Continued: May 12 Sound Academy, Toronto

It's been two days since the show - and I've decided there weren’t enough awesome details in my first review. A lot of things happened during the show that I neglected to mention before - and that's unfair to the readers and the band. Onward!!

As usual - Cedric was a bloody maniac, but I noticed some strange additions to the party in his head. First up, he had a strange feedback instrument that he had hooked up to a few different pedals. It was a straight 1/4 inch thick flexible pole that stood about a foot and a half tall. He would occasionally attack this pole which was charged and created really fucked up sounds that were totally un-balanced to the rest of the band. With his left arm he'd swat the pole with no such rhyme or reason. With his right arm he would aggressively twist knobs, push buttons and drink tea.

Wait, drink tea?

Yeah, I noticed as soon as the curtain dropped that there was some smoky steam rising up from the Cedrics main table of goodies. I couldn't tell what it was, at first it looked like some of his equipment was short circuiting. After about 10 minutes the steam was gone and a techy crept out from backstage, grabbed to cold tea, and replaced it with a hot new mug. This went on all show. Every 10 minutes, a techy would come out and refresh his tea. Cedric would sip on the tea frequently, but not enough to warrant all those cups!! Considering how long the show was, the techy brought him a fresh cup probably 15-20 times, hilarious! I must say, the steam added a nice ambience to the stage. I'm guessing his voice box is shattered or something, and he'd drink the tea to ease his trachea.

One thing I want to mention to all fans of TMV in Toronto - Stop throwing your fucking garbage at the band. Close to the start of the show, some asshole whipped a full cup at Cedric that just missed hitting him, but some of the liquid went in his hair. Cedric addressed the crowd but no one could understand him. Mind you, this isn't the first time - and it happens at almost any show. Anyways...

Enough of that - I wanted to mention some really excellent parts of the show. During Tetragrammaton, Omar and Adrian had a wicked solo section. Omar would shit a lick out of his crazy fingers, then Adrian would match it on his tenor sax! It was actually unbelievable how good Adrian is. This was the first time he really got his own time to shine - and the crowd loved it! This section went on for about 2-3 minutes, the entire band giving jeers of encouragement. It was an awesome sight.

Only a few moment before this ridiculous guitar/sax battle, another key member of the band got his time in the sun. Ikey ripped an intense organ solo that was about as psychedelic as they come. His style, as we know, is very unique and often out of this world! His 2 minute solo was truly excellent. Everyone in the crowd starred as Ikey threw his torso and head around in every direction, sliding his hands up and down the keys, creating a truly memorizing wave of harmonics. As his epic moment drew to an end, the band picked up his notes and so began Viscera Eyes.

Some more highlights include Thomas Pridgeon whacking one of his fingers mid song. Is anybody surprised? The guy moves so bloody fast, it's bound to happen. He shook it off, rubbed the finger up and down a few times, and before you know it - he's back into a seemingly endless drum roll - rock on dude, you're actually a fuckin' machine. I love how excited he gets too, he often jumps up using his kick foot and throws his left foot up in the air, smiling wildly. During the final moments of the concert, Thomas launched his left stick way into the air and made no effort to get a new one - instead he used his now free hand to mute his consecutive crashes before cutting the lights..

The band bowed individually - and the fans responded accordingly.

Bravo - I love this band.

Sound Academy: May 12, The Mars Volta Experience

Well it's the morning after - I feel used. Some of my body parts aren't working right, my brain muscles are throbbing - but all I want to do is get more fucked up!!

This was my first time seeing a show at the Docks. The Docks is a general entertainment complex, I went once when I turned 16 for an all-ages dance club, it hasn't changed a bit. The inside is very long and fairly wide. The floor is divided 40/60 [bar/concert floor]. I must say, these assholes really understand business. For the first time in ages, I was able to walk up to the bar, and order 5 beers without having to wait in line, watch someone fumble to pour beer, or restrict me to 1 per customer. Thank you Docks!!

The crowd arrived early as usual - with quite an interesting cross section of humans. The most prevalent being the young kids, 16-19, with a surprising number of hunnies. That's right, lots of babes at the Mars Volta show - I was pleased. Most of the dudes in the crowd looked a bit older, maybe 20-25 age group. I also saw some seniors in the line-up, and made a point to show them respect.

I went to the show with 8 of my hombres, only 1 of which had experienced TMV live.
The doors opened at 7pm. I got into the line-up with my posse when the line died down around 745. We got inside immediately with minimal pat down - we had spliffs!!


The show started around 815, which was just enough time for me to get in, buy a shirt ($20) and get a beer ($5.75/can). I'm a tall fuck, so I had a killer spot at the front right, only about 10 heads back from the gate. I could clearly see the Pridgeon, Ikey, Hinojos, Omar and Cedric. The other side of the stage hosted Juan, Marcel and Adrian.

To be honest I have no idea what order they played in, and I'm not going to go search for it online - but here's a list of the songs they did play.

Cygnus (extremely long mix + jam)
Wax Simulacra
Goliath (extremely long mix + jam)
Oroborous
Tetragrammaton (extremely long mix + jam)
Aberinkula
Agadez
Viscera Eyes
Cicatriz

Okay, so my list probably sucks - but when you're there, there’s no way to remember what they played, and the order, especially since I'm a space case to begin with. The best part of this show:

Almost 3 hours long.

That's right, this thing actually went on forever, I thought it was coming to a dramatic ending about 5 times, it was like watching Minority Report without any temptation to smash your Tom Cruise bearing television. This show was ridiculous! I've seen them a lot, and the only time they played longer was back in Montreal 2006.

As usual the band jammed very heavily through a lot of their stronger songs. Both Tetragrammeton and Goliath were SO long, easily 40 minutes each. There's nothing I love more than watching Omar orchestrate the jam through different series of hand gestures, jumps, swings, and most importantly, smiles!!

This was one of the first times the band looked very happy on stage. Either they got hooked up with some awesome T.O. groupies, or they found some good weed... neither would surprise me.

Whatever it was, the band was on point and loving every minute of it! The crowd did too, a lot of rowdy kids turned most of the floor into a small mosh pit - nothing insane though, I saw those two seniors here, and they were head banging much harder than anyone else around, kudos gentlemen!!

Judging by peoples expressions after the show, everyone's face was melted. TMV performed yet again and I’ll be sure to get a ticket to the next show in Toronto. You should too... seriously.

May 12 Sound Academy, Toronto

Just a quick post while I'm at work. I'll be at the May 12th Volta show at the Sound Academy (formerly the Docks). I'll be the tallest guy in the crowd, hoping to take some pictures and smoke a doob without getting thrown out. I'll give a full review the morning after the show. Thanks fans.