The Anniversary with Mars Volta: Troubadour, West Hollywood: 11/11/01
Nov 12 '01 (Updated Feb 04 '03)
The Bottom Line Mars Volta changes everything.
What a night.
It's been quite awhile since I've been to a "real" concert. I saw They Might Be Giants and Travis live, but they were in-store performances. Not exactly the same thing. I caught The Plastic Constellations quite by accident at the Minnesota state fair back in August. That was cool. Other than that, It's been months since I've seen a show.
Tonight made up for lost time in a serious way. Tonight was easily one of the best shows I've Ever seen. That's "ever" with a capital "E" folks.
This was the lineup:
Opening acts: Mates of State, Fairview and Mars Volta.
Headliner: The Anniversary.
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The night started off when my pal Brian arrived at my apartment to pick me up for the concert. He's an ex-resident of Lawrence Kansas, so he's been following The Anniversary for quite some time. He's good friends with the drummers girlfriend as well, so he was on the list. I had to pay of course!
He brought a burned copy of their future release Your Majesty with him and we listened to that before leaving the apartment. It's good to know people who know people!
He told me that when they gave him a copy of the album (which was recorded back in June, scheduled for release on January 15, 2002) he asked if there was anything radio friendly on it. Christian's reply: "It's all radio-friendly! We're just waiting for rock and roll to make a come back!"
We got to the Troubadour around 6:45 and stood in line with all the little emo kids. I was feeling very old. I was also feeling very cheated because I expected the show to sell out and had paid Ticketmasters "rape me" fees, only to find out there were still tickets for sale when we arrived. Oh well.
After a few minutes, the line began pouring into the club and we headed straight to the merchandise table. I bought The Anniversary's first release and their recent split with Superdrag. Then we found our way onto the floor to watch the show.
The Troubadour is pretty small, so we had a nice spot in front of the stage right in the center. While we stood around waiting, Brian saw Christian (The drummer and boyfriend of his pal) walking through the crowd. Introductions were made and the three of us shared small talk for a few minutes while Mates of State set up.
By the way, Christian fully recommends a visit to Jumbo's Clown Room when visiting Los Angeles. Jumbo's is a bar that features "topless" women with pasties! It's not a strip club, mind you, it's a bar... it just has half-naked women in it. It's rumored that Courtney Love was once a dancer there and it's regarded as somewhat of an L.A. landmark. (5153 Hollywood Blvd if you're so inclined) L.A Bizarro (a must have book for anyone planning a visit or move to Los Angeles) mentions it on page 58.
Anyway, around this time the concert began, so I told Christian to have a good show and I turned to the stage.
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Mates of State
This band blew me away. I was almost entirely unfamiliar with them before this show and I wasn't really sure what to expect. They impressed the hell out of me.
Mates of State is husband and wife, Jason and Kori. Kori on keyboards, Jason on Drums, both on vocals. I'm calling them Quasi with a pulse. Where Quasi is downbeat and agonizingly depressing, Mates of State is love put to music. Jason and Kori watch each other while they perform and the love that moves through them on stage is infectious. Seeing them live is a powerful experience you should not pass up.
To make things even better, they'd only been on stage for a few minutes when Brian turned to me laughing and said "I know that guy too! We went to college together!"
Later in the night, Brian was able to spend some time talking with Jason and they realized they had also spent an agonizing morning together in a waiting room while they nervously awaited the results of their med school applications! Brian laughed while he described the two of them sitting across from each other, too scared to effectively engage in small talk even. "Imagine Jason in a suit" he told me!
Neither Jason nor Brian was accepted to med school, by the way, and I for one am thrilled to hear it. If Jason hadn't been turned down, we wouldn't have this incredible music right now. Instead, we'd have one more stressed out M.D. who missed his true calling.
If you've ever grooved to their album My Solo Project, think of Jason and Brian sitting across from each other, literally at the crossroads of their lives, and take some satisfaction knowing that the outcome of that moment partially determined the existence of that album! Thing's could've happened much differently!
After they finished performing, I ran back out to the entryway and picked up their c.d. as well.
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Fairview
This band also impressed me. They're still young, and I definitely think they have room to grow, but as a whole, they are very exciting.
5 members: 4 guys, 1 girl: singer/guitar player, backup guitar, bass, drummer, and keyboards/piano. They sound like fast and heavy Get Up Kids if you threw in a girl driven piano accompaniment.
Where Mates of State performed consistent 4 and 5 star songs, Fairview was more hit and miss. However, when they hit... Wow. They played some of the best songs of the night. Unfortunately, they would follow it up with a 3 star number that was just so-so. And they regularly broke the flow of the concert by thanking the crowd after each song, rather than keeping the music coming.
