For all those superstitious folk, 11/11 was a date that brought a unique range of music to History as The Mars Volta brings their North American Fall tour that features this single Canadian date in Toronto. Starting back on October 25 in Dallas, TX, this lone venture to the true North is just ahead of the halfway mark while the rest of the run works towards finishing back in US soil on November 29 in San Diego, CA. Supported by the mysterious electronic beat machine that is Feliz Y Dada and the battle-tested vocal technique of Kianí Medina, the tour puts together a trifecta of Puerto Rican power as proudly presented by the band’s own Omar Rodríguez-López with the two openers finding a home for their latest work in his new label, Rodríguez-López Productions. With the country’s flag on stage the entire night, it’s not hard to see that this was also a celebration of creative expression from Puerto Rico and the downtown crowd was up for it.
Based on past shows on the tour, the setlist looked to feature the exact track order of The Mars Volta’s newest body of work Lucro sucio; Los ojos del vacio that they released back in April. Talking with some fans, there were mixed feelings about this with some wanting old songs sprinkled into the set while other fans are excited to see the latest from the group in-person from start to finish. Eva Gardner, the band’s original bassist spanning all the way back to 2001 also joined the tour which made the former group also hopeful that pre-2025 tracks would make it to the set. Either way, maybe this is TVM’s reminder that though they appreciate the love for past work from their fans, they’re more than their greatest hits. And with the new age of music introduced by streaming services providing easy yet overwhelming access to entire catalogues as well as making its delivery and marketing instantaneous to subscribers, it’s refreshing to see musicians also challenge their audience to view albums as single bodies of work once again, instead of being caught up in what now feels like a singles-driven industry and feeding into the short attention spans of scrolling through tracks before the song even finishes. While most bands wait for a reunion tour years later to celebrate the greatness of an album front-to-back, The Mars Volta flips the script and exposes Lucro sucio to Toronto as a single experience to be understood in one sitting.
Throughout the whole set, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala‘s voice is still unwavering as ever, leading the band through the emotional roller coaster ride that is their latest album. Joining forces with Omar, it’s no question they form one of the most formidable creative duos in music and as the heart and soul of The Mars Volta, the new album definitely sounds like their fingerprints are all over it. One of the few bands that continues to reinvent new layers of themselves without losing their core identity, Lucro sucio feels like a culmination of everything the illusive band has done thus far. This new body of work welcomes a complex blend of the band’s early experimental prog tones combined with jazz fueled chaos and acoustic latin-pop influences. Most importantly though, a type of restraint to be able to tame all of these distinct sounds feels like the secret sauce that makes the project something to believe in.
More than ever, it feels like tracks can peak at very busy moments in that signature TVM style (like in the synth-packed Reina tormenta or prog jazzy Enlazan las tinieblas) but also included a contrast into calmer and relaxing lows (like in the ballad-y The Iron Rose and the opener Fin with the smooth lounge stylings of Maullidos and Morgana). Especially with Omar and Cedric’s cultural backgrounds, the reoccurring Latin influence in the band’s music appears across this entire album not only in the track names throughout but even in the musical style especially in Voice in My Knives and Poseedora de mi sombra that feel like two sides of the same coin. It wasn’t just because there were rarely any breaks in the set too, but the tracks just seemed to flow endlessly into itself and into each other in way that felt ever-changing. It had all of the unpredictability you would expect especially at the most mature stage in the band’s lifetime.
Then like a concluding statement in an essay, The Mars Volta caps their set off like they did in Lucro sucio with the titular track that capitalizes on the melodic journey that spans the album. By this point, the playground of musical elements used have a weird sense of familiarity that wasn’t there at the start of the set. The six minute track carried the weight of being the last song on the album and in the set by the taking Toronto on a cosmic jazz adventure fueled by more synths and vocal fx that then caps off with incredible wailing saxophones and an extra bridge under a spotlight. If the Mars Volta’s goal was to warp the audience into a hypnotic space opera to be the ending to this story, then they definitely succeeded which also seemed like a pleasure for the fans. After a few goodbye waves from Omar, Cedric then kept the niceties short and sweet expressing his appreciation for the crowd especially because of Toronto’s clear support of the openers as he made sure to point out right before following the rest of the band off stage. This ending felt abrupt but maybe after experiencing something as specific as Lucro sucio, this was the much needed quick rip off of the bandaid so Toronto can start the post-show processing of the extraordinary show that was collectively witnessed as soon as possible.
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