Live Review: 30 Seconds To Mars - The O2, London 04/06/2024
Thirty Seconds To Mars, with the enigmatic Jagwar Twin supporting, showed London why the Letos’ rock outfit is still the king of theatrical, anthemic arena rock.
It’s harder to know which is bigger — the stadium-filling, festival headlining rock band Thirty Seconds To Mars, or their larger-than-life, eccentric, method acting, comic-book-movies’-star frontman Jared Leto. Six albums, with just as many Kerrang! Awards, and a Guinness World Record versus an Academy Award, a Golden Globe… and also two Razzies, but we don’t talk about them. Hard to judge, but what isn’t is Thirty Seconds To Mars — from their discography, ranging from emo anthems and soaring stadium rock to their more recent, electronically-influenced offerings, to even just the outfits that Jared displays on stage, Thirty Seconds To Mars never fail to deliver one hell of a show.
Thirty Seconds To Mars’ support, Jagwar Twin, has been around for a while. With a handful of early ‘00s indie bands under his belt, as well as some impressive production credits and soundtrack contributions, and a well-established solo career, Roy English knows what he’s doing — as his set as Jagwar Twin would fast prove.
Jagwar’s set was as ethereal and eccentric as a Thirty Seconds To Mars’ support should be. With the man himself offering gentle, almost delicate singing over a quiet electronic drum beat, before breaking into an almost cataclysmic crescendo — culminating in, of course, the man lifting aside his jacket to show his naked torso — the crowd’s introduction was a little perplexing; it couldn’t have been more perfect. ‘The Circle’ and ‘Down To You’ helped introduce the crowd to the artist’s haphazard hopscotching of genres, while the rapping, swaying duo of ‘Life Is Good’ and ‘I Like To Party’ offered a flash flood of jubilance to the steadily-filling room; the bizarre brilliance of the tracked-harmonica featuring ‘Great Time To Be Human’ and the soulful, stripped back poignancy of ‘Soul Is A Star’ soon followed, the latter giving just a glimpse of Roy’s otherwise hidden vocal range. The almost theatrical closers of ‘Happy Face’ and ‘Bad Feeling (Oompa Loompa)’, meanwhile, helped round the set off with a shot of emo-spiked adrenaline. And, although, the set never felt as in-your-face as the aesthetics and sanguine strobes on display promised, Jagwar Twin’s was subtly, almost insidiously incredible.
“COMMENCE COUNTDOWN”. With only one hundred seconds separating the O2 from Thirty Seconds To Mars, the anticipation was high. How would they come on stage? Would they fly in on a zip line? Come rushing on stage, abound with pyrotechnics? Or, as it turned out, would they walk out into the stalls, fist bumping the crowd around their security team, to a tracked ‘Closer To The Edge’? Well, if you know anything about Jared, the dramatic choice always wins — although their escapade, streamed on the big screens, also had the unintended consequence of highlighting some of the rear-front standing gaps in the room.
Once on stage, the trio wasted no time in letting loose. Opener ‘Up In The Air’ immediately let loose with the confetti cannons and pyrotechnics, Jared’s tassels circling him in his spinning glory as he ran across stage; the gloriously regal ‘Kings and Queens’, meanwhile, led the crowd in a sing-along, Leto’s red leather gloves and what looked like golden teeth caps leaving him somewhere between some futuristic ruler and Richard Kiel’s Jaws if he grew up in a hippie commune.
The bass-heavy, ‘AMERICA’ stand-out ‘Walk On Water’ felt like some weird auditory dichotomy of rebellion and pop culture production; ‘Rescue Me’ saw the start of the band’s infamous audience participation, a dozen fans brought on stage to dance, with Leto’s vocals soaring and cascading over the room; the despondent, beautiful crooning of ‘Hurricane’ led into Jared holding a flare aloft; and all this before a crowd chant of ‘This Is War’ led into the fan-favourite anthem, Leto equipped with a flamethrower — although no mention of either cataclysmic conflict currently rocking the globe did remove a little of the track’s poignancy.
From crowd-chant to crowd-pleasers, then: a sudden acoustic interlude saw Jared share some surprisingly intimate and tender moments with the crowd. And, although the planned ‘From Yesterday’ may have put smiles on some faces, it was the impromptu snippets of ‘Never Not Loving You’, ‘Great Wide Open’, and ‘End Of All Days’, requested from someone at the barrier, that humanised the larger-than-life Leto, Jared good-naturedly making a fool of himself by forgetting his own lyrics.
A cover of Mikky Ekko’s ‘Stay’, instrumentals hiding under Jared’s vocals, and the now-beach inflatable-featuring ‘Night of the Hunter’ had the task of getting the rocky show back on track -- and succeeded admirably. ‘A Beautiful Lie’ saw Leto venturing into the crowd and up into the seats, culminating with one particularly oblivious lady getting the shock of her life at Jared’s sudden appearance next to her; and, finally, their fiery ‘Attack’ saw nose hairs singed before the band called it a night — or at least pretended to. What’s a gig without an encore?
After a few minutes to catch their breath, the band were back. A hastily played ‘City Of Angels’, accidentally skipped from earlier in the set, joined newcomer ‘Stuck’, its teasing guitar line and electronic beat weaving with an effectively simple bassline, in preceding the explosive epic of anthem ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’, thousands of phones hoisted into the air for the ‘gram — and, finally, ever-present closer ‘Closer To The Edge’ led the O2 in one final, crowd-pleasing scream-along; though, not before another dozen had joined the trio on stage!
Thirty Seconds To Mars are an odd beast. A mixture of authenticity and audacity, revered anthems and semi-forgettable filler. A frontman with tremendous acting skills, and an outrageous, colleague-alienating methodology to boot. Despite all the gossip though, you can’t help but admire their strangely genuine showmanship. It would be easy to fully plan out shows when you’re that theatrical — just look at KISS! — but even the polished felt real. That alone can make a good show great; and, where their night at the O2 was concerned, it can make the great shows brilliant. A brilliant show, and one too long in coming.
Words by James O’Sullivan
Photography by Charis Lydia Bagioki / @photosby_focus
