After Eva Gardner left The Mars Volta due to personal reasons, the band was left in quite the trouble very early on their career. They managed to overcome that issue with the recording of their debut album thanks to the help of Red Hot Chili Peppers's Flea taking over bass duties, and with the demos being leaked and leading to a lot of expectations for the album, people were excited to see what the band would be like on a live setting. But that was another problem to deal with. Flea had his own band, and the tour in promotion of their first album was getting near. Since their first lineup had been affected, and considering that Ikey Owens took a break as well, a variety of members started to come in order to complement the respective instruments.
First one of those replacements would include Ralph Jasso on bass and Linda Good on keyboards, making up for a lineup that worked for what it was, but that did not have a strong chemistry overall. Ikey Owens returned, and Linda and Ralph were fired from the group because of that lack of chemistry perceived by Omar. It is also known by fans that Juan Alderete would come around this point in order to play bass until the end of the band, but before his inclusion there was one more member that was a part of the live Volta lineup. Bassist Jason Lader, recognized more as a producer and mixer, who joined the band from January until April of 2003. Slowly, but steady, the band was starting to recover their onstage energy and to provide strong performances leading to the release of their first album, and before the more iconic members came together, there were still some impressive shows being delivered. And one of those is this live bootleg, live in Austria in early April, before Alderete joined The Mars Volta.
For being a Mars Volta bootleg, this is probably one of the best regarding sound quality. Most, if not all, the instruments, vocals, and effects can be appreciated clearly. Jeremy's offstage sound manipulation is something to truly be appreciated and admired, adding so many things to Cedric's vocals and layering the already complex effects from Omar. The performances are strong and the chemistry is starting to come together on a really effective way. Jon's drumming is as energetic and potent as ever, Cedric starts to try and expand his vocal range in some segments, Ikey's keyboards manage to give the tracks and jams a more complete atmosphere, and Jason's bass surprisingly goes really well with the dynamic of the group.
However, this is far from being a perfect concert. The band is still taking its time to find a balance in the lineup in order to perform the best they can onstage. They seem to be trying things out as well, expanding the jamming sections to an even longer extent, showing the coordination of the members and showing fleshed out tracks on that part. But the jamming and polish of the songs is far from being perfect. It is very nice to see a concert starting with a De Facto track while the band is preparing for the main event, and the first three tracks start off things on a fantastic way. Apparatus has a strong rendition instrumentally, and while the vocals are not completely well delivered, but the sound manipulation still gives them a lot of charm. Take The Veil, becoming the highlight here, offers a fantastic performance from the band, but the bass is not all that present and it still feels like more could have been done with the song. And Concertina shows the passion of The Mars Volta still being present and finding its way through the complications that they faced, with a short song that represents all that they had to offer. But after this point, the concert seems to decline in quality.
The version of Eunuch Provocateur found here lacks a lot of things, despite it having the same old energy seen before by the band. The vocal performance seems to want more space to unveil, and the instrumentals feel very similar, being a sort of "incomplete" performance. The song is not finished, because the middle section is extended as a jam that goes on for some time, leading slowly into Drunkship of Lanterns. It is one of the best early examples of the band starting to flesh out segments in order to show their technicality and coordination, but comparing these to 2004 and 2005 performances is like comparing night and day. There is no doubt about it, Juan would be more fit to fill the spots that feel empty on this performance, leading to a second half that could have offered even more but that was trying things out. They were first steps, and the importance of Jeremy and Juan on this early period get more weight to them. Drunkship, Cicatriz, and Roulette all have the same issues; they all have strong performances, showing a good coordination and ability from each member, but they would come to do much better things with all those things in the future. There is a strong implementation of elements that were going to be used on their next records, but, as said before, these first steps were of a band searching for the perfect balance within their chemistry. There was still much more that could be done with the songs, and it seems that they knew it very well.
Still, facing the many issues that appeared during this early time, it sure is an impressive performance, showing that the members were slowly getting more comfortable with the jamming and experimentation presented onstage. The sound quality is great, and while it is not perfect, most of the elements can be heard very clearly, making it worth a listen just for that. Jeremy's presence can be felt, even if his performance was offstage, with his additions to vocal and instrumental effects really give the concert and the tracks a much more unique feel within the experimental/psychedelic ambient that was being presented before the release of their debut. The charisma that Cedric shows as a front-man sure is something very nice to see, and his vocals are slowly evolving into a much more dynamic space. It is not a complete recording (with Cicatriz being incomplete, but most of it can be found on youtube), but it is a nice look at this early period of the band, and definitely makes one appreciate the things that would come a bit later down the road. A nice performance overall.
Sound Quality: 8/10
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
Favorite Track: Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt
Favorite Track: Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt
No comments:
Post a Comment