The Mars Volta & Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Arena at Gwinnett, Atlanta, 10.26.06

We are everywhere. From my faithful leige, Frat:

THE MARS VOLTA
Believe it or not, the crowd was amped for them. By the end of the set I would say there might have been more than half the arena on their feet...and Cedric definitely fed off of it. The format was about the same...but the jams were just as unpredictable as before...and it was very interesting to see how much they would stick to a formula from night to night. They really don't...which is amazing when you think about it. They are just all really talented guys who get inside of the moment and react off of it...musically that is pretty intense. Whats more, is that they choose to do it in front of thousands of people. Anyway...I can verify that what we heard on Saturday (i.e. the 45 minute jam w/ hints of "Day of the Baphomets" wasn't really "Day of the Baphomets"...cause they played the same structure to the 45 minute jam. However, right before they played "Viscera Eyes" Cedric said..."this is our last song." But when they were done with "Viscera Eyes" so many people were going ballistic that they stood there for a minute...pondering if they should leave the stage...and then Omar looked around (as if to tell them what song to go with) and they busted into a sick ass (probably 20 minute) version of "Day of the Baphomets"....but all the of key components were there...only stuff different were a couple percussion solos and of course omar blazing through about 5 minutes of solo insanity. Anyway...just know that THE MARS VOLTA is now a ZERO TOLERANCE event if your thinking of skipping out on their upcoming headlining show. Their headlining dates are sure to be mind blowing.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
You know I could type out about 5 pages of kick ass shit that I saw with the PEPS...cause you know I'm pretty overboard when it comes to John [Frusciante]. So for the sake of brevity, I will just give you the setlist that I wrote down as we went. I will say this though:

The highlights of the show were as follows:

A.) when Anthony said "we would like to play a Ramones song for you" and they busted into "Havana Affair."

B.) Then after the set Anthony said "we are all very, very lucky people to have been alive during the time of the Ramones." Even more beast than that though was the number one highlight of the show...

C.) [T]he encore starts with Chad coming out to do his drum medley...he pumps the crowd up (does the same kind of thing you hear on the [Live at] Hyde Park CDs). [He] plays a couple [of] signature John Bonham/Zeppelin songs and then he busts into U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday." After the first few measures...all of a sudden you hear the guitar harmony come through the stadium (even Chad looks around to see what the fuck is going on). John runs out to the mic and starts singing the song. Chad's got a huge ass smile on his face, obviously just as surprised as the rest of us that John would just uncontrollably bust into "Sunday, Bloody Sunday." Ok, ok. Like I said I could go on...

Setlist
Intro
"Cant Stop"
"Dani California"
"Scar Tissue"
Jam w/ Marcel Rodriguez (Omar's little brother)
"Charlie"
"Havana Affair"
"Readymade"
"Blood Sugar Sex Magic"
Jam (Flea)
"Throw Away Your Television"
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (John solo)
"Snow ((Hey Oh))"
"Me and My Friends"
"C'mon Girl"
Jam (Chad)
"Right On Time"
Jam (Flea)
"Don't Forget Me"
"Tell Me Baby"
Jam (Flea & John)
"Californication"
"By the Way"

Encore
Drum Medley (Chad)
"Sunday, Bloody Sunday" (Chad and John)
"I Could Have Lied"
"98 Olds" (whatever that little interlude was...they did it again)
"Give it Away"
Jam (chord prog and rhythm was "She Turns to Me" but Anthony had already left, so they just jammed inside the song with no lyrics)
Jam (John did some Hendrix/blues jamming over a 12 bar that chad and flea laid down) (approx 5 minutes of insanity)
Jam out (Chad, John, Flea)

Overall...a fucking orgasmic experience.

-Frat