The Mars Volta covered The Sonics‘ classic garage rocker, “Strychnine” at Latitude festival tonight (July 19).
The prog-rockers closed the Uncut Arena with a heavily-improvised two hour set incorporating material from their last two studio albums plus a 5-minute version of The Sonics’ track.
The nine-strong band also played “Viscera Eyes”, from their third album Amputechture, and “Wax Simulacra”.
Frontman, Cedric Bixler-Zavala paused briefly to warn the audience against crowd-surfing:
“I have a message from all the people in the front row to all of the people in the back who are thinking of travelling over their heads… They don’t want your ass messing up their hair.”
“Maybe some bands like that, but I just saw a 300 lb man trample these girls in the front and that’s some stupid shit. Seriously, lose some weight. Na, I’m only kidding. I like fatboys. I used to be one,” he added.
During the set Bixler-Zavala jumped around the stage, swinging his custom-made cream microphone around and mounting the stack of vintage amplifiers to dance.
The band closed with “Aberinkula”, the opening track from their latest album Bedlam In Goliath.
For more live news and all the essential coverage of Latitude festival you can check out the Latitude Blog.