The venue’s floor appeared to go from a few people dotted around to packed to every single exit within minutes. The atmosphere before support act, You Me At Six came out was full of anticipation, at least one for every 10 people had merchandise of some sort showing their support for the acts. These varied from triad tattoos to Thirty Seconds To Mars shirts. You could tell that the crowd were going to be in for a heavy impact show which Thirty Seconds are known for as there was a huge black curtain completely hiding the back portion of the stage, the mysterious platform behind would be revealed during Thirty Seconds’ set.
The build up music started to begin as the lights of the whole arena simultaneously dulled down creating a suspenseful mood waiting to see what would happen next. Drummer, Matt Flint walked out purposefully as he took his seat at the kit. The other members of the band did the same and with their poker faces on, picked up their instruments from the stands and were ready to put on a show. The crowds reaction was indescribable, screams from almost every single audience member erupted, allowing you to fully take in the size of the venue and magnitude of people ready to see the show.
Josh Franceschi graced the stage with a dramatic entrance, lighting up the crowds faces. To begin their set, they went straight in with Reckless. The iconic guitar chords hit and again, the crowd exploded with noise but it wasn’t as loud as when they originally came out, it felt as if they were still saving some energy. Between their set consisting of 9 songs, we got to see You Me At Six almost through their career, from their older more classic songs to their showing of new song, Lived A Lie.
When they performed Crash, they asked the audience to turn on whatever light they had, be it their phone or lighters. The lighting was brought down to almost pitch black aside from the spotlights on each band member, creating a calm and peaceful vibe much as how the song begins. The first chorus hit and you could literally look around the O2 arena and feel as if the roof had been lifted and that you were looking into the night sky with clusters of stars and light surrounding you. The atmosphere made you feel safe, a direct juxtaposition of the song title Crash. As the song progressed and built, the audience came together to sing back at Josh and showed their true support as he sung. The emotional song was then followed shortly after by Bite My Tongue, and of course we were all waiting for the immortal scream verse from Bring Me The Horizons Oli Sykes, and Josh knew this and played it to the bands advantage to create even more of a build up. He refused to sing the verse assertively, while the band continued playing riffs and beats until he saw at least 3 pits open up. As if by magic, as soon as his command was set it happened right in from of your eyes. His stage presence was powerful and he then went on to complete the set with You Me At Six classic, Underdog. Their set was strong and full of attitude which we have come to expect from the band and all vocals were completely on point.
During the break between sets, the audience were treated to music videos from Thirty Seconds To Mars, such as Up In The Air and Kings And Queens. To break this up, you also regularly saw he funny advertisement for Taco Time with Tomo, the bands very own member who hosted cooking shows on youtube. While the crowd eagerly awaited the main act, they sung heroically along to the videos which captivated everybody and loud music to accompany which I feel really got the atmosphere to build between acts when this is usually the time that it settles back down. Just like before, the songs faded, lights dimmed and screams built…you knew what was about to happen. The intro to Night Of The Hunter hit, and the massive black curtain had a triad projected directly on to it. A steady drum beat hit, and the curtain ripped down as backstage assistants clambered to remove it quickly, Shannon was revealed on drums facing to the side of the audience beneath a massive platform with many levels and screens on top of it. Tomo was already standing to the side with his guitar and taunted the crowd for some noise. Just before the vocals begin in the song, the platform turned around to reveal Jared Leto, frontman, with his back to the audience in his iconic stance we saw in the Closer To The Edge music video. The crowd screamed so hard that it almost drowned out the heavy drum beat. He then went into full rock star mode and lit up the stage with his at times, flamboyant stage presence and incredibly powerful vocals. Between every five songs, the crowd were treated to spectacular circus act style performers who were two males. They did various incredible mini shows much like what we see in the video to Up In The Air.
The show was then broken up with an acoustic session to which Jared sat on a stool in the middle of the platform extending into the audience to communicate with them better, a spotlight hit him and he held the guitar, taking requests. He sung The Kill but when it came to the scream vocal line, he stood back and let the audience do it and proclaimed he was “too old for that shit”. To finish, the band performed Up In the Air in their encore and pulled up audience members from the front to join them on stage and create a human barrier while huge balloons of different colours fell from the roof to represent the colours on the cover art for the single designed by Damien Hurst. The audience gave it all they had, and that reflected in the ‘thank yous’ Jared did at the end. The show was spectacular from both acts, and it cemented to everybody the reason why Thirty Seconds To Mars have such a loyal Fanbase and big name. Jared worked hard to communicate with the whole arena, often picking specific people out at he back and addressing each side of the arena separately, but Shannon and Tomo rarely spoke or had opportunity too.
Overall, the show was a perfect journey through the bands career and inspired you to chase your dreams and be as creative as possible in all you do, it truly was full of Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams.
Words – India Collen
