The Mars Volta/Kianí Medina @ Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY 11/9/25
Bill: The Mars Volta/Kianí Medina/Feliz Y Dada
Venue: Brooklyn Paramount, 385 Flatbush Ave. Ext., Brooklyn, NY
Date: 11/9/25
Door: $86 (won tickets on DoNYC)
9:30 The Mars Volta
Active: 2001(El Paso, TX)
Latest Release: Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacío (Clouds Hill Records, 2025)
Biggest Release: De-Loused in the Comatorium (Universal, 2003)
First Release: Tremulant EP (Gold Standard Laboratories, 2002)
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8:30 Kianí Medina
Active: 2007 (Puerto Rico)
Latest Release: "Muy lejos del encanto" (Pomero, 2025)
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Missed: Feliz Y Dada
Mars Volta had long been a bucket list band to check out. I've only really heard their 2005 album Francis The Mute, so I had no idea what they've been doing all these 20 years since. DoNYC papered this show as a bonus free show, so free was a motivator to finally check them out.
I had a friend to meet up, so we caught up across the street at the bar at Junior's across the street. The same bartender that was working when we met there for The Church last year under similar circumstances. They had on their website that they closed at 10pm Sunday but the bartender let me know this was not the case when the Paramount had a show. They stay open until Midnight when that happens. Mental note!
So we went in around 8:15 and the first act was done. Kianí Medina had a small stage duo with a pro guitarist. She had an EP produced by Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez last year entitled Sed. She's got a couple decades of performing in and comes from a musical heritage (her father was a vocalist for Afro-Caribbean Jazz group Batacumbele and a singer for Eddie Palmieri). The openers had a connected purpose for this tour.
I have paid so little attention to Mars Volta outside of that one record that when the band went on I thought it was one of the openers or perhaps a side project of the singer. After the fact, I realized the band played only their new album. Since I went into the show without a ton of preconceived notions, I was open to seeing whatever they did on their own merits. They had no "hits" to me, although I put a little time into the one I bought when I had to write about it. When frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala voiced surprise that the audience was there, I was confused, wondering if their popularity somehow diminished. I'm listening to a stream of Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacío (translation: Dirty Profit: The Eyes of The Void) and I like it playing more than watching it live and hearing the material for the first time.
I guess this is something where knowing what you are getting into and familiarizing oneself with the material might help with the enjoyment of the performance. Since I did didn't have great nostalgia for the band, I might be better served by a retrospective type of show (or a "different kind of show next year" as promised at the end). Seeing this band on this tour the first time is a bit like jumping on the deep end with a life jacket but no prior swimming lessons and finding an elevated sandbank in the water. It's a little uncomfortable but you didn't drown. What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger. Now you gonna figure out how to get back to shore.
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