An Evening with Jared

Right now I just feel.. restless. In fact, I’ve had this feeling for a few days now. There is nothing unclear about the reason to this. Yesterday, I saw 30 Seconds to Mars live at Helsinki Ice Hall. There were two warm-up acts, Killer Aspect and Sara. I couldn’t concentrate much on the gigs but they sounded good.

There was quite a lot of waiting after the warm-up bands finished their sets. Finally, the ice hall went totally dark – the audience SCREAMED! The dramatic sound of O Fortuna filled the air.. and soon the gig started with A Beautiful Lie, continued with Battle of One and From Yesterday. There they were: Tomo Miličević on guitar, Shannon Leto on drums, tour bassist Tim Kelleher on bass... and Jared with a paste hairdo and some war paint on his face.. They were really there. They were too far, though. I used binoculars during the entire show to see what was happening on stage.

The songs.. They sounded so, so, very good! It was probably the best and most pleasant mix I’d ever heard. The music wasn’t too loud, it even could’ve been louder. It was good the way it was, though, because the audience screamed so loud that it made everyone’s ears ring.

What a thrill it was to hear Jared say “Minä rakastan teitä”! He praised our country quite a bit and put on a nice apron with the Finnish flag that was passed to him from the audience. That apron made him look like a baker.. The Finnish audience sang along to many songs – not very loud, though. Still, they surely knew how to scream their guts out after and during every song of the set.

The set consisted mostly of songs from the latest album. All songs from A Beautiful Lie except for The Story were heard. It was great - Savior and R-evolve were received with huge enthusiasm. I was also happy about Was It a Dream because it’s such a beautiful tune. The Kill drove the audience wild. Jared stirred the hype a bit by walking on the safety barrier and in the end running around the floor, chased by a few fans.

Then, Jared threw in a couple of acoustic songs. Capricorn (A Brand New Name) was awesome, but A Modern Myth was the song that gave me real chills. With Jared singing “goodbye, goodbye, goodbye” and the whole ice hall filled with his emotion-filled and melancholic, almost desperate vocals.. It was all so beautiful. It didn’t look too bad either when a few thousand cell phones illuminated the darkness.

At the end of the show, Jared picked up a young male 30STM fan named Lassi from the audience to help him prepare Finns for the last song that would be The Fantasy. The result was somewhat hilarious, definitely the funnest part of the show. It included some unsuccessful communication and cool lyric translations performed by Lassi.

This was 30STM’s last full-length gig of A Beautiful Lie era. The show ended with lots of red and black confetti, which was nice. I would’ve wanted to get autographs from the band but it wasn’t possible. It kind of left me very disappointed but I also realized that I just might get that chance if I go to their next show in Finland (or somewhere else) – and reserve tickets FAST.

They really are going to start working on a new album very, very soon. I wonder what it’s going to be like.. They’ve already made two albums that represent totally different music genres, and the third probably isn’t going to be similar to their previous work. Can’t wait to hear new stuff.. and see the videos!

Video clips from the show on YouTube

Finished with You? Not Even Close..

I just love it when I change my mind completely. I saw clips from 30 Seconds to Mars music video for The Kill numerous times on MTV two years ago, and I remember I didn’t like it much. I probably thought to myself something like: “Eh.. Nice tonsils.”

It took about two years before I actually listened to the song in its entirety, and concentrated on it. As usual, the song sounded good at that point. What made me take this step was actually my friend who likes this band – and Jared.. Being a multitalented guy, Jared Leto makes both great films and music, and for some reason, is adored by a few billion women..

Yes, I love him too. I had only seen one of his films before my friend recommended watching some more. On May Day I decided to check him out, and found some seriously good-looking pictures. Then, I found some more, and more, and more.. I found some nice interviews, television appearances, DVD’s, and tickets to the 30 Seconds to Mars live concert in Helsinki.. This is one of the greatest obsessions I’ve ever had, and I’m really enjoying it!

