The Chelsea Chamber

My Last Night in Markham

I am leaving tommorrow (or rather today, it is morning now) for Ottawa.

But that is not what I am going to speak of this evening. Tonight I will be telling the tale of my last night in town, which I spent at a concert. The Mars Volta and System of a Down performed at the Air Canada Centre and I was there (in addition to my two brothers and Dave and a few other people I knew).

At approximately 7:20 the opening band came on. They were enthusiastic. They were also a terrible waste of biological material, to be frank. No further mention shall be made of this band in my account.

The Mars Volta was excellent. If System of a Down had not come to the stage at all and The Mars Volta's 45 minute performance had been the whole show, I still would have considered the night worth the cost of the ticket. They played wonderfully, then they got warmed up and played fantastically. The group was, this evening, comprised of eight guys. I was impressed when one of the auxilliary percussionists pulled out a tenor sax and began wailing on it... I was more impressed when he began playing a bass clarinet... and I was thrilled to stupification when he pulled out a flute and gave a performance that was almost (almost!) worthy of Jethro Tull. Blessedly extravagant in attire and energetic in manner, The Mars Volta played many a quality song. Three Cheers for The Mars Volta: Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!

Now here I feel a touch guilty: System of a Down was the headliner band and I'm afraid I won't have as much to say about them as I did for The Mars Volta... though in my defense The Mars Volta was the reason I went at all. System of a Down was very tight- they were rhythmically complex and upbeat. If you like System of a Down you will love them live, because they perform their songs with gusto and brash enthusiasm. Harmony work: excellent. Tempo changes: flawless. My biggest problem with System of a Down was that they just carried on too long. I would have been happier with a set that was, say, at least 30 minutes shorter. All the pounding just gets monotonous... and things that are an aggressive assault on your auditory and visual perception should never be taken in such an excess as to make it monotonous.

All in all, the evening was worth both the money and the marginal hearing loss. Thanks for coming with me, Dave. I had a blast.

posted by Unknown @ 2:15 AM