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Editorials

A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE OUR GENERATION’S GREATEST PROGRESSIVE ROCK BAND AT A SMALLISH VENUE

 Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 11:43am by

I was pretty surprised when I heard that The Mars Volta, who have previously sold out Terminal 5 (a huge new-ish venue in Manhattan) and are scheduled to play the Hammerstein Ballroom (another enormous Manhattan venue), are also playing at the much more intimate Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey on this tour.

Say what you will about the band — they are indeed quite a live experience to behold and have clearly captured the attention and imagination of a myriad of many serious music lovers in their 7 year run for good reason.

And so on September 18th, while Vince and Axl are giving each other h.j.s in the back row at the Opeth/High On Fire/Nachmystium extravaganza, me and the Gibbler will brave smelly NJ in the name of fiery PROG. A chance to see a band up close that usually only plays sold-out shows in gigantic venues doesn’t come along so often; I believe there are still tickets left, so don’t delay, and let’s rockit!!

See you in the stony non-pit…

[read my Sunday Spotlight on The Mars Volta and check out plenty of their wicked tunes]

-KW

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  • Paul D

    I dunno dude.

    “Greatest progressive rock band”?

    They’ve got one “great” album (De-Loused in the Comatorium) and a bunch of other material ranging from so-so to downright unlistenable.

    Even hardcore At the Drive-In fans I know don’t bother to defend Mars Volta’s later material.

    Meh.

  • dthrasher

    I actually prefer frances the mute to deloused, but i generally agree with your sentiment paul

  • http://www.myspace.com/grownfromthecold Luke

    I love this band. Granted, I hated the two middle albums, but the last one was pretty great, and De-Loused is a classic.

  • This fucking site SUCKS COCK

    I thought this was a site for metal??? Why the fuck are the Mars Volta getting press? This band blows harder than a 2 dollar whore

  • iolanach

    “OUR GENERATION’S GREATEST PROGRESSIVE ROCK BAND”? Mars Volta?!? I think you misspelled Porcupine Tree.

  • Cisco

    Dude, wish I could attend!!! Mars Volta freakin’ rocks. Not a bad record yet, oh, and they’re way metal.

  • Richard

    @iolanach:

    Misspelled “Protest the Hero” is more like it.

  • http://www.myspace.com/grownfromthecold Luke

    To the people who say they’re not “metal”: Cedric guest-ing on Blood Mountain is metal enough for me. Also, I would say Mastodon is more progressive than Protest The Hero, and therefore, win the title of “greatest” progressive band. But Protest is rad too.

  • attackmole

    “Quite the live experience”? Mars Volta was easily the worst band I’ve ever seen live. I’ve heard that from a lot of people too. When I saw em open for SOAD, the guy next to me actually asked as he passed me by on the way to the beer line “Do you kids actually like that shit?” Maybe it was just a bad night for em or they had a shitty set up or something, but it literally was a wall of noise for the extent of their 40 minute set. I couldn’t make out a single song change. It sounded like they were trying to jam, but just failing and playing random notes. It was the most terrible live thing I’ve seen.

  • attackmole

    I honest to god spent the first 20 minutes of their set trying to figure out if their singer was a dude or a chick. I did get it eventually, but it was really fucking hard.

  • volta fan

    damn metalheads are fucking stupid

  • volta fan

    volta are without a doubt the greatest band of all time, i think you guys are just to fucking stupid to understand that. metal is one of the most dumbed down unemotional genres in the history of music. one day when volta goes down as the greatest group of all time maybe you guys will shut the fuck up and understand.