Oh, Hello....
To call Jared Leto pretentious could be a bit of an understatement. He's too famous to 'do press', he wanders around wearing sunglasses inside (in the dark) and he shows up to his own gig about 15 minutes too late.
Yes, apparently once you're dead famous - well, been in a few movies and took your top off enough times so that women go weak at the sight of you - you can get away with keeping a room full of fans waiting for a good half hour before you come on stage. But play them a video of a song you're going to be performing in a little bit and all's okay…. Right?
Well, by the time Leto and co wandered onto the stage my feet already hurt and I'd been for about three toilet breaks (which is no simple task in Manchester Central - the indoor festival venue) but it was pretty interesting to note that he had tried to match his hair to his leather jacket. He failed, but hey, let's not be bitchy.
The set itself was musically very tight, and they'd clearly spent Jared's wardrobe budget on a rack of lights that moved up and down and some glitter cannons that sprayed silver stuff in everyone's hair at the end of the gig. Useful.
Playing a shedload of tracks from their latest album "This Is War" as well as a handful of golden oldies, 30STM did a sterling job of satisfying the hoards of fans who had ventured out in the snow to see the LA trio, and whilst I'm not really a fan myself, it's not the worst gig I've ever seen, but it could have been lessened had the frontman not insisted in playing on his God-like status, dragging out each song and ad-lib to big up his own sense of self-importance.
In all, it's not going to convert me into buying any of their albums, but at the same time, their new single, 'Hurricane', is pretty excellent, and I've got to hand it to the guys for dragging up a load of fans for the encore of 'Kings & Queens'; that probably made their night. Well, maybe not the bit where they got shoved back by the 'crew' who clearly didn't want any nutters leaping across the stage and rugby tackling Jared to the floor before ripping his top off and kissing his face. Would have been funny though…
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Tagged in 30 Seconds To Mars