It is simply great that the best-looking, most beautiful, and gorgeous human being on the planet makes amazing stuff - films and music. I love watching Jared’s films, and I’m particularly happy about the music. 30 Seconds to Mars has been number one on my playlists lately. Listening to 30STM hasn’t been very difficult at any point. In fact, I’m totally hooked on that stuff. 30STM has even triggered a wider interest in emo (or polka, or whatever you want to call it..) in me.

A Beautiful Lie (2005) is the second and more recent album by 30STM. It is very different from the band’s first album that was created by Jared and brother Shannon Leto without any other band members. The most important thing is that it really is a wonderful, emotional, and atmospheric album with awesome songs.

The singles Attack, A Beautiful Lie, The Kill, and From Yesterday are all great. However, I’m positive about the fact that the band achieved their goal of making a listening experience out of this album rather than a collection of singles. The result is a very consistent album with only great songs, added with utterly wonderful emotionalism and melancholy, very similar to the feel of The Cure’s masterpiece Disintegration. Savior sounds like an impressive modern recreation of Fascination Street. Was It a Dream is very Cure-like, too. The sound of rain and thunder is combined with a gothic guitar riff, Shannon Leto’s brilliant drum beat, and Jared’s wistful vocals. It’s all very enchanting and wonderfully sentimental.

My favourite song is From Yesterday. I just love it, it’s so powerful and awesome, and I never seem to get tired of the beautiful melody and Jared’s perfect vocals. Major chords and angst make a winning combination. The music video for it is also something astonishingly beautiful, I might add..

The 2007 version of this album is actually quite brilliant because it features two excellent bonus tracks and a hidden track. This means that the album has, in fact, three different endings. I find all of them great. I really enjoy Battle of One, the first of the two bonus tracks. Björk cover Hunter is also brilliant. Jared sings it so well that it makes me want to listen to Björk (since I haven’t done that much, yet).

This is so beautiful music. Something else than sugary power pop, for a change.. Stuff that is sentimental and kicks ass – could I ask for more?

30 Seconds to Mars at MySpace

Emo Time

This happens to me every spring. I listen to happy, sunny pop all winter, and then it starts getting brighter.. Seriously, in the winter you hardly ever see the sun, and then you suddenly notice that the summer is really on its way. It’s hardly ever dark anymore! At that point, I always get the feeling that I really must listen to the darkest, most angst-filled music that I have in my CD collection. Strange? I think this whole thing has quite a lot to do with finding a balance in the middle of the huge daylight change.

Consequently, I’ve hardly listened to anything else than emo and other kinds of dark alternative rock during the past 1,5 weeks. Right now, I feel really good. Sometimes listening to the most angst-filled music can actually be the thing that makes you happy. Also, I think it’s good that I finally found a way out of constant power pop listening. It’s only a good thing to have a break from something you’re totally addicted to. Recently, I’ve been listening to Jimmy Eat World, AFI, Disco Ensemble… and of course my new #1 favourite band, 30 Seconds to Mars.

How is emo in keeping with my other favourite music, then? Here we go.. Take power pop. Remove all sweetness and jangly guitar sounds, speed up the tempo, replace lalala’s with woo-oo-oo, add some hardcore screaming vocals, and you’ll get emo. It’s not actually so different from power pop.. There are some bands that actually are emo and powerpop at the same time.

I started listening to emo about four years ago. I wasn’t aware of the term then, but now I’m doing some research, and I think I already have the basic information. I’m definitely an emo myself, too, at least to some extent.. I’ve always been. Listening to all this great music and getting into the emo aesthetics even makes me want to look like an emo. Unfortunately, I’m having some trouble with looking like emo, since I think I actually subconsciously aim to be a happy hippie popster while I also worship the dark gothic aesthetics (emo is a subgenre of goth), and somehow wish to combine the styles. Needless to say, that ain’t gonna work..

If you’d like some information about the subject, here’s a nice video about being emo. I think it’s brilliant, and totally hilarious.. Still, I believe it presents some actual facts, too.

What Is Emo?