Messed!Up
In the realm of rock music, few frontmen embody the spirit of adventure quite like Jared Leto. Known for his daring escapades, from scaling the Empire State Building to announce their world tour to conquering various concert halls before gracing their stages (including Barclay’s Arena – as documented by Leto himself on Instagram hours before the show), Leto has carved out a reputation as a modern-day explorer of the music world. And what an adventure Thirty Seconds To Mars took us on all within a 90-minute set. Following an excruciatingly long countdown, Leto makes his entrance from backstage to the ground floor of the arena while a video camera documents the band’s final moments before the show, warming up the already buzzing audience. Exuding the energy of a boxing champion entering the ring, Leto traverses the screaming sea of fans, closely followed by security before finally ending up on stage for the show opener ‘Kings and Queens’. I don’t know about you but I’ve never seen an entry like this at any live show, ever. I guess It’s a lot of firsts this evening.
Anthemic hits like ‘Walk on Water’, accompanied by intricate video projections, are made for arena shows like these and despite the fact that it seemed that the crowd was on vocal rest (who would pass up the opportunity to scream along to the ‘Whoa’s??), it was satisfying to see them being performed on a stage of this size. By the fourth song, Leto invites fans to join him on stage for ‘Rescue Me’, asking them to show off crazy dance moves and go as hard as they can. Drummer Shannon Leto joins his brother at the end of the catwalk with an electric drum kit as they perform the light-hearted ‘Seasons’. But it wasn’t all about the music. In fact, sometimes it felt like it wasn’t about the music at all but the Letos are master entertainers and as a multitalented artist, it makes sense that Jared Leto carries over his Hollywood aura into his musical performances. However, as we live in the 21st century which is dominated by digital media it comes as no surprise that there was an excess of use of phones and live streams going on – on and off stage. The band takes a heartfelt moment to FaceTime their mom for Mother’s Day (luckily, she picked up!), and Jared Leto has the whole audience wish her a happy Mother’s Day – although the uncoordinated ‘Alles Gute Zum Muttertag’ is a bit clunky in German. This is of course followed by another photo opp between the two brothers.
‘Hail to the Victor’ sees guitarist Stevie Aiello in the spotlight for a brief moment, sweeping over the catwalk with a guitar solo. Throughout the night, the band seamlessly transitions between bombastic rock anthems and intimate acoustic performances when Leto takes song requests with an acoustic guitar. There’s a bit of a Lost-in-Translation moment with the hilarious German pronunciation of ‘Alibi’, followed by a few lines from ‘From Yesterday’, which was the second song by the band I ever heard, an incredible 18 years ago. Contrary to expectations of joyful screams, the fans don’t seem to engage as Jared looks side stage to his crew saying ‘They don’t know the song’. Seems like Hamburg is in need of some early 2000s emo hit tutoring lessons!
Approaching the encore, Leto has donned a Seasons World Tour t-shirt, looking slightly more relatable, approachable, and less grandiose than with his sparkly golden gloves and flowy black Batman-esque cardigan – but the cowboy hat must stay on. Say what you will about his polished background, he remains a captivating frontman, effortlessly charming the crowd with his stage presence. Whether he is singing or engaging with the crowd in other ways (naturally responding to the many ‘I love you’s’ and taking yet another walk through the crowd), he seems so much more glamorous than rock singers of a similar status. There is just something about the sleek Hollywood aura – his perfectly trimmed beard, flawless skin, and blindingly white teeth or the fact that Leto’s hair remains looking perfect throughout the hour and a half long set, he doesn’t sweat visibly, and brother Shannon looks cool as a cucumber throughout the whole show. They know their craft not only as musicians but as entertainers.
And the entertainment value is not something that could be criticized this evening. The production is massive and expensive-looking and to be honest, sometimes I forget what song they’re performing while I’m blinded by spotlights, almost get barbecued by actual fire or nearly choke on confetti. Hence the smartphone overload is real, amplified by the fact that the 30STM team’s media campaign seems to include inviting influencers to attend their show. It’s fascinating to see that a band that originated in the ages way before Meta and even MySpace has understood how to remain relevant in a digitally saturated world, using social media as a tool. A few attempts at Instagram live go awry, Leto gesturing a ‘mission abort’ to their social media manager but when they go live, it’s FOMO-inducing moment for anyone that will watch the video from anywhere that is not inside the arena… and the audience goes wild for it.
For the explosive finale after ‘The Kill’ (the iconic pop-punk screamo banger that rounds up any emo night!), Leto keeps security on their toes as Leto invites a huge group of fans to the stage asking them to go crazy – all of them filming their once-in-a-lifetime POV on their phones- while ‘Closer To The Edge’ is the perfect show closer. Leto’s larger-than-life persona, entirely without arrogance or pretentiousness, makes you forget that throughout the entire show, there are actually only three musicians on stage. Thirty Seconds of Mars truly are master entertainers. It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day is a heavy push into the mainstream – but with that comes the opportunity to create brilliant live shows such as this one which not only satisfies and exceeds the expectations of long-time fans but also makes space for brand new ones.
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Photos: Sophie Dobschall
