Are you jealous? You should be! Thirty Seconds to Mars put on awesome concerts. They do require patience, as they build to a slow burn but it explodes and stays at high energy with fantastic music.
In case you live under a rock, let's start by introducing the band: Thirty Seconds to Mars is currently Jared Leto (frontman, lead singer/guitarist/songwriter, creative director) and his brother Shannon Leto (drums, rhythm, remixes, singer, songwriter, Jared's anchor). My personal head canon is that Jared, who is secretly a vampire, drains his other bandmembers and makes them retire when they are too drained, but of course they all still like him. Tomo Miličević joins Matt Wachter and Solon Bixler in retiring for non-specific but still staying friends with the Letos reasons. Okay, Matt and Solon left for health reasons and Tomo recently got married, so they probably have perfectly normal reasons for not continuing to tour, but my head canon is funnier.
Anyway, I got to see Thirty Seconds to Mars perform at Madison Square Garden, thanks to a generous friend. If there was ever a perfect venue for Thirty Seconds to Mars, this was it. Jared Leto performs best with lots of audience feedback. And though the Garden wasn't completely packed, it was pretty well filled and the Leto brothers fed off that energy with joy and gave the crowd a fantastic performance. By the way, the food at Madison Square Garden is either really good, or I was starving, according to my friends. I choose to think the food was really good. My fries were unequivocally yummy.
The Garden was slow to fill up. There were three opening acts before Thirty Seconds to Mars came on. The first opener was a new band, Joywave. They weren't as good as I would have liked. They lacked spirit, and I didn't get the sense that they loved their music. They were excited to be performing in Madison Square Garden, and it sounded like they chose their most palatable, commercially acceptable songs. I don't remember a single one. My notes only say "they're okay."
The second opening act was Misterwives. They were really good. Great energy, fun to listen to, and charming chatter between songs. Lead singer Mandy Lee introduced their third song, "Drummer Boy," as one of her favorite songs, written for the band by the drummer, Etienne Bowler. From the first notes, you could tell that she adored the song. She sang it with all her heart and bounced around the stage, never missing a beat. Compared to the cold hearted way Joywave introduced their new song with a Spotify ad, it was a very welcome change. The crowd woke up and started clapping along, bouncing along along with Mandy's joyous refrain. Misterwives also stopped to tell everyone that it was okay to be different, and encouraged everyone to chase their dreams they way they had. They played a few more songs, including an all-too-short cover of "All I Have to Do is Dream," and then declared that we were all friends before ending with "Our Own House," giving some technically impressive and fun solos from their guitarist and drummer.
The third opening act was Walk the Moon, who were just as excellent as you would expect. They started off strong, entering to the tune of "Circle of Life," setting an excellent tone of whimsy and making sure everyone was paying attention after the intermission. Their first song was "One Foot," which I freely admit was already a song that I like. Their live performance of it was incredible, though. They danced together, and brought the audience to their feet with them. It was at this point that more people started showing up for the concert. The floor and the general seats started to fill up when Walk the Moon came on, and I heard some people were disappointed that they had missed Misterwives. Again, Walk the Moon paused before "Different Colors" to encourage the crowd to be different and stay true to themselves. I could listen to people say things like that all day, and it was really cool to hear people take a break from being giddy about performing at Madison Square Garden to be nice and supportive to thousands of strangers. They played "Portugal" (which is not titled "You Are Not Alone," don't make that mistake!) and "Tightrope," as well as a newer song, "Kamikaze," which is pretty awesome. However, nothing will beat "Shut Up and Dance," which I'm sure they know. But it's okay, "Shut Up and Dance" is freaking awesome. It's fun to see the entire crowd dance and sing along with a good song. They played other songs, ending on a great performance of "Anna Sun," filled with intricate solos and impressive dancing.
