Excuse me while I stoop to pick my jaw off the floor...Sep 20 '06 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line The world's biggest bands really are the most fun to see live. From my vantage point atop the arena in section 39, Row 8 I witnessed feats of musicianship that put anything else I've seen to such shame. Those Crazy Mexicans I call Cedric & Omar were every bit as incredible as I hoped they would be, as the Mars Volta took the stage to open the show. Through an hour that seemed like half that time, they played through 5 songs of such ferocious intensity and nuance I nearly wet myself. They opened with The Haunt of Roulette Dares and The Widow (from Deloused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute, respectively) and then launched into three new tracks from Amputechture, the gargantuan Tetragrammaton, the clip-cloppy Viscera Eyes, and the raging Day of the Baphomets. At the time they took the stage (after a pointless introduction by a radio personality) the arena was only about half full, but the half that were there were clearly impressed (except for one guy near me who plugged his ears the entire time). By the time they finished, people had taken notice. Clad in black suits and surrounded by a touring band, Cedric and Omar danced their thin Mexican nalgas off. Cedric's stage presence hasn't gotten less intense since At the Drive-In, but it has gotten more mature. They've grown up, and seem completely at home in a big-stadium setting. And speaking of big stadiums...Stadium Arcadium it was. For at 9 o clock, Chad, John, and Flea took the stage and within seconds every seat was empty because everyone was on their feet. Anthony joined them on a very sparsely decorated stage, which made for less distractions...until the lights came on, and holy crap...that might have been the coolest thing I've ever seen. The entire wall behind them and the ceiling was a screen made up of thin, vertical lights, and there were FOUR big screens (though little in comparison) that moved around in front of them, displaying crazy things like dragons and hookers, as well as the band themselves. It was like a thing of dreams. They opened with Can't Stop, and through 2.5 hours played (almost) every song you could think of, old and new. They had a few tracks from Stadium Arcadium, as well as older songs like BloodSugarSexMagik, Scar Tissue, Californication, By the Way, Don't Forget Me, Fortune Faded, and an encore that started with Under the Bridge and then Give it Away, and ended with Anthony leaving the stage while Omar came back out and jammed with Flea, John, and Chad for about 20 minutes of what amounted to a musical orgasm. John Fruiscante and Flea compliment each other so perfectly it's scary, and do things with their fingers I never dreamed imaginable. I'm not quite sure what Flea was wearing...but who ever is? There was even one point where the band left and Fruiscante played through a quiet rendition of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow...a contrast to the killing floor he made the stage the rest of the night as he made sweet, sweet love to his fretboard. There was a point where some random from the crowd managed to get onstage and tickle Anthony, but no one seemed to mind, other than the guy, perhaps, when he probably got arrested. It was the best of times...for all involved. The world's biggest bands really are the most fun to see live.  |
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