The Mars Volta, Teri Gender Bender

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Clemente Ruiz

The duo The Mars Volta.

The Mars Volta

By our calculations, it’s been more than two decades since The Mars Volta — a complex post-hardcore progressive-rock band with a penchant for concept albums, and one that’s influenced everybody from Mastodon to Lizzo — made a stop in Madison. A lot has happened since then: multiple lineup changes, a seven-year breakup, and two post-breakup albums since 2022. Now, mainstays Cedric Bixler-Zavala on vocals and Omar Rodríguez-López on guitar are mounting a short five-date tour leading up to The Mars Volta’s appearance at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Teri Gender Bender opens.

$54.50.

media release: The Mars Volta have announced an upcoming string of live dates taking place this June with support from special guest Teri Gender Bender.

The Mars Volta continue to support their most recent albums ‘The Mars Volta’ and ‘Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazón’. The dates announced today are cities the band have yet to perform in since their return to performing together.

The upcoming film ‘Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird’ was recently announced to have its North American premiere at the upcoming SXSW Festival. The film shows the iconic duo’s journey from the hardcore scene in El Paso, Texas, to rock and roll acclaim; from growing up as minorities to their rise to success; from struggles with loss, and addiction to their blazing comeback. A depiction of love, death, and inspiration — with a soundtrack that has defined a generation. It was directed by Nicolas Jack Davies and produced by Clouds Hill Films in Association with Pulse Films.

Formed by guitarist/composer Omar Rodríguez-López and singer/lyricist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, The Mars Volta rose from the ashes of El Paso punk-rock firebrands At The Drive-In in 2001. On a mission to “honor our roots and honor our dead”, The Mars Volta made music that fused the Latin sounds Rodríguez-López was raised on with the punk and underground noise he and Bixler-Zavala had immersed themselves in for years, and the futuristic visions they were tapping into. The albums that followed were one-of-a-kind masterpieces, their songs of breath-taking complexity also possessing powerful emotional immediacy. After the group fell silent, a legion of devotees kept up an insistent drum-beat for their return.