Then we had another intermission, letting the crowd get water and do things while they cleared the stage and set down markers that wouldn't make any sense for a while. Meanwhile, the screens played a bunch of Hugo Boss commercials, but not any of the Jared Leto ones. Unfair! Finally, they rolled out a single large golden drum set. The tension in the audience started rising, but they were still setting up. While we stared at Shannon's drum set sitting alone in the center of the stage, a large box came down to cover the stage, the lights slowly dimmed, and the first notes of "Monolith," one of the many Thirty Seconds to Mars songs that heavily feature Shannon's masterful drumming, began to play. At first it was unclear whether this was recorded or if Shannon was actually playing, but then it became obvious that it was Shannon. An excellent way to open. The lights came up, the box slowly opened and lifted away, to reveal the Leto brothers as Shannon tweaked the ending to become the intro of "Up in the Air." I know I wasn't the only one who shouted out "Love," "Lust," "Faith," and "Dreams," at the appropriate moments, and Jared burst onto the stage as the crowd started chanting along with the chorus. Half a song in, and the auditorium was screaming along, singing the lyrics in perfect time. The song ended perfectly, with Shannon showing off his amazing technical and musical proficiency in an extended solo, and they timed it perfectly, with Jared singing one last line ('so tight with love') to a final beat, like a heartbeat fading away.
Here I am going to pause to rave about how Jared - or perhaps it was Bartholomew Cubbins - made such amazing use of the negative space on the stage. Without a guitarist, the trio reconfigured their act to drive the audience to pay attention to Shannon more, since Jared was already going to be in front and singing. But the way the stage was set up made it clear that the drummer was central, and the songs they chose through the entire concert were designed to show off how good Shannon is. And Shannon is very good. It was well done, and Jared used the front third of the stage and the sides to draw more attention to the drummer behind him. It was unexpected, and perfectly executed. They used the box as stage dressing, and nothing else. Just the brothers, the drum set, and the crowd.
The next song was "Kings and Queens," a song written to celebrate the Echelon, as the band calls their fans. The song is very, very high energy and easy to get caught up in. Jared thanked everyone for singing along, which was odd because I'm pretty sure he's a level 20 Bard and they didn't stand a chance of making that saving throw. The next song was "This is War," which you probably know subconsciously and it quite possibly just started playing in your head. Not my fault. It was at this point that we all realized Thirty Seconds to Mars really consists of a singer, a drummer, and thousands of screaming fans who know every word to every song. In the middle of the song, they unleashed waves of silver balloons, which were bounced around the auditorium for the rest of the song. The next song was "Dangerous Nights," leading to so many people dancing and jumping along that the floor began to shake, and the following song, "Do or Die," didn't help with that, not that we wanted it to. At some point, Shannon gave in to his crippling clothing allergy and removed his jacket to reveal a tank top that somehow got ripped up while he was playing. My notes for "Hail to the Victor," just say "Jared is seducing the crowd again."
For "Rescue Me," a song about empowerment and working through dark times, Jared gathered people from the crowd to dance onstage, which was both charming and clever showmanship. The message and the gesture were appreciated, judging from the shouts of "Rescue MEEEEEEEE" coming from the audience. They played "Pyres of Varanasi," a gorgeous instrumental, to cover removing the dancers and returning them to the floor. That was followed by some more amazing showmanship, as Jared asked the crowd to hold up their phones before being lifted above the stage on a platform to sing "Great Wide Open." While Jared was restored to walking on the ground like mere mortals, Shannon sang his pseudo-country solo, "Remedy." He was clearly nervous at the beginning, but warmed up quickly. The audience was very encouraging, and Shannon took his bows before retreating to the safety of his drums. The next song was "Bury Me," which Jared didn't sing most of. He left it to the crowd, and Shannon's drumming. It was a little disappointing, but literally everyone knew all the words and probably would have drowned him out anyway.
The next song was another one of the Thirty Seconds to Mars anthems: "Walk on Water." Here, I realized we were in an epic campaign or something, because he leveled up during this performance. In his trademark disdain for safety and protocol, Jared began encouraging people to come up to the stage and sing with him. Those exact words. "Come up and sing with me." "You, come on up." "Just jump over." "And you, and you, and you in the suit. Come up." "Security, it's okay. Let them come up." 'Do you believe you can win this fight tonight?' Also, a not so subtle nod to his current cosplay. "Come to me. Who else will come and stand with me?" Once the stage was filled, the band went right into their final song, guaranteeing maximum energy and jumping and ensuring a night that no one would forget with a rousing performance of "Closer to the Edge." There was dancing, there was a light show, there was confetti, there were thousands upon thousands of people with throats raw from singing along with all their hearts. Drink lots of tea with lemon, fellow Echelon.
