The Mars Volta did something Tuesday (2/25) in Portland, Oregon, that is either extremely rare or completely unprecedented.

While being one of the support acts for the Deftones at the Moda Center, (formerly known as The Rose Garden), home of the Trail Blazers, the Texas rockers performed what is rumored to be their forthcoming new album in its entirety.

Every song - of which there were 18 - was a live debut.

Now, bands have debuted entire albums to fans in the past. In 1999, Korn live debuted Issues at The Apollo of all places.

But it was a special show and they were the headliners. Artists will downsize their venue all the time to do a novel promotion like playing their unheard music from back to front in a cozy club. Gwen Stefani slummed it in a 500 capacity Brooklyn club in November for Bouquet.

To do it as an opening act, to an enormous crowd in an NBA basketball arena?

Where every song is a live debut; zero had been performed before? So many new songs and zero others? This might be a first.

Usually if a band did this they'd play a few of their hits at the end so as not to disappoint fans.

But The Volta had some trail blazing to do themselves and pleased much of their audience who came early to watch the dynamic set.

The Mars Volta opened with "Fin," which is typically a title you'd see for a song that ends an album, not one that begins a show.

How interesting would it be if Tuesday the band played the entire album in reverse order of how it will be sequenced when it arrives?

Some may be quick to compare what happened this week with what the Volta did in Ventura, California in 2009 as they kicked off their 53-date Octahedron Tour.

The first night of the tour their 13-song set was comprised of 5 tunes from the new album, which is honorable, but a few of the other songs from Octahedron had already been live debuted, and they also played older hits from four other LPs.

Not the same. At all.

Were there some sad fans? Of course. When you get 20,000 people together you can't expect to please them all.

What irked a few was the seemingly newer, softer, jazzier, less maniacal direction the duo are venturing into as they mature.

Apparently some of the critical fans on social yearned for the more aggressive nu metal attack of yore.

Didn't these fans see the writing on the wall when in 2023 The Mars Volta put out the acoustic Qué Dios Te Maldiga Mí Corazón which were the same songs from their self titled 2022 offering except with a chill pill to accent the deep melodies and instrumentation?

"I realized I could finally make a record like this now, I just had to make it happen," co-singer Omar Rodríguez-Lopez said in '23.

"That was the experiment. And it was super fun. I feel like the Mars Volta is finally beginning — that's why the last album was self-titled, because we've finally stripped everything away and arrived at what the whole concept was at the beginning. And this acoustic version comes from a profound place, with its own meaning and philosophy, and its own reason for being."

Deftones gave the people what they wanted: a sensible collection of popular songs from each of their nine studio albums including two tracks they haven't played in quite a while.

During their main set they dusted off “Hole In The Earth,” which audiences hadn't heard since 2019. Then during the encore, the type of surprise fans not only tolerate but sometimes love, they dragged out “Bored” from their debut which hadn't been rocked out to live since 2018.

So this brings out the question: Will The Mars Volta continue to perform their new record, flaunting its new vibe, as they travel through the west this week eventually heading south and then through the midwest?

My prediction is yes. That self titled debut was a line in the sand. They want to reinvent themselves in a similar way to how Andre 3000 now plays flute.

The most punk rock nu metal thing they could do is lose the metal and re-examine what nu means in 2025.

Deftones — 2025 Tour Dates
with The Mars Volta and Fleshwater:
Thu, Feb 27 – Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
Sat, Mar 01 – Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
Tue, Mar 04 – Chase Center, San Francisco, CA
Wed, Mar 05 – Kia Forum, Inglewood, CA
Thu, Mar 06 – Kia Forum, Inglewood, CA
Sat, Mar 08 – MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Sun, Mar 09 – Footprint Center, Phoenix, AZ
Wed, Mar 12 – Moody Center, Austin, TX
Thu, Mar 13 – Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX
Sat, Mar 15 – American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
Sun, Mar 16 – Toyota Center, Houston, TX
Tue, Mar 18 – State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA
Thu, Mar 20 – Kia Center, Orlando, FL
Sat, Mar 22 – Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise, FL
Mon, Mar 24 – Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC
Wed, Mar 26 – Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN
Fri, Mar 28 – Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
Sat, Mar 29 – Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
Mon, Mar 31 – United Center, Chicago, IL
Tue, Apr 01 – Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI
Thu, Apr 03 – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Fri, Apr 04 – Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Sun, Apr 06 – Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
Tue, Apr 08 – TD Garden, Boston, MA
Wed, Apr 09 – Prudential Center, Newark, NJFri, Jun 13 – Primavera Sound Porto 2025, Porto, Portugal