MEN arena was sparking with excitement and anticipation. Rounds of Mexican waves rippled through the arena in the build up to the main event. Jared, rocking a Mohawk and full of front man magnetism opened the concert from behind a filmy black curtain; fist thrust high in the air, singing the spine tingling opening track from ‘This is War’ – ‘Escape’.
The atmosphere was amazing with crowd members getting stuck into singing the Summit/Echelon parts on the songs leaving as always the feeling that the fans really are part of 30 Seconds to Mars.
Jared, Tomo & Shannon whipped up their army of followers into a frenzy of awesomeness and pulled out a great set of songs including (but not all of): Attack, Beautiful Lie, Night of the Hunter, This is War (which was accompanied by a really cool vid reel of images), the Kill, Closer to the Edge, Search & Destroy, From Yesterday, Vox Populi and Capricorn. Songs missed and MIA (in my opinion): Re-Evolve, The Mission, Saviour... Mind you, if it were up to me I would have got them to play all 3 of their albums back to back plus any covers and b-sides they do - but that is just me and I am feeling a wee bit greedy! :-)
The mini sets that the band played in different parts of the arena, gave new perspective to the concert and let the audience really get involved and created a unique experience.
The performance of Vox Populi was electric. The crowd encouraged by the band and the Street Drum Corp to stomp and clap in unison on the choruses amplified the performance 10 fold. Hot, sweaty and bouncing (literally) with excitement the band and the fans spent the whole set singing, screaming, clapping, thrusting their fists and throwing the horns – and really just having a great time – and as anyone who has been to see 30 Seconds to Mars before knows, this is standard practice at a Mars gig. You get what you pay for and a whole lot more.
As for the support acts, the first band, LostAlone were rubbish. I am not sure quite what they were doing. The guitar playing was fine, and the singers vocal were not too bad but asking a crowd to chant your name on only the 2nd song – when only a minority of people even know who you are just seemed a bit much, also at one point the singer exclaimed:
“I hope you don’t mind Manchester, I just needed to get that out!” What did he need to get out Manchester? – cos it sure as hell was not awesome rock...
Their songs blended into each other, they didn't sound original and they bored me. There are a lot of other bands out there doing a similar style of music - just a lot better.
However, the other support was fantastic. The Street Drum Corp were engaging and fabulous from the first moment they hit the stage and their drums. Neon gloves, awesome hip thrusting moves and phenomenal drum beats and great vocals and lyrics. Within 2 seconds I was hooked. I look forward to getting their CD and hopefully to going to see them play again in the future.
Well this is the 4th time I have been to see 30 Seconds to Mars and I am already looking forward to going to see them again!
Well until next month...I’m hoping for a good March.
"All the soarings of my mind begin in my blood."
Rainer Maria Rilke
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