Eunuch, while it has been played recently, caught everyone completely off guard and was one of the best songs of the night.
Viscera Eyes is different now, not just because there are no horns, there are parts of that song that they played different than normal, like the solo before the breakdown.
The drunkship jam, while only 2-3 minutes long, was super sick and to the point. I'm kind of digging these short jams they add to a couple songs.
Halo is really good live and deserves to become a staple of their set. It comes across way better live than on the album.
Luciforms was the highlight for me, Cedric covered lyrics from Fresh new eyes by brainiac during the jam, and did it extremely well.
I did miss Cygnus, and I felt that Ilyena was the one song where the band kind of lost it for a minute. Cedric sounded the best I've heard him in a while, killed it on Cotopaxi. Now that I think about it, the songs of Octa were some of the best of the night. Weird.

The Good:
Amazing sound! I could hear EVERYONE perfectly, Marcel and Ikey's keys were cranked in the mix! Both of them really added a lot to the songs. Roulette jam was amazing. EUNUCH! I was not expecting this. Definitely one of the best performances of this song; really spaced out during the into. Everyone in the band had great stage presence and were REALLY getting into shit; you could tell they were having a great time. Cedric was on fire! He took this cheesy sign from the side of the stage that said "The Mars Volta" and totally destroyed it. During Drunkship Cedric held the mic out for the audience sing the responses to "Is anybody there!" What can I say, this was just one of their "on" nights. Luciforms was definitely the song of the night; verses were extra spacey, intense and mind blowing guitar solo, extended breakdown (I knew they were gonna start jamming on this song; it a bit brief but I expect they'll start expanding a lot more), and finally the build up to the end was just phenomenally powerful. AMAZING PRE-WIDOW JAM! Juan was using vibrato and just doing an amazingly beautiful solo. Again, a bit brief but a very powerful improvisation.

The Bad:
They stopped 10 minutes early; they definitely had time to squeeze in another song or two, or they could have extended one of the other songs. What happened to the marathon Drunkship JAMZ?! I mean I love the song and the breakdown in the middle was cool but come on, it just ain't Drunkship without that jammin'. Also Omar talks about wanting the show to be more dynamic; could have added some of the softer stuff from Octahedron: Copernicus or especially With Twilight As My Guide (appropriate since a good portion of their set was during twilight) would have cooled things down a bit and really added to the dynamics of the show. The Setlist was mediocore; not bad but not phenomenal. Cygnus would have been nice, but I guess the time constraints killed it. Ending with Wax was kinda lame. But whatever, the good definately outweighed the bad.

I had more fun at this show than any other Volta show I've seen. And I got one of Thomas's Broken drumsticks; it has his name written on it in in TMV font. Pictures/Videos coming soon.

9/10.

This Eunuch was definitely different than past versions I have heard. Much heavier

01. Son Et Lumiere/Inertiatic ESP
02. Goliath
03. Cotopaxi
04. Viscera Eyes
05. Roulette Dares
06. Halo of Nembutals
07. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus
08. Desperate Graves
09. Eunuch Provocateur
10. Ilyena
11. Teflon
12. Drunkship of Lanterns
13. Luciforms
14. The Widow
15. Wax Simulacra

Cedric nailed it.

one of their best shows! great set list with the additions of inertiatic and eunuch. you can tell alot of peeps didnt know about eunuch haha. it also sounded great venue wise. all the instruments pretty much balanced out. ikey ripped it up on a few songs.

AWESOME FUCKING SHOW!!!

My friends and I managed to be at the barricade for it all.
We heard Inertiatic when they were sound checking it, so we weren't THAT surprised, but we still went ape shit (as did everyone else in the crowd). But Eunuch caught us off guard. I nearly came in my pants.
Everyone was on. Omar was dancing throughout every song, Cedric was being Cedric, though Juan seemed a bit more subdued than usual.
We got "Sarcophagi" in the middle of cygnus, the grooviest versions of Teflon and Ilyena i've ever heard, it was just an overall bad ass show.
THE best Mars Volta sho I've ever seen.

(Side note, seems weird that they keep sound checking SWBW but never play it.)
Also, John Frusciante was there. He didn't play, but we saw him talking to some people behind the curtains. Not spectacular, but it was cool to us.

DJ Nobody "opened", spinning some chill, bass heavy records and what not; I heard some Busdriver and Erykah Badu. The band was on at around 8:30 or 8:45. Ended at about 10:20. I noticed John Frusciante was there too., chilling in the V.I.P on the floor. I was hoping he would hop on stage for a little jam or whatever but he didn't. I would have needed new shorts if he did, anyways.

