Watching bands play in Paradiso is always nice. It has such great history and an ambiance that I haven't found anywhere else. Tonight The Mars Volta was up to rock this temple in their frontman's semi-hometown.

The last time I saw The Mars Volta was in Tilburg in a venue that seems a lot larger than Paradiso. The crowd at a concert like this always consists of musiclovers from every genre. There were the jazzy looking people and of course the metalheads, waiting with great anticipation. At 20:30 The Mars Volta entered the stage. The first noticeable fact was the sound. Somehow it was a bit blurry, but thank Satan that was taken care of after the first couple of songs.

A The Mars Volta concert is always filled with jamming and on-stage experimenting and this one was no different. On their albums songs tend to exceed five or more minutes, live they go all out. The Mars Volta showed that at this moment, they are one of the tightest and best bands in the world! Every single detour they make seems to end up in a mess, but never, not once do they lose control over what they're doing and they bring it back to the original song in the glimpse of an eye, with Omar leading his orchestra the whole time. Cedric's vocals were awesome tonight! The sound was set in such a manner, that his voice just becomes one of the instruments. However, because of the wall of sound they produce, the keyboards weren't that noticeable. Drummer Thomas Pridgen...well...some people were born with a purpose, and he is fulfilling his. This man is a machine! The rhythms are sick, his fills are even sicker. Downside is that he might be taking a lot of the attention away from the songs itself.

The Mars Volta is a fantastic band, keeping an enormously high level all night. The first hour the crowd is just flabbergasted because of the skills displayed. After that, besides getting angry because none of them will ever be able to make music like this, it tends to numb a bit because there aren't really a lot of highs and low, but just a constant stream of excellence. Every selfrespecting music lover should at least see this band once. I mean it!