Live music review: Jared Leto’s Thirty Seconds To Mars landed at COTA Saturday
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All photos Brandon Sandler
Story by Brandon Sandler and Greg Ackerman
Saturday actor and musician Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds To Mars landed at the Circuit of the Americas’ Austin 360 Amphitheater (COTA) with Walk The Moon. K. Flay and Welshly Arms opened the performance. One might be skeptical about an Academy-award winning actor making popular music but Leto has been at it 16 years selling over 15 million records in the process. Touring in support of TSTM’s first studio effort in four years, “America,” the band along with a strong supporting lineup drew a sizable crowd to the area’s largest outdoor venue.
The performance by Thirty Seconds To Mars was nothing short of a spectacle. That spectacle was delayed slightly when venue lost power to the stage temporarily as animatronic screens behind the band went blank and the band played Monolith. Once the technical difficulties were sorted out, the group delved into hit-single, Up In The Air from their previous record as Leto sported what appeared to be a bizarre, patchwork, Japanese-style, Yukata with his hair pulled into a man-bun. The effect of the costume which included glittery-gold fingerless gloves was that of a modern musical version of comedian John Belushi’s classic Samurai Tailor skit character. The song kick-started the show after the false start.
Leto pulled out all the stops, inviting fans on-stage twice during the concert to dance and sing-a-long with the celebrity musician. Leto deftly led the crowd into call and response situations, using the audience like an additional band member. It was wise move considering the three-piece only has two instrumentalists in the band, Leto’s brother Shannon on drums and multi-instrumentalist, Tomo Milicevic. This left a lot of room on stage for the lead vocalist to cavort about, interacting with audience members as he wandered from one side to the other. It also left room for lots of fans to get on-stage as the show ended (they were invited by Leto again). The actor sure understands how to put on a fun performance as one would expect with from a man with the kind of acting and theatre experience he has. Theatrical is an apt description of aTSTM performance as any.
Our photographer has been a TSTM fan for a while and still found Cincinnati’s Walk The Moon a more compelling performance. That’s saying a lot given how successful the headliners were at getting the audience involved. But singer/keyboardist Nicholas Petricca impressed our man with his stage moves and musical ability. The pop/rock/synth band opened with their single, One Foot off their latest release, “What If Nothing.” The album dropped late last year. Petricca led Walk The Moon with an energetic and party-like attitude that did it’s job in riling up the masses for the headliner. After their explosively-caffeinated opener, the show proceeded with a well-blended set list of older and newer tracks, eventually ending the show with a hit single from their debut album, “Ana Sun.”
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