It’s a curious kind of thing, the way watching a band play a live streaming show just kind of works itself into your day. I’d imagine that’s what it must be like for people who live in major urban centers when it comes to going out. I’ve never lived within half an hour of a venue, so rock and roll in a live context has always had an element of travel and a physical distance from the rest of my “life,” as it were. Music has rarely been so conveniently accessed for me. You just find a link — easy in this case, since Mars Red Sky emailed them out earlier in the day — and put it on and watch a band play live. I know it’s not necessarily new technology, though it’s a more widespread use for it, and if I’m wowed by it, that probably just means I’m old. Fine.

As it happened, Mars Red Sky‘s two Live From the Teleport streams — one first for Europe, then one for the Americas — fit neatly into my schedule. The Europe one happened during my kid’s naptime and the second, at 8PM local time, started just as the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation my wife and I were watching was ending. I put on the Euro stream and found it opened by a couple of vintage commercials, which is fitting to the visual aesthetic the band have harnessed in collaboration with director Seb Antoine, whose done videos and visuals for them going back some number of years and was involved in the direction here. Based in Bordeaux, where these shows took place, Mars Red Sky have always to some degree been conscious of the visual aspects of their presentation. Their artwork suits their records, their videos are creative, and these commercials were a fun way to lead into (and out of) the performance itself. The US stream had ones for Oldsmobile and Tang. They both had old video games.

Ostensibly supporting last year’s The Task Eternal (review here), the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras, bassist/backing vocalist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau seemed comfortable on the stage and looked to have no trouble locking into a performance-mode despite the lack of a physical crowd in front of them. The trio were playing two distinct sets with two different setlists, each about an hour long, and they opened the European set with a new riff from a song currently in the works. After the US show, they mentioned it might end up as an EP, which would be in character for the band between full-lengths, but either way it was appreciated to get a preview of where they’re headed as they continue down their path of progressive heavy psychedelic rock.

I tried to read some intention behind their choices of songs, but they had taken requests on social media and of course I chimed in, campaigning for “Way to Rome” from their 2011 self-titled debut (review here), “Friendly Fire” from 2016’s third album, Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) (review here), both of which were aired in the Americas stream, and several others. I don’t know if they were going for two distinct vibes from one set to the other, tailoring to region, or just taking requests — the fact is that Mars Red Sky have enough of a catalog between LPs and EPs that it’s not a challenge for them to fill about two hours of stage time. And they did so without repeating a song between one set and the other. Here are the setlists:

EU:
New Riff (Slow)
Under the Hood
Collector
Crazy Hearth
Mindreader
Shot in Providence
Hovering Satellites
Up the Stairs

AM:
Reacts
Alien Grounds/Apex III
Friendly Fire w/ guest vocalist
Way to Rome
Strong Reflection
Hollow King
The Light Beyond

Finishing the first set with “Up the Stairs” worked better than I thought it would, and “Way to Rome” into “Strong Reflection” in the second set just about made my night, particularly with a bit of chugging flourish they added to the latter. For “Friendly Fire” they brought out a guest singer whose name was revealed in the live Q&A afterwards as Helen Ferguson, vocalist and bandmate of Pras‘ in Queen of the Meadow. In any case, she added another layer of melodic sweetness to Pras‘ own voice and as it was something they’d never done before, it seemed a particularly brave move to do so as a part of this stream. “Mindreader” was of course a heavy riff delight, and “Shot in Providence,” the latest single “Crazy Hearth,” “Reacts and “Hollow King” — the latter three all from The Task Eternal — were more than welcome. Seeing them play the most recent stuff was a big part of why I wanted to watch, since as they’ve grown more progressive in the construction of their songs, invariably their live renditions have had to follow suit. As much as their first record continues to hold a special place in my heart, they’ve only become a richer band with time.

There were audio problems after the first set, but the band found a marker board and wrote a thank you message on it, while also playing with a Simon — it had been a minute since I saw one. They came back live after the second set and in that Q&A revealed that the Americas stream had been taped. Not actually unreasonable, since it would’ve started at 2AM on French time, but it did change things. Was it still a live event. Are these streams that have started in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic ever? How is a live performance, taped live and aired as a live stream not live? Does it make a difference?

I don’t know. There isn’t really a ‘live culture’ around streaming yet to properly gauge an audience impression. From what I saw in the YouTube chat, people were grateful to the band for making the effort — and with professional sound and lights, visuals behind them, the commercials, and at least four cameras operating, it was an effort — and frankly, I was too.

The after-show session lasted about 10 minutes, which given that that was live and it was three on the morning for them, was plenty. Pras leaned forward on the couch, Kinast leaned back and snuggled his cat. Only Gazeau, who apparently doesn’t live in Bordeaux, didn’t take part; they disguised one of the camera operators and the reveal was pretty funny. I submitted the question as to how doing these sets compared to the experience of playing live shows, and Pras noted that with the sound, lighting and video crews, it wasn’t like the space was totally empty, and that the drones and psychedelic noisemaking they did between songs — more prevalent in the second set than the first — was in part to ease the awkward silence where audience response would otherwise be. It was a prudent and effective move, and emblematic of the attention to detail Mars Red Sky bring to just about everything they do.

My understanding is downloads of the videos of these sets will be available to those who paid for them as part of their tickets, but it seems to me next time Bandcamp has a no-fee day, the band have audio well worth issuing as a special release. I don’t know that will happen, of course, but if they wanted to make it so, they’d certainly have a fan-piece to mark the occasion.

A shifting definition of normality makes me less inclined to speculate as to what live music will look like on the other side of this current pandemic, in Europe, North and South America, or anywhere else. As it stands, however, seeing a group like Mars Red Sky playing their songs, even in the setting of being on my couch after a long day and just before going to bed, is more than welcome. It’s not only a reminder of what’s missing from these incredibly and increasingly strange days, but a new form of creative expression taking shape while we watch. That in itself is a reason to be thankful.

Mars Red Sky, The Task Eternal (2019)

Mars Red Sky on Thee Facebooks

Mars Red Sky website

Listenable Records website

Listenable Records on Thee Facebooks