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.<\/p>\n
By every standard of today’s music business the Mars Volta is a failure.\u00c2\u00a0
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.\u00c2\u00a0 But, the Mars Volta is THE most happening band in America today.<\/p>\n
It’s credibility.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s culture.<\/p>\n
Oh, the band used to be called At The Drive-In.\u00c2\u00a0 But they broke that one up,
it just didn’t feel right.\u00c2\u00a0 Refugees from that act formed the Mars Volta, to
further explore their musical sensibilities, to go on an adventure, to make
LESS COMMERCIAL MUSIC!<\/p>\n
Just think about it, a band doing it for the MUSIC!!!<\/p>\n
Oh, you might have been to the show.\u00c2\u00a0 You might have listened to the album.\u00c2\u00a0
You might not get it.\u00c2\u00a0 And, that’s PERFECT!\u00c2\u00a0 You’re MISSING OUT!\u00c2\u00a0 You’re
listening for hits, you’re listening for hooks, you’re listening with MUSIC
BUSINESS ears, not FAN ears.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans want to be touched, fans want to be moved.\u00c2\u00a0
And no band has reached its fans like this since…maybe the Grateful Dead.<\/p>\n
Oh, don’t talk to me about Phish.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t talk to me about the Dave Matthews
Band.\u00c2\u00a0 Those are frat rock bands.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t have that one key element of rock
and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 Darkness.<\/p>\n
The darkness is palpable.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t see accountants counting the money
backstage.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t get the feeling this same venue will host Britney clones the
next night.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Not that the band is playing to the very last row.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more like they’re
trying to light themselves on fire, musically, so the audience will stand there
in aural SHOCK!!<\/p>\n
I mean the band is fronted by LATINOS!\u00c2\u00a0 Not gangbangers from the ghetto, nor
dermabrased poster boys ready for prime time TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather…you’re just not
sure if you should be AFRAID of them, or EMBRACE them.\u00c2\u00a0 Your race radar tells you
to be open-minded.\u00c2\u00a0 But really, you don’t know anybody like this.\u00c2\u00a0 Then
again, over in the next row, there are some people who look like this.\u00c2\u00a0 Should you
be afraid?\u00c2\u00a0 Or, does the music make everybody SAFE?<\/p>\n
Yes, it’s a WOODSTOCK vibe.\u00c2\u00a0 It SHOULDN’T work, but the music both lifts
everybody up and keeps them calm.<\/p>\n
Look around.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like everybody’s on his own separate drug trip.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s
no production numbers, no sets, it’s SOLELY about the music.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like the
Fillmore East.\u00c2\u00a0 Being in a place that the rest of society just doesn’t
UNDERSTAND, and you don’t CARE!<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 The band isn’t coming to YOU, you’re coming to THEM!\u00c2\u00a0 They’re
not the sniveling snits begging you to love them.\u00c2\u00a0 Not even the aforementioned
Marshall Mathers appearing in million dollar, over the top videos, trying to
ENTERTAIN YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re not ready to be dazzled by the music, CHALLENGING
music, the Mars Volta wants NO PART of you!<\/p>\n
Rule number one of rock and roll…don’t play anywhere you can’t sell out.\u00c2\u00a0
It’s about the FUTURE!\u00c2\u00a0 This is what causes mania.\u00c2\u00a0 The fact that you CAN’T GET
A TICKET!\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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!\u00c2\u00a0 Because as soon as tickets
are available, they’re gonna SELL OUT, you’re gonna be LEFT OUT!<\/p>\n
THIS is how it was in the late sixties and early seventies.<\/p>\n
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,\u00c2\u00a0
you should CHARGE MORE!\u00c2\u00a0 But the only place where the Mars Volta charged over
twenty five bucks was in New York City, where they charged TWENTY SEVEN
DOLLARS!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, believe me, the gigs would have sold out at twice the price, but by
charging so little, the band looks COOL!\u00c2\u00a0 The OPPOSITE of Gordon Sumner, the
money is secondary to the MUSIC!<\/p>\n
The Mars Volta have played in excess of fifteen shows since the end of April.
\u00c2\u00a0Only ONE didn’t sell out.\u00c2\u00a0 In Minneapolis.\u00c2\u00a0 It did over 80 percent.\u00c2\u00a0 EACH
AND EVERY OTHER SHOW SOLD OUT!!!\u00c2\u00a0 Usually 2,500 seats, sometimes 3,000.\u00c2\u00a0
I mean that’s where music is supposed to be heard, in THEATRES!\u00c2\u00a0
There’s no such thing as good sound in an arena.<\/p>\n
The jerks at the label talk about artist development.\u00c2\u00a0 Which they take to
mean bringing an album from the starting line to double platinum.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s ALBUM
development, not ARTIST development.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is artist development.\u00c2\u00a0
Leaving an act alone, to grow, to bond with the audience.\u00c2\u00a0
The great acts are built on the ROAD, not RADIO! Especially today.<\/p>\n
Not that you can play the Mars Volta on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, one of the tracks
on the new album is in excess of twenty minutes long.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can listen at
home, in the car, on your iPod, in a world that’s not littered with commercial
spots.<\/p>\n
But maybe you know all the foregoing, despite the almost total news blackout,
you’re an insider.\u00c2\u00a0 But talk to anybody promoting these shows, anybody who
attended them.\u00c2\u00a0 They salivate, their eyes bug out, they look at you almost
speechless, unable to truly explain the experience.\u00c2\u00a0 All you gain from the
conversation is YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s this that the business is built on.\u00c2\u00a0 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!!!
___________________________________________________<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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 <\/p>\n
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