30 Seconds To Mars
W/ Aiden, Shotgun Rules
March 30, 2006
The Guvernment

Even though 30 Seconds To Mars have played Toronto quite a few times over the past couple years I hadn’t seen them. I liked their both their albums, so when this concert was announced I decided to check them out. And then I heard who the opening bands were. While I don’t mind Aiden on their own, I thought the combination would be odd, and I was right. Going into the Guvernment there was an obvious mix in 30STM fans and Aiden fans, although the over capacity crowd seemed to be into all the bands, they just didn’t feel like moving. At all.

Opening bands Shotgun Rules, from London, ON, I’d heard but had never seen. I can honestly say this band was the highlight of the night for me. As a friend predicted beforehand, they did Boys Night Out better than Boys Night Out. Their combination of tech, prog and emo just worked, not to mention they’re a band where every member shares some kind of vocal duty. They have by far one of the best bassists I’ve seen in a long time. But the kicker is, they all move around the stage. Not one of them, all of them. And while most of the crowd had probably never heard of them, the reaction they got was a great one. Not a bad way to kick off a tour. Throw these guys in with bands of their genre, or at least closer and it’ll be one of the greatest concerts you ever go to. Serious.

The second band is really not worth mentioning, I have no idea what their name is and after the singing walking onstage and announcing that they almost couldn’t get in the country because they were caught smoking weed at the border and that meant that they were going to smoke more soon, I got bored really fast and after listening to him babble for another couple minutes I went outside.

Aiden hit the stage to adoring fans who were clearly thrilled that to see them. At this point it was near impossible to move pretty much anywhere in the club so I couldn’t see them for the most part. I could however hear them. Their slightly more Goth than My Chemical Romance sound clearly works for them, and the audience was singing along for pretty much every song. I have a feeling that their upcoming show with HIM is only going to escalate their growing popularity in Toronto.

And then there was the waiting period. And by waiting I mean, from the time Aiden left the stage to when 30 Seconds To Mars started, there was nearly an hour wait. Someone changed the background music from jazz to The Cure, but that didn’t help much. The crowd was definitely getting restless while the band played around with getting their gear onstage.

When 30 Seconds To Mars finally hit the stage to their intro music, the crowd absolutely erupted, and when they opened with the title track to their latest disc, “A Beautiful Lie” I thought people were going to pass out (I later found out that at least 3 people did.) My previous wondering about whether or not Jared Leto was going to be able to pull off the vocals live was still undecided for the first couple songs. And then I realized that not only were we getting to see a concert by a relatively big band, we got to see an arena sized show fit into a club. Drummer Shannon Leto’s kit was set up so high it looked like the bottom hit Jared’s head. They had a light show, in a club, imagine that.

What made me appreciate Jared’s frontman abilities though was when he jumped off the stage, crowd surfed his way across the crowd, walked over dozens of people and across the bar while singing to virtually the entire club. I could be wrong but I don’t remember seeing an episode of My So- Called Life where Jordan Catalano did that.

In the end, it was a great set by a great band, that don’t nearly get enough credit. And the concert as a whole, while it didn’t make much sense, seemed to work in it’s own way. I only wish I’d thought to count how many times Jared Leto said motherfucker. I’m guessing at least 20.

- Alyssa Caplin

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