Thirty Seconds to Mars brought a little love, lust, faith and dreams to Manchester’s Phones4u Arena on Saturday… or at least if their tour name is anything to go by.
Their new sound has divided opinions of their fan base known as ‘The Echelon,’ however, the new direction of the band’s latest release has certainly not tarnished their appeal if the near-capacity crowd was anything to go by.
First to the stage were Brit pop-rockers You Me At Six armed with an abundance of easy-listening crowd pleasers composed of their most well-known hits.
Having supported the likes of Paramore before it was evident that the band are more than comfortable in an arena and managed to impress the crowd enough to receive an admirable reception by all.
Kicking off with Reckless, the Surrey quintet powered through their setlist with vocalist Josh Franceschi providing banter and encouragement amidst catchy singles such as Loverboy, Bite My Tongue and Stay With Me.
Perhaps the highlight of their set though was during, their most emotive song, Crash when Franceschi commanded for a sea of lights to be drawn from the audience; an order which they happily followed to create a cosmic atmosphere.
For a moment you could almost forget that they were not headlining.
Considering how You Me At Six have gone from strength to strength and with their new album Cavalier Youth out in the new year it’s clear that arena tours are on the horizon for them in the not too distant future.
After a substantial wait filled with their own music videos, Thirty Seconds To Mars eventually burst onto the stage in a typical extravagant fashion.
From behind a black curtain emerged the trio; with frontman Jared Leto elevated on a slightly pretentious mechanical lighting rig platform like some kind of messiah.
Accompanied by hysterical screaming and masked drummers the band continued to play Birth whilst a second white curtain dropped from around the stage revealing guitarist Tomo Miličević and drummer Shannon Leto.
With each and every one of the 17 songs being played flawlessly the band took their production to a whole new level with gimmicks such as impressive acrobatic acts during interludes and bringing fans up on stage to introduce songs.
Not to mention the incredible light show and confetti filled balloons for The Echelon to play with during the spectacle.
It seems Thirty Seconds To Mars cannot be contested in the live performance department as they seem to command an audience and create visual pandemonium like no other at this moment in time.
On the flipside there were more humble moments revealed in the form of an acoustic session which allowed Leto to showcase his voice when singing The Kill and Alibi which touched the audience so much that a few members were reduced to tears.
He also incorporated their cover of Rihanna’s ‘Stay’ into the mix to shed a new light on the brooding ballad.
The night ended on a high with Jared, Shannon and Tomo choosing audience members to invade the stage during Up In The Air and even more confetti being shot over those left in the crowd.
As the night drew to a close you could hear people claiming that it was ‘one of the best shows’ they’d ever been to and it certainly was a memorable one indeed.
Image courtesy of Jen via Flickr, with thanks.
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