I posted a review of Porcupine Tree's concert here in the OC on my other blog. Check it out at:
http://thepromiselive.blogspot.com/2005/06/porcupine-tree-live-at-grove-of.htmlAnd check out their latest CD, which is playing on my stream.
I was shocked! Completely shocked! No, not at the music… At the crowd. What were 6,000 people doing sitting /standing at a sold out Greek Theatre on a lovely night in L.A., listening to a band that owes as much to King Crimson as they do to Led Zep. After all, this is L.A., not known these days as a hot bed for experimental music. And yet, there they/we were, listening to this band jump back and forth between hard metal and experimental jazz; often in the same song. This was the type of music I looked forward to back in the mid/late 70’s. But what makes Mars Volta stand out is the energy and emotion they put into their music. The drummer drove this band from the opening beats and soloing was intense with an overall effect that rarely seemed pretentious. After the first song, which ran about 20 minutes, they had some equipment trouble. The lead singer said to the crowd, “maybe this is God’s way of telling us to play more normal music”. Not only was that not going to happen, that was also just about the last thing they said to the crowd. And yet it didn’t matter. The music carried the night. Not knowing their music well, the piece that really got me was a song that bounced back and forth between a slow Latin rhythm and then an intense full speed Latin/rock rhythm. This song along with another 3 or 4 were sung in Spanish. Did I mention it was a sold out show at the Greek? 6,000 people watching a multilingual rock band? It was an amazing show.
I will probably be adding some of their music to the stream. It really fits in with the classics from the 70's.
