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	BOOMBASTIC SYSTEM OF A DOWN AND THE MARS VOLTA

The intestinal fortitude of thousands of metalheads, punks, and parents was put to the test Saturday night when two of the more challenging mainstream rock bands around, the Mars Volta and System of a Down, hit Worcester’s DCU Center. The Mars Volta — guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala, flanked by four multi-instrumentalists and backed by a solid two-man rhythm section — emerged to some symphonic bombast that was blasted over the PA and proceeded to play an hour-long set that was no less bombastic. Lofty peaks and low valleys marked their sprawling neo-prog odyssey, Cedric hitting Robert Plant high notes and careering around the stage like Mick Jagger while the band vamped on long instrumental passages. The four utility men played a myriad of percussion instruments, synths, and wind instruments; all intricacies, unfortunately, were washed away by the DCU’s cavernous acoustics.

With their more straightforward four-piece arrangements, System of a Down fared better. Guitarist/singer Daron Malakian — a silhouette behind a black curtain — opened their set with "Soldier Side," the elegiac intro to their latest, Mezmerize (Columbia). Then the curtain dropped and the band — Malakian, singer Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian, and drummer John Dolmayan — hurled themselves into the next track, the vicious and dancy "B.Y.O.B." They hardly paused for breath over the next hour and a half, playing nearly 30 songs culled from all their albums, including the forthcoming Hypnotize, which was recorded during the same sessions as Mezmerize. The latest albums have Malakian singing more, and it was clear at the DCU that he’s stepping forward as the band’s leader. They closed with their first single, "Sugar," and the crowd held its collective breath for more, but System had packed so much idiosyncratic intensity into the 90 minutes that an encore would’ve been superfluous.