We Love 30 Seconds to Mars?

Last night, Houstonist spent quality time at a rock show, seeing some random things in the process. But, the flying condoms and graphic nudie shots shown to us by proud young gentleman are neither here nor there. The important question (which will be answered) is, how was the show?

The show was good. Note that we didn't say great. We'll get to why in another paragraph or so. We missed most of the opening acts, like Rock Kills Kid and Cobra Starship. Apparently when the ticket says 7p.m., they do actually mean 7p.m. Go figure. We did catch Head Automatica, who played a good set. Their closing song, "I Shot William H. Macy", made us continually tilt our heads, look at our friends and say "huh?".

And 30 Seconds to Mars completely blew us away. The beginning of the set had us thinking maybe we had mistakenly bought tickets to Stomp. There was a fabulous drum sequence that just kept going and going (and reminded us a lot of an Erasure song). When the band finally came out, the rocked. Front man Jared Leto has apparently spent a lot of time working out his body and his voice. The man can scream like a mother, and we mean that in a good way. During a song for their first CD, he called for the crowd to form a mosh pit, which we didn't think was possible during a 30 Seconds to Mars Show. We were proven wrong. Very wrong. The band did an amazing job. The songs sounded good enough to make us wonder if there's any hope of them ever releasing a live CD.

So who didn't do a good job? The crowd. Were those the same people who paid an absurd amount of money for the tickets, parking, pre-, during and post-show drinks? Not to mention the memorobilia from the overpriced merch section. Not that they didn't raise their cellphones (the days of raising a lighter are long gone) when instructed, or make that mosh pit when told to do so. But overall, they didn't seem to excited to be there! No jumping, no screaming, no "OhMYGawd, It's Jared Leto!" Where's the love, Houston? When you spend massive amounts of money to go to show, have some fun! Get into the music. Show the bands how much you like them. Standing at the back with a blank stare just doesn't convey the "we love your music" message as much as you might think. And if you're wondering how you should show the band this love we're talking about, next time you're at a show, check out the crazy kid up at the front in the middle. The one who won't stop boucing around, singing along, and in general acting like a fool. He is now your concert going role model. Watch him, emulate him, and finally, be him.

Photo of Jared Leto: flickr user Delineated