The Mars Volta

@ the Hi-Fi Bar, Wed 28th January, 2004.


Hmm...

The Mars Volta were formed by singer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and guitarist Cedric Zavala after they disbanded their previous group, At The Drive-In, because it was becoming too musically restrictive.

In other words, they play prog-rock.

Admittedly, this is prog rock for the 21st century, built on a foundation of punk rather than acid. But the Volta are still marred by that classic prog-rock flaw: their skill as musicians outstrips their self-restraint. Their music veers randomly between frenetic thrashing and long interludes of guitar chirrups and echoes. Which is all very interesting, in a scratch-your-goatee kind of way, but you can’t exactly dance to it.

Not that Omar and Cedric didn’t try. Both stick-figure thin, and sporting massive afros and scuzzy little beards, they jerked and spasmed on stage like epileptic Iggy Pops. Sweat was flying. From Omar, especially. He jumped, fell over, climbed up the walls, screamed and pleaded in his piercing falsetto. He even wrapped himself and hid in the stage curtains during one of the guitar breaks. And made it seem like the ultimate act in rock and roll abandon. The band were carried away by their music.

The problem being, I was left behind.

And maybe it was just me. Maybe I just hadn’t listened to the album enough. Maybe I’m just too boring and conventional to get it. Certainly, the rest of the audience were cheering each five-minute solo.

But if Omar and Cedric were so true to themselves as to split up At The Drive-In, then I should be as true to my own tastes. And the truth is, I though the Volta sounded best when they sounded most like the Drive-In. When all the abstract experimentalism was grounded with some kick-arse rock grooves.

It’s a delicate balance, between the experimental and the accessable. And everyone weighs them up differently. It seems to me that that is the quest of the artist: to say something fresh and different, but to say it in a way that resonates.

If the whole concert didn’t grab me, there were certainly enough highlights that did. And I came away with a lot to think about.

But goddamn am I sad that I never got to see At the Drive-In.

Geekery

via greylock:

From the Lord of the Rings nitpickers guide:

Glorfindel finds the party in the wilderness (FOTR p.279). Jackson has Arwen find the party. Building up (and distorting) Arwen's role was one of Jackson's Three Major Mistakes, in my opinion.

Whereas I hold this to be one of the main ways Jackson improved upon Tolkien.

Book-Arwen is nothing more than a trophy wife. She looks pretty, says almost nothing, and sits at home sewing. She is both unfilmable, and boring beyond tears.

Movie-Arwen has far more life in her. But she is also truer, in some ways, to the spirit of Middle Earth than Book-Arwen is. There are constant references to how Arwen bears the likeness of Luthien Tinuviel, the first elf-maid to marry a mortal.

And Luthien totally kicks arse.

She defies her father for her love. Is imprisioned. Escapes. Rescues her beloved from the prisons of Sauron, subduing Sauron and destroying his fortress in the process. Spends years wandering the wilderness with her lover. Helps him break into the fortress of Morgoth (who is Sauron's boss). Subdues Morgoth with her magic. Escapes alive. Marries her love. And when he is slain in battle, she persuades the gods to let him come back to life.

With all that in mind, Arwen riding out against the Nazgul is more than fitting behaviour for an Elf-princess in love.

(Plus: Liv Tyler in elf-ears. Can't get too much screen time of that.)