THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS AT XFINITY THEATER IN HARTFORD, CT
Saturday, June 9, was definitely a night for the books. I don’t know what was the best, the gorgeous weather or this unbelievable line up of bands. This warm, electric summer night had everything needed for a good concert and it didn’t disappoint for a second. The first American night for the Monolith Tour, a giant world tour organized by Thirty Seconds to Mars with Walk the Moon and Misterwives opening for them.
Misterwives started their set on time around 6:45pm. Opening for a band as big as Thirty Seconds to Mars is definitely a heavy task but the pop band out of NYC definitely nailed it with their super bouncy music. The band played all their big hits including “Reflections”, “Coloring Outside the Lines”, “Drummer Boy”, and “Machine”. This was literally the best set to warm up a crowd already excited to see Walk The Moon and 30 Seconds to Mars. Mandy Lee was on fire as always, her dance skills were on point, everything worked smoothly and the public enjoyed the colorful show.
Big bands and a big stage means long changes and lot of time to kill in between the sets, a perfect reason to enjoy a fresh beer in the grass – a summer night like we all love.
At 8 o’clock it was time for Walk The Moon to hit the stage. I don’t know if there is still a need to introduce the band, those 4 guys from Cincinnati already are a sensation, their fanbase is getting bigger and bigger. As soon as they stepped on the stage with their usual white stripes painted on their faces, the temperature became a little bit warmer and the tension more electric. The rock band started their set with the super groovy “One Foot” from their latest album – the perfect song to engage the crowd right away. Walk The Moon are the kings of catchy melodies, and once again they proved it with no doubts about their performance. The band went on to play fan favorites including “Kamikaze”, “Different Colors”, “Portugal”, and “Tightrope”. And of course, they had to play their biggest hit to this day, the song that made them famous, “Shut Up and Dance”. They kept the suspense alive until the end, the song was one of the last one played in the set but it didn’t matter, the public still screamed of joy as soon the famous guitar riff started. A solid hour of show that ended around 9pm with a standing ovation and huge applause.
Time for the reason why we were all here that night, Thirty Seconds to Mars was scheduled to start their set at 9:30 but they didn’t start their show before 9:50. The reason? A huge LED cage surrounding the stage, a big installation that definitely took more time than expected to install but finally, after much suspense, the lights turned off. The front wall of the cage slowly rose to unveil a motionless Jared Leto wearing a big white robe in the middle of a smoky stage. The scene was unreal, the whole venue was filled with screams and there he was, motionless and silent, looking like a modern day Jesus. Leto stood in silence for a few minutes before starting with the famous “Up In The Air”. To much surprise Tomo Miličević was not on guitar – he has since announced his departure from the band – leaving the two Leto brothers as the only members of the band. Thirty Seconds to Mars pulled out a great show, just like one of those big summer parties with balloons and ton of fun. “This is War” is the first song where Jared finally interacted with the crowd – taking his sunglasses off and looking around – and invited the winner of a guitar contest on stage to play with them. That would be the first of many times where Jared would invite people on stage with him to dance or interact – the show literally ended with 50 people on stage dancing in a cloud of confetti.
About halfway through the show, the lights turned off and left the crowd in a total blackout. The big LED walls surrounding the band started to move again – one of them slowly moving until it was laying flat on stage – and then, much to our surprise, Jared Leto used that screen as a platform and went up into the air. The scene was unreal, Jared started the song “The Kill” while the platform was still raising and when it finally stopped Shannon was directly beneath him playing drums. The tour has definitely been working on a great show and logistics. The set would end about an hour and a half later with the song “Closer to the Edge” and Jared inviting 50 people on stage for the finale – everyone dancing under a storm of confetti and big lights.
No doubt people will remember this performance. A perfect summer night for a perfect show.
Just a french boy living the American dream. Coffee snob & travel addict.