I wasn’t entirely sure what sort of a show I was expecting for this night. In some aspects, I was pleasantly surprised and in others I was a little disappointed, and this was applicable for both bands. An intriguing choice of Americans and Brits sharing the stage together, one a very well-known band and the other, not so much.
White Lies in their own words hail from London, England, or more precisely Ealing. They’re really not that well known here, so to have them supporting a much bigger American band was an interesting and confusing choice. It was quite clear that the band would be struggling uphill against an audience who were clearly there for the headliners from the outset, and this continued for them for much of their set. They opened with ‘There Goes Our Love Again’ off their current LP Big TV which has been getting some spins on local radio here and initially it seemed to sit alright with the crowd.
As they cruised through their set I got the distinct feeling that the band didn’t seem to be pushing or lifting at all, it felt like a safe performance. Even the more energetic tracks like ‘Farewell To The Fairground’ and ‘Death’ both off their breakout debut record To Lose My Life seemed a little restrained in pace compared to the recorded versions. They manage to execute the shoegaze-y brash alternative synth rock sound well but it just never seemed to draw us in to want more. It probably didn’t help their cause that the lighting guy was trying to give us all strobe-lighting induced epilepsy with his ridiculous displays either. Musically they were comparable but performance wise were no match for the more experienced headliners to come.
Thirty Seconds To Mars burst out onto the stage with ‘Night Of The Hunter’ and drummer Shannon Leto’s fiery drum beats fuel frontman singer Jared Leto to start running furiously around the stage as a waterfall curtain of lights shower around him. It was pretty evident from the outset that this was going to be a high octane show. ‘Search And Destroy’ and ‘This Is War’ both off the This Is War record were back to back and had the packed room roaring along as oversized coloured balloons were released out into the room. All you could see was arms waving, bodies jumping and seething and hear voices shouting along whilst these big coloured balls bounced around.
Though one thing I did notice was that in both of these tracks it was less about Leto’s singing and more about how much he could get the crowd involved. It definitely gave the room that feeling of being a part of one great big happy crowd of music-lovers who were there to all have a good time. And when you hear Leto singing “I am home” in ‘City Of Angels’ even though the song is about Los Angeles, his conviction makes you believe he’s singing about being right there in the moment with every single member of the audience.
That is something you don’t see much of at concerts these days, a band who genuinely show their love and appreciation of their fans and Leto acknowledges them by thanking their patience due to having to reschedule these shows. And not only this but as the show progresses Leto takes time to stop and pull random members of the audience up out of the crowd and bring them onstage, including a blind guy complete with cane and sign asking for a drumstick which Shannon Leto happily brings over to him.
The band get to have a little break whilst Jared Leto pulls out his acoustic guitar and performs ‘Hurricane’ though a few random crowd hecklers in the mosh had him laughing so much he could barely get through it. Even when he pulls another guy up who proudly says his name is “Timmeh from Picton” I’m pretty sure Leto just felt this burning desire to somehow master an Australian accent and become a Picton local as the crowd sang ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’ back to him, and he really looks like he’s enjoying himself way too much. After a miniscule moment offstage the band return this time sporting animal onesies for ‘Closer To The Edge’, Jared Leto in a green crocodile/dinosaur number, Shannon Leto as a unicorn, and Tomo Milicevic as a giraffe.
I have to say I was a little disappointed that Jared wasn’t wearing the unicorn outfit, since he is a majestic mythical beast of a man blessed with winning the genetics lottery. As they rounded their show out with second last song ‘Bright Lights’ the band come together as a three piece with Shannon on a stripped down snare kit, and Jared sporting a sparkly jacket spinning around as he sings “bright lights, big city, she dreams of love”. For one final time just before ‘Up In The Air’ commences off their current record Love Lust Faith + Dreams Leto starts pointing at members of the crowd and shouting for them to get up onstage and soon a small horde of about 30 or 40 eager Echelon members are huddled in the middle of the stage and every single one of us is jumping up and down to the song and before we know it, it’s all over and the house lights are up and we’re all being ushered out of the arena.
I’ll admit to being a little disappointed that Jared Leto’s singing was considerably less than I anticipated and that there was more of him encouraging the audience to sing than doing so himself. But considering that this upped the crowd participation factor loads, I think he can be forgiven. The sheer joy you could see on his face was evident enough that it was exactly what he wanted. The set was a really healthy mix of old and new songs but at only scraping 15 tracks I felt they could easily have thrown a couple more songs in. Another conflicting feeling I had was the overwhelming sense that Jared Leto was dominating this show completely, with his onstage persona and by the sheer popularity and success he has offstage (hello recent Oscar winner).
You can’t help but be captivated by him, but at the same time I felt his bandmates weren’t even trying to join in on the madness, it was like they were comfortable with being in the background. This by far was one of the wildest most audience participation heavy shows I’ve ever seen, which in itself is a refreshing change from your standard concert and that was surprising. Be sure to pack a comfy pair of shoes and the best scream your lungs can muster, this is a raucous one, and hopefully the Mars crew will be back again soon to do it all again.
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