Photo Gallery: The Mars Volta at Aragon Ballroom • Chicago

Brassneck | October 9, 2022

The Mars Volta
Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, IL
October 8, 2022

Recap and photos by Curt Baran

The duo of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala have been as prolific as they have been restless during the course of their now three-decades-long creative relationship. They make up the nexus and epicenter of The Mars Volta’s creativity. Back in 2001, their then-band At The Drive-In was poised for a commercial breakthrough. It was then they chose to blow it all up to pursue their then-side project, The Mars Volta, with only a mere EP of output to its name at the time. Their new creative vehicle would soon prove to be the biggest commercial success of their careers. Six albums later, the band would, like its predecessor, be placed in the mothballs. So when it was rumored that a new album had been secretly recorded back in 2019, anticipation ran high that a reactivation was imminent. The band officially announced their self-titled seventh album and a tour back in June of this year. After a decade-long hiatus from the road, the band arrived at Aragon Ballroom and delivered a career-spanning set of prog-punk for a sold-out, rabid audience who assumed this opportunity would never present itself again. If fact, those in attendance seemed intent on devouring every moment because, if the past is prologue with this band, they may once again vanish as quickly as they reappeared.