* Sound was great from where I was. Band is still loud as hell but clearer than any time I've seen them live. I even heard Ikey!!
* Pablo's absence is barely noticeable. No offense to him, but you could almost never hear him anyways - he sort of just added to the dense wall of sound that is the Volta live. However, songs like Wax and Viscera were a little different without Adrian there - Not better, not really worse - the songs just sounded a little stranger than what I'm accustomed to.

* The songs off of Octahedron were cool live. Halo was definitely a highlight. `
* Cedric said "Good morning!" at the start of the show. He dedicated Illyena to Helen Mirren, but said the song had nothing to do with her, except just the feeling of the song is similar to to how she makes them feel.

* Also, he said "thank you" a couple times and toward the end of the show (I'm paraphrasing) "Thanks for coming out to the show. This is sort of like our hometown show." And something like "Be nice to those who are nice to you".
* Cedric's vocals were definitely on tonight. I only recall only one little screw-up during the whole show. The crowd sang along a lot. i think it's cool how many for us knew all the words. Even on older, more obscure songs like Eunuch and Inertiac, it seemed everyone around me sang.

* Omar was doing back-up vocals on Desperate Graves and Halo. I could seem him singing but I heard nothing from where I was. If he's going to play guitar and sing at the same time we might as well be able to hear him. Turn up Marcel's percussion/keys and Omar's vocals and the mix would be perfect.
* Some total fucking dick tossed a beer on stage during the opening song, or maybe the second song. Cedric looked very pissed and said something like "come meet me back stage after the show. If you see that guy who threw beer at us, kick his ass for me." I'm paraphrasing. I was pissed too. If you're out there, fuck you, man.

* I was amazed at the how many songs were played. Cygnus had the longest jam of the night, I think. Jams were a little shorter than what we've come to expect from the band. Thomas' drumming was pretty insane, as always. At some points it seemed like he was played twice as fast as the album versions of the songs. He dominated.
* Why do they sell merch out of a space the size of a walk-in closet at the Palladium? What the hell? I felt as cramped up in line for merch as I did at the front of the barricade. Not the vault of the merchandise people, just a tiny space to serve a couple hundred people, you know?

To sum it all up, an excellent show.

Highlights:
Vocals, Mix. Nice venue, Nice staff. Halo, Inertiac, Drunkship, Roulette and Cygnus stood out most. YOU COULD HEAR IKEY! Tons of pretty ladies. You know who you are. Good mix of old and new songs. John Frusciante's very presence, even if he's not on stage, qualifies as a highlight. Good set length, didn't leave you with blue balls, but also didn't drag on and on.
Lowlights:
Asshole who tossed a beer, people who insist on yelling at the band between songs. Marcel's playing was hard to hear from my position (Near Ikey). Omar's back-up vocals were just plain inaudible. If the man puts in the effort to sing, put in the effort to turn up his mic.

Seemed like they played for 2:30 but it was probably 2 hours. Besides the asshole who tossed a beer and the people who wouldn't shut up with "L'Via! L'Via!", the crowd was great. Nothing personal. I like the song too, but at some point you have to realize that they haven't played it in a while, and they don't take requests. And yelling "L'Via" over and over does not make anybody want to play it. The fellow in front of me took a lot of video. Hopefully a boot of some sort surfaces. An excellent time.
Cannot wait to see them at SOMA.

I should also mention that the backdrops & visuals were sick. Some of the best lights I've seen at a show, ever. The first backdrop was the familiar one with all the different colored eyes and bird wings on it. The second backdrop was sort of like an Gaia type figure?, the same one on Thoma's bass drum. It reminded me of some of Alex Grey's 10,000 days work. Each light that shined upon the backdrop highlighted a part of the image I hadn't noticed - there were some crazy like bones and shit on that, man. Trippy as hell. You know what I'm talking about. Also Wax is not the greatest closer compared to something like Baphomets, but Inertiac is an awesome opener. The band had very few mistakes. Thomas was working the gong behind him a lot before some of the Octa songs. Also, I found it a little amusing that the smell of marijuana began swifting through the air before Nobody finished. It smelled great, but damn - what happened to waiting before the band is on before you light up? Hell, wait until they start to jam a little bit. Also, Cedric had a blue bandanna hanging out his back pocket - is he a crip?
Merch is cool, for those of you interested in that - there's a yellow shirt, a white shirt, a red shirt. a dark blue shirt, a black shirt and a "raiders' style shirt with Cedric & Omar's face on it. Also a Octahedron belt buckle, a raiders/volta style windbreaker. There was a cool poster for tonight's show. Hopefully they have another cool poster at Soma.