The Mars Volta Rocks BA! (ah...a little live music finally)

Went to the "Personal Fest" last night, a music festival here in Buenos Aires with something like 5 stages.

We (Susana and a few of her friends) were all excited to see PJ Harvey, but I was hoping that the band from Los Angeles, The Mars Volta, would be good as well. In the end, I have to say that they stole the show. They simply rocked with more energy and passion than anyone else all night, Harvey included. Unfortunately, we couldn't totally enjoy it because we were sort of getting crushed by the crowd, and Susana couldn't see anything anyways.

The lead guitar, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, a skinny latino dude with big 70s hair, is insanely good. And the lead singer, Cedric Bixler Zavala, was doing things like flipping his entire mic stand up in the air, and then catching it just in time to continue singing. (Let's hear it for all the hard-rockin', head-bangin' Latinos out there.) No, I can't understand a word of his lyrics, not live nor on the album, but it doesn't matter at all–he conveys a ton of emotion with his singing.

Their music from their first (and only, so far) album feels like updated 70s rock—think Zeppelin, Santana. The album—Deloused in the Comatorium—also a 70s style "concept album." The idea for the album came from the suicide a friend, Julio Venegas. Here's what their web site has to say about it:

That record is De-Loused In The Comatorium, the astonishing first album by The Mars Volta. De-Loused In The Comatorium is an iridescent, fearless, brain-busting hour of music, a fictionalized celebration of Julio Venegas’ life. Based on a story written by Cedric, it is a concept album in which the hero tries to commit suicide by overdosing on morphine. Instead of dying, he falls into a coma for a week, and experiences fantastic adventures in his dreams, elemental battles between the good and bad aspects of his conscience. At the end, he emerges from the coma, but chooses to die.

Okay, not to downplay PJ Harvey, she rocked too. Although, I would have like to have seen all of them in a smaller venue. PJ is just a true rock star, in the best way. She did seem a bit flat at first, but then warmed up. I was psyched that she did a couple songs from her album To Bring You My Love, which is really my favorite.

I was also happy to be introduced to a great Argentine band that some of Susana's friends had tipped us off to. Pequeña Orquesta Reincidentes plays an eclectic mix of music on a wild array of instruments: banjo, accordian, saw, electric stand-up bass, various drums. And they weren't like some band that just sort of experiment with different instruments, they really could play them well. Their music reminded a bit of Cafe Tacuba (minus the harder rock stuff) and a bit of Manu Chao. I'm going to go buy some of their albums next chance I get.

By the way, stay away from the other band that we saw on the main stage. Electric Six was unimaginative, "wall of guitar" dumb rock. Their songs all sounded almost exactly the same, the lead singer's voice was irritating and he seemed to be going through the motions, just waiting for their set to end. We were all waiting as well.

All in all, it was nice to get out and see some live music. As usual, I was asking myself why I don't get out and see more of it....