In case you live under a rock, let's start by introducing the band: Thirty Seconds to Mars is currently Jared Leto (frontman, lead singer/guitarist/songwriter, creative director) and his brother Shannon Leto (drums, rhythm, remixes, singer, songwriter, Jared's anchor). My personal head canon is that Jared, who is secretly a vampire, drains his other bandmembers and makes them retire when they are too drained, but of course they all still like him. Tomo Miličević joins Matt Wachter and Solon Bixler in retiring for non-specific but still staying friends with the Letos reasons. Okay, Matt and Solon left for health reasons and Tomo recently got married, so they probably have perfectly normal reasons for not continuing to tour, but my head canon is funnier.
Anyway, I got to see Thirty Seconds to Mars perform at Madison Square Garden, thanks to a generous friend. If there was ever a perfect venue for Thirty Seconds to Mars, this was it. Jared Leto performs best with lots of audience feedback. And though the Garden wasn't completely packed, it was pretty well filled and the Leto brothers fed off that energy with joy and gave the crowd a fantastic performance. By the way, the food at Madison Square Garden is either really good, or I was starving, according to my friends. I choose to think the food was really good. My fries were unequivocally yummy.
The Garden was slow to fill up. There were three opening acts before Thirty Seconds to Mars came on. The first opener was a new band, Joywave. They weren't as good as I would have liked. They lacked spirit, and I didn't get the sense that they loved their music. They were excited to be performing in Madison Square Garden, and it sounded like they chose their most palatable, commercially acceptable songs. I don't remember a single one. My notes only say "they're okay."
The second opening act was Misterwives. They were really good. Great energy, fun to listen to, and charming chatter between songs. Lead singer Mandy Lee introduced their third song, "Drummer Boy," as one of her favorite songs, written for the band by the drummer, Etienne Bowler. From the first notes, you could tell that she adored the song. She sang it with all her heart and bounced around the stage, never missing a beat. Compared to the cold hearted way Joywave introduced their new song with a Spotify ad, it was a very welcome change. The crowd woke up and started clapping along, bouncing along along with Mandy's joyous refrain. Misterwives also stopped to tell everyone that it was okay to be different, and encouraged everyone to chase their dreams they way they had. They played a few more songs, including an all-too-short cover of "All I Have to Do is Dream," and then declared that we were all friends before ending with "Our Own House," giving some technically impressive and fun solos from their guitarist and drummer.
The third opening act was Walk the Moon, who were just as excellent as you would expect. They started off strong, entering to the tune of "Circle of Life," setting an excellent tone of whimsy and making sure everyone was paying attention after the intermission. Their first song was "One Foot," which I freely admit was already a song that I like. Their live performance of it was incredible, though. They danced together, and brought the audience to their feet with them. It was at this point that more people started showing up for the concert. The floor and the general seats started to fill up when Walk the Moon came on, and I heard some people were disappointed that they had missed Misterwives. Again, Walk the Moon paused before "Different Colors" to encourage the crowd to be different and stay true to themselves. I could listen to people say things like that all day, and it was really cool to hear people take a break from being giddy about performing at Madison Square Garden to be nice and supportive to thousands of strangers. They played "Portugal" (which is not titled "You Are Not Alone," don't make that mistake!) and "Tightrope," as well as a newer song, "Kamikaze," which is pretty awesome. However, nothing will beat "Shut Up and Dance," which I'm sure they know. But it's okay, "Shut Up and Dance" is freaking awesome. It's fun to see the entire crowd dance and sing along with a good song. They played other songs, ending on a great performance of "Anna Sun," filled with intricate solos and impressive dancing.
