30 Seconds to Mars & Cage the Elephant

ITZ has had the great opportunity to receive review tickets to a couple of concerts thanks to LiveNation, and this past week we got to see 30 Seconds to Mars at Verizon Wireless with Cage the Elephant. Being my first experience at Verizon, I must say I hope we get to go back. Having seen acts like Metallica, Ozzy, and some others at bigger venues, this venue brings you close to the action and the sound is pretty good to boot.
I am a music junkie. I like all types of music as my iTunes library is packed with everything from Mozart to Creed, Metallica to Pat Green. I enjoy the sounds of the songs. Lyrics to me come into play, especially if the sound that accompanies them are really complimentary. I have never really been one for the mosh pits. I will sing with the song as they play it and clap to the beat. My legs generally get a good workout from the tapping. You know you do it too. Especially in the car driving.
It's great going to concerts and hearing new bands for the first time. Cage the Elephant is a band that I thought I had never heard of until they played their hit "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked." Very Beckish in sound, but definitely a catchy tune. The group put on a helluva show keeping the crowd involved. The singer spent a good time in the crowd either body surfing (with a wired mic BTW), or walking around the front singing with the crowd. I have always liked bands that interact with fans. Being a novice to the group, as were some of the other fans, it was pretty cool hearing 'No Rest for the Wicked' and knowing the song. The crowd got really loud when they heard the song and realized it was them. Every get that feeling of I know this song but don't know who it is and you happen to be at the concert when you hear it again? Yeah, that kind of moment.
Towards the end of Cage's set, the singer had to of given himself one HUGE headache. After spending half the song on the floor with the fans, he got tossed back on stage by security, he began to go into a flopping fish routine. Looked like he was having a nice little seizure. You know the bottle of ibuprofen was waiting for him backstage. It was hilarious because he kept on singing and didn't miss a beat.
All in all, Cage the Elephant is group you need to look up and check out. I know we are.
Once Cage was gone and the house lights came on, the crowd was beginning to fill in. I laughed because of the fascination with Jered Leto. I had heard plenty about his acting and wanting to be an artist. 30STM is not new to me, but like with every band, you don't always know every song. 'The Kill' and 'From Yesterday' have been radio regulars, and hearing some of their new stuff made this trip nice because there were no preconceived feelings on the band. The show started out with the expected screams from the females when Jered came onto stage. I will give it to him