While you’re counting Coldplay CDs, made by a guy married to a movie star
with a daughter with the moniker of a fruit, while Eminem is tanking in the live
marketplace, while the media is fixated on a mutilated, aged pop star, you’re
missing the biggest music story of the year, the Mars Volta.

By every standard of today’s music business the Mars Volta is a failure. 
They don’t sell millions of albums, they’re not all over music television, the
tabloids never talk about them, and they’re not at the top of the Pollstar
grosses.  But, the Mars Volta is THE most happening band in America today.

It’s credibility.  It’s culture.

Oh, the band used to be called At The Drive-In.  But they broke that one up,
it just didn’t feel right.  Refugees from that act formed the Mars Volta, to
further explore their musical sensibilities, to go on an adventure, to make
LESS COMMERCIAL MUSIC!

Just think about it, a band doing it for the MUSIC!!!

Oh, you might have been to the show.  You might have listened to the album. 
You might not get it.  And, that’s PERFECT!  You’re MISSING OUT!  You’re
listening for hits, you’re listening for hooks, you’re listening with MUSIC
BUSINESS ears, not FAN ears.  Fans want to be touched, fans want to be moved. 
And no band has reached its fans like this since…maybe the Grateful Dead.

Oh, don’t talk to me about Phish.  Don’t talk to me about the Dave Matthews
Band.  Those are frat rock bands.  They’re made for people wearing Timberlands,
for people with money, having one last hurrah on Daddy’s money before they’ve
got to enter the real world.  They don’t have that one key element of rock
and roll.  Darkness.

The darkness is palpable.  You don’t see accountants counting the money
backstage.  You don’t get the feeling this same venue will host Britney clones the
next night.  Rather, you feel like this is a one night affair of a traveling
circus willing to die on stage if that’s what it takes to get EVERYBODY off.

Not that the band is playing to the very last row.  It’s more like they’re
trying to light themselves on fire, musically, so the audience will stand there
in aural SHOCK!!

I mean the band is fronted by LATINOS!  Not gangbangers from the ghetto, nor
dermabrased poster boys ready for prime time TV.  Rather…you’re just not
sure if you should be AFRAID of them, or EMBRACE them.  Your race radar tells you
to be open-minded.  But really, you don’t know anybody like this.  Then
again, over in the next row, there are some people who look like this.  Should you
be afraid?  Or, does the music make everybody SAFE?

Yes, it’s a WOODSTOCK vibe.  It SHOULDN’T work, but the music both lifts
everybody up and keeps them calm.

Look around.  It’s like everybody’s on his own separate drug trip.  There’s
no production numbers, no sets, it’s SOLELY about the music.  It’s like the
Fillmore East.  Being in a place that the rest of society just doesn’t
UNDERSTAND, and you don’t CARE!

The goal of the Mars Volta isn’t to latch on to a track so catchy that Susie
Homemaker’s prepubescent daughter will want to attend for a hundred bucks and
buy a t-shirt.  The band isn’t coming to YOU, you’re coming to THEM!  They’re
not the sniveling snits begging you to love them.  Not even the aforementioned
Marshall Mathers appearing in million dollar, over the top videos, trying to
ENTERTAIN YOU!  If you’re not ready to be dazzled by the music, CHALLENGING
music, the Mars Volta wants NO PART of you!

Rule number one of rock and roll…don’t play anywhere you can’t sell out. 
It’s about the FUTURE!  This is what causes mania.  The fact that you CAN’T GET
A TICKET!  It’s the OPPOSITE of the movie business, where the blockbusters
open in 3,000 theatres and everybody can get in the first weekend, if not the
first night.  You’ve got to find out about the Mars Volta gig from the Web, or a
friend, you’ve got to be constantly on the HUNT!  Because as soon as tickets
are available, they’re gonna SELL OUT, you’re gonna be LEFT OUT!

THIS is how it was in the late sixties and early seventies.

And, the fucked up economists, the pricks at the labels who know nothing
about music and careers, only money, will tell you with such incredible DEMAND, 
you should CHARGE MORE!  But the only place where the Mars Volta charged over
twenty five bucks was in New York City, where they charged TWENTY SEVEN
DOLLARS!  Oh, believe me, the gigs would have sold out at twice the price, but by
charging so little, the band looks COOL!  The OPPOSITE of Gordon Sumner, the
money is secondary to the MUSIC!