All in all, I think Fairview is a band to watch out for. They're an Orange County band so I expect I'll be able to see them again before much longer. I put my name down on their mailing list to stay informed. If I wasn't so damn broke I would've just bought their cd as well.
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Mars Volta
The word on the street is that this is THE band to see.
Both Courtney Love and Winona Ryder showed up tonight just to see them.
I had a little bit of a heads up on this band before the show.
Last night, I was AIMing with my friend Sioux who's an intern with Vagrant Records. She was at the House of Blues show on Friday night. I think she put it this way...
Mars Volta = WOW
This morning, I was chatting with epinions's resident authority on punk (Pezking) who filled me in on more detail. He told me that At the Drive-In is taking a breather and they've split into 2 bands: Sparta and Mars Volta. (Plus the side project, De Facto)
Armed with these 2 informed advisers at my back, I went into the show with a heightened expectation.
I still wan't prepared for what I saw. Without exaggerating, this was probably the most incredible thing I've ever seen in concert.
They started performing, and the assault didn't stop for 30 minutes. Cedric's stage presence is incredible. He invokes so much sexuality into the music he produces... It felt like ejaculate as sound.
While talking with sioux* again tonight after the show, this little dialog transpired:
ociferdown: Mars Volta was the most incredible thing
ociferdown: the kids had no idea what to do with it
ociferdown: people were just in shock
ociferdown: afraid to dance... just staring with their jaws on the floor
-----sioux: haha
-----sioux: cedric dances like iggy pop
-----sioux: great guy
Personally, I thought he came off more like Jim Morrison than Iggy Pop, but you get the idea. We were definitely in the presence of a genius.
Cedric would move and gyrate his body with the sound... he actually appeared to be climaxing at various moments in the show. It was very orgasmic and sexual. He also used his microphone cord... wrapping his face, neck and arms and swinging the mic in circles while singing. At one point, he threw it in the air and missed his catch! The microphone hit the stage with a BANG and, rather than miss his timing, he dove to the ground and continued singing from the floor.
He repeatedly bit the cymbols while the drummer banged away. He'd release his bite seconds before the drummer slammed the cymbol! I thought he was going to get his teeth smashed right out of his skull at any moment. It was pretty incredible!
At one point, some idiot in the back made a stupid comment. Cedric replied with "I'm gonna put you into an emo-concentration camp for carrying around kleenex boxes! That'll give you white kids something to cry about!"
One of the things that impressed me about this act, was the fact that they don't have an album out yet, so no one knew what to expect. The crowd was completely unprepared for anything quite so... alive. This was pure rock and roll. Violent... Sexy... unforgiving. Piss and vinegar, salt-in-the-wound rock and roll. And it was way over the heads of 95% of the people in the room.
I have no idea if the album will be able to convey the vitriolic and perverse energy of this live show, but if it comes half as close, I'm buying it.
And you will too, mark my words.
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The Anniversary
For those who don't know, The Anniversary is an emo outfit known for the excellent interplay between the male and female vocalists. Fans of Mates of State, The Get Up Kids, and Selby Tigers will probably dig this group.
Unfortunately, there was absolutely no way to top Mars Volta. Cedric and company left me in absolute shock. By the time The Anniversary took the stage, I was hardly interested.
And neither were they.
The Anniversary is rounding off the last leg of their tour, and it shows. They're tired. They're worn out. They're ready to go home. They played a mediocre show full of new songs that the kids didn't know, and the result was a disappointing, if not moderately enjoyable closing act.
They kicked off with crowd-pleaser The D in Detroit and polished off their encore with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. In between these old favorites were a sampling off the new release. Good stuff to be sure, but the crowd didn't know the songs and they responded unenthusiastically.
Courtney and Winona had long since left the building and so had the energy and excitement.
Don't get me wrong... the tunes were great. But the band seemed to be going through the motions, counting down the number of shows till they get home.
Earlier, when Brian asked if they were excited for tonight, Christian answered by saying they were almost done with the tour and it was starting to wear them down. It showed.
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In the end, even counting the tired headlining performance, this was one of the best shows I've seen. I highly recommend you catch any of these acts if they come through your town, but especially Mars Volta. Do whatever you need to do to see that show. W H A T E V E R!
Also, pick up the new split between The Anniversary and Superdrag. It's awesome.
Thanks for reading everyone. I'd like to dedicate this review to Sioux for 2 reasons:
1.) For all the excellent music tips, including the heads up on Mars Volta and advising me to get the Superdrag split.
2.) For keeping me entertained tonight while I was trying to finish this piece rather than sleep! I owe you girl!
*Note: I altered Sioux's AIM name. The last thing she needs is more psycho's IMing her!
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Member: Ryan Stockstad
Location: Valley Village, California
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