Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group w/ Zechs Marquise - Asheville - 03/26/2011

i went to asheville, nc last night to see the omar-rodriguez-lopez group and zechs marquise at the orange peel. my cousin adam lives in hickory, nc, so i drove up to his house to pick him up, then we headed on to asheville. we got to the venue about 20 minutes before the doors opened, and it was raining and cold. when i left charleston earlier that day, it was in the 70's so i didn't even bring a jacket or anything. they opened up the doors right on time, though, and we went straight in to grab a sweet spot in front of the stage. while adam held our spot, i checked out the merch table and picked up a sweet purple ORL t-shirt and the Omar/Lydia Lunch vinyl album (one i have been coveting for a while on vinyl, and out of stock on his website - score!).

once the show started, zechs marquise came out and completely blew me away. I have never seen these guys play together before, and they made it worth every dollar spent to get to this show. total energy and killer grooves. i will definitely see these guys again. after the show, i bought their album on vinyl as well ('our delicate stranded nightmare'), and three of the members were gracious enough to autograph it for me and chat for a moment after the show. swell guys.

photo courtesy of myself!

The omar rodriguez-lopez group came out shortly after zechs marquise finished their set. as soon as i saw cedric walk out with the guys, i turned into an excited 12 year old girl. i saw a video from SXSW that ORL Productions posted on youtube where cedric came out and sang with them, but i never thought in a million years he would be touring with them. it made the show just a tad bit more exciting for me, since all 5 members on stage are current members in the mars volta!!!

photo courtesy of myself!

they proceeded with a set of all new music (at least i have never heard any of it before) with cedric singing lead vocals the entire set. lots of energy and even some between-song banter, which i have never experienced with the mars volta before. extremely exciting times. i hope to see these excellent tunes getting an official release soon. i was able to capture some pretty sweet video of most of three songs from the performance. sound quality is decent, but not great, but it is better than nothing. check it out!!!

amazing...