The Mars Volta have played in excess of fifteen shows since the end of April.
 Only ONE didn’t sell out.  In Minneapolis.  It did over 80 percent.  EACH
AND EVERY OTHER SHOW SOLD OUT!!!  Usually 2,500 seats, sometimes 3,000. 
I mean that’s where music is supposed to be heard, in THEATRES! 
There’s no such thing as good sound in an arena.

The jerks at the label talk about artist development.  Which they take to
mean bringing an album from the starting line to double platinum.  That’s ALBUM
development, not ARTIST development.  THIS is artist development. 
Leaving an act alone, to grow, to bond with the audience. 
The great acts are built on the ROAD, not RADIO! Especially today.

Not that you can play the Mars Volta on the radio.  Hell, one of the tracks
on the new album is in excess of twenty minutes long.  But you can listen at
home, in the car, on your iPod, in a world that’s not littered with commercial
spots.

But maybe you know all the foregoing, despite the almost total news blackout,
you’re an insider.  But talk to anybody promoting these shows, anybody who
attended them.  They salivate, their eyes bug out, they look at you almost
speechless, unable to truly explain the experience.  All you gain from the
conversation is YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!  And in an era where there’s an HBO special, a live DVD, endless hype in the media, this is a sentiment we haven’t felt in over a decade.  And it’s this that the business is built on.  We aren’t
making movies that are static, the same every night, when we’re doing it right
we’re creating living, breathing things, that are different every night, that
you want to see again and again, THAT CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!
___________________________________________________

Fri 06/03/2005
The Mars Volta
Hearst Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA
Another Planet Entertainment
1 / 1
$212,500
8,500 / 8,500
100%
$25.00

Tue 05/31/2005
The Mars Volta
The Fillmore – Denver, CO
Clear Channel Entertainment
1 / 1
$90,000
3,600 / 3,600
100%
$25.00

Thu 05/19/2005
The Mars Volta
Roy Wilkins Auditorium – St. Paul, MN
Jam Productions
0 / 1
$65,451
2,699 / 3,289
82.1%
$24.25

Mon 05/16/2005 thru Tue 05/17/2005
The Mars Volta
Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL
Jam Productions
2 / 2
$120,000
5,000 / 5,000
100%
$24.00

Sun 05/15/2005
The Mars Volta
State Theatre – Detroit, MI
Clear Channel Entertainment
1 / 1
$69,500
2,900 / 2,900
100%
$25.00

Fri 05/13/2005
The Mars Volta
Kool Haus – Toronto,
House of Blues Canada
1 / 1
$43,780
2,203 / 2,203
100%
$19.79

Thu 05/12/2005
The Mars Volta
Metropolis – Montreal,
Gillett Entertainment Group/Greenland Productions
1 / 1
$44,827
2,193 / 2,193
100%
$20.44

Tue 05/10/2005
The Mars Volta
Avalon Ballroom – Boston, MA
Clear Channel Entertainment
1 / 1
$46,713
1,955 / 1,955
100%
$25.25

Thu 05/05/2005 thru Fri 05/06/2005
The Mars Volta
Roseland Ballroom – New York, NY
Clear Channel Entertainment
2 / 2
$172,908
6,675 / 6,675
100%
$27.00

Sun 05/01/2005 thru Tue 05/03/2005
The Mars Volta
Electric Factory – Philadelphia, PA
in-house
2 / 2
$117,500
4,500 / 4,500
100%
$25.00

Fri 04/29/2005
The Mars Volta, DJ Nobody
The Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA
Clear Channel Entertainment
1 / 1
$61,800
2,602 / 2,602
100%
$25.00

Tue 04/26/2005
The Mars Volta
Verizon Wireless Theater – Houston, TX
Clear Channel Entertainment
1 / 1
$72,550
2,967 / 2,967
100%
$23.50

Mon 04/25/2005
The Mars Volta
Austin Music Hall – Austin, TX
Clear Channel Entertainment
1 / 1
$70,925
3,000 / 3,000
100%
$25.00

Fri 04/22/2005
The Mars Volta
RIMAC Arena – San Diego, CA
House of Blues Concerts/Viejas Entertainment
1 / 1
$102,128
4,539 / 4,539
100%
$22.50