Well, i'm a little biased coz they're pretty much my favourite band anyway, but they're definitely my favourite LIVE band.
They do not fuck around. No support act, ever. They come out on time, and they usually play a 2.5 - 3 hour set. No encore. All business, but there is PASSION on that stage like nothing you've seen.
I don't know if this what they always do, but I saw them on the frances tour and the amputechture tour, and they fucked with their song structures A LOT. So they'd play a song, but then fade out into weird ambient improvisation for like 10 full minutes and you'd forget what song they're playing, and then the chorus kicks back in and you go "oh yeah, this song!".
I'm not exaggerating, the first time I saw them, they played a 45 minute version of Roulette Dares (they only played 7 songs that night, and the show went for just short of 3 hours!). The important thing to point out is that it's never boring when they start improvising, it really creates mood and atmosphere and when they kick back into the song, you wish the interlude had been on the album.
I've had the pleasure of seeing Jon Theodore as drummer the first time I saw them, and with Thomas Pridgen the second time, and let me tell you that either way, the drum kit is where you look at a volta concert. Absolutely amazing to watch either of those two guys, it's inhuman. I don't know how they have the stamina. If I HAD to pick, I'd see Pridgen is even more exciting to watch than Theodore, and that is really saying something.
Cedric, as i'm sure you know, is all manic energy. Omar just kinda stands there most of the time, but the when the beat kicks back in from a long ambient period, man does he ever rock out!
They also have a guy who plays on stage as part of the band, but he just has a big desk full of knobs and buttons and he continually fucks with the effects of what the band is doing, so they re-create live all the weird effects of their albums.
Alright well, i could go on forever, point is, go see them if you ever get a chance.
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