Mars Volta / Perfect Circle

UIC Pavillon in Chicago, April 2004

How could you go wrong with two of the best progressive rock bands in the country on the same bill? You can’t, although Mars Volta had half the audience enthralled and the other half perplexed. MV generated cult-status response to its initial release, a collection of complex melodies that shift through time signature and key changes faster than anyone since early Genesis. The CD is a concept album with all the songs related to the death of a friend. In concert, however, the six virtuoso musicians spent their hour on stage performing an extended jam of one song, and then a jam/medley of another three songs. It reminded me of early Led Zeppelin and Allman Brothers shows, where a jam would wind its way through blues, rock and jazz for a half hour. The audience was divided between love and indifference. I fell into the former category, but could easily understand why this generation might be less tolerant of a free-form performance.

Perfect Circle followed with a dynamic, tight set covering most of their 2 releases. Perfect Circle seems to be Tool lead-singer Maynard Keene’s pet project. He treats the performance almost like a bar band in comparison to Tool shows. While he is ethereal and aloof with Tool, he is joking between songs (sample Q: What has 9 arms and sucks? A: Def Leppard.) It included a guest performance by ex-Smashing Pumpkins James Iha on rhythm guitar, who is supporting this entire tour. Maynard is a perfectionist and a professional - the show started promptly, the lighting for Perfect Circle was a simple yet extremely effective mix of gels and spots that illuminated the audience more than the stage, and the sound was tweaked during the first song to a sparkling clarity that let the complexity of the music be appreciated in even a cavernous hall. The two acts really showed the breadth of contemporary music, with Mars Volta pushing limits through extended attention-span threatening interplay and Perfect Circle combining grace and power in a totally satisfying performance. If either of these bands come around to you, give a listen.

- Reviewed by Dennis Collins

American Music Club
Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, April 2004
San Francisco-based AMC was groomed to become the next big thing in the early 1990s, but never developed more than a cult following. That’s a shame, because this is an exceptional band with an original lyricist and vocalist in Mark Eitzel. His alcoholism probably doomed the band and his career, but I was lucky enough to catch lightning in a bottle one cold evening in April when the band re-formed and played a three-city tour that stopped in Chicago. The Old Town School of Folk Music is a wonderful venue to hear a band like AMC and the band was in top form this evening, performing a blistering rendition of songs from their entire catalog. As Eitzel swallowed more and more alcohol that evening, things started to spin out of control, but that only made the performance more special. In the song, “Sick of Food,” Eitzel sings, “Sometimes I wake up and I still haven’t any gravity,” and I believe he’s telling the truth. Only a 100 or so diehards witnessed this show, but if AMC ever catches on, thousands will probably brag that they were there.
- Reviewed by Mike Nikolich