Then we had another intermission, letting the crowd get water and do things while they cleared the stage and set down markers that wouldn't make any sense for a while. Meanwhile, the screens played a bunch of Hugo Boss commercials, but not any of the Jared Leto ones. Unfair! Finally, they rolled out a single large golden drum set. The tension in the audience started rising, but they were still setting up. While we stared at Shannon's drum set sitting alone in the center of the stage, a large box came down to cover the stage, the lights slowly dimmed, and the first notes of "Monolith," one of the many Thirty Seconds to Mars songs that heavily feature Shannon's masterful drumming, began to play. At first it was unclear whether this was recorded or if Shannon was actually playing, but then it became obvious that it was Shannon. An excellent way to open. The lights came up, the box slowly opened and lifted away, to reveal the Leto brothers as Shannon tweaked the ending to become the intro of "Up in the Air." I know I wasn't the only one who shouted out "Love," "Lust," "Faith," and "Dreams," at the appropriate moments, and Jared burst onto the stage as the crowd started chanting along with the chorus. Half a song in, and the auditorium was screaming along, singing the lyrics in perfect time. The song ended perfectly, with Shannon showing off his amazing technical and musical proficiency in an extended solo, and they timed it perfectly, with Jared singing one last line ('so tight with love') to a final beat, like a heartbeat fading away.
Here I am going to pause to rave about how Jared - or perhaps it was Bartholomew Cubbins - made such amazing use of the negative space on the stage. Without a guitarist, the trio reconfigured their act to drive the audience to pay attention to Shannon more, since Jared was already going to be in front and singing. But the way the stage was set up made it clear that the drummer was central, and the songs they chose through the entire concert were designed to show off how good Shannon is. And Shannon is very good. It was well done, and Jared used the front third of the stage and the sides to draw more attention to the drummer behind him. It was unexpected, and perfectly executed. They used the box as stage dressing, and nothing else. Just the brothers, the drum set, and the crowd.
The next song was "Kings and Queens," a song written to celebrate the Echelon, as the band calls their fans. The song is very, very high energy and easy to get caught up in. Jared thanked everyone for singing along, which was odd because I'm pretty sure he's a level 20 Bard and they didn't stand a chance of making that saving throw. The next song was "This is War," which you probably know subconsciously and it quite possibly just started playing in your head. Not my fault. It was at this point that we all realized Thirty Seconds to Mars really consists of a singer, a drummer, and thousands of screaming fans who know every word to every song. In the middle of the song, they unleashed waves of silver balloons, which were bounced around the auditorium for the rest of the song. The next song was "Dangerous Nights," leading to so many people dancing and jumping along that the floor began to shake, and the following song, "Do or Die," didn't help with that, not that we wanted it to. At some point, Shannon gave in to his crippling clothing allergy and removed his jacket to reveal a tank top that somehow got ripped up while he was playing. My notes for "Hail to the Victor," just say "Jared is seducing the crowd again."
For "Rescue Me," a song about empowerment and working through dark times, Jared gathered people from the crowd to dance onstage, which was both charming and clever showmanship. The message and the gesture were appreciated, judging from the shouts of "Rescue MEEEEEEEE" coming from the audience. They played "Pyres of Varanasi," a gorgeous instrumental, to cover removing the dancers and returning them to the floor. That was followed by some more amazing showmanship, as Jared asked the crowd to hold up their phones before being lifted above the stage on a platform to sing "Great Wide Open." While Jared was restored to walking on the ground like mere mortals, Shannon sang his pseudo-country solo, "Remedy." He was clearly nervous at the beginning, but warmed up quickly. The audience was very encouraging, and Shannon took his bows before retreating to the safety of his drums. The next song was "Bury Me," which Jared didn't sing most of. He left it to the crowd, and Shannon's drumming. It was a little disappointing, but literally everyone knew all the words and probably would have drowned him out anyway.
The next song was another one of the Thirty Seconds to Mars anthems: "Walk on Water." Here, I realized we were in an epic campaign or something, because he leveled up during this performance. In his trademark disdain for safety and protocol, Jared began encouraging people to come up to the stage and sing with him. Those exact words. "Come up and sing with me." "You, come on up." "Just jump over." "And you, and you, and you in the suit. Come up." "Security, it's okay. Let them come up." 'Do you believe you can win this fight tonight?' Also, a not so subtle nod to his current cosplay. "Come to me. Who else will come and stand with me?" Once the stage was filled, the band went right into their final song, guaranteeing maximum energy and jumping and ensuring a night that no one would forget with a rousing performance of "Closer to the Edge." There was dancing, there was a light show, there was confetti, there were thousands upon thousands of people with throats raw from singing along with all their hearts. Drink lots of tea with lemon, fellow Echelon.
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