11

Mesmeric

Given that both The Mars Volta and At The Drive In were excellent bands live, when you're off to see a band with components from each of those it is pretty much a foregone conclusion that you're in for quite a show. And on the evidence of tonight's show at Camden's The Electric Ballroom you'd be right to have that view. Antemasque is the new brainchild of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala bringing their eclectic style of Rock in such a way only they can. With familiar face Dave Elitch on drums as well, whose performance tonight was absolutely phenomenal, the band sound supremely tight.

The self-titled debut album is all set for release in early November, so this tour pretty much served as an amped up preview. Considering that the whole set was compiled of new tracks, it was good to see such a positive crowd reaction. Live they're the kind of band which triggers one of those mesmerised audiences, literally as you look across the floor there are just wide eyes and heads slowly nodding, trance-like. Midway through the set there was a touching tribute to the recently passed away Ikey Owens, who played keyboard with The Mars Volta for many years, triggered an absolutely mind blowing extended jam. With it all being new tracks it is expected that at some point the crowd will begin to wane slightly, but this was the adrenalin shot which made all the difference to the show.

Perhaps the only criticism of the show is the fact that for a headlining set it was quite short. Of course, to be fair, they did only have one album's worth of material to use. Could they have thrown in the odd Mars Volta track? Possibly, but they may very well be consciously avoiding older material in order to make a new, and fresh, statement. As criticisms go though, commenting that a show could have been longer is a thinly disguised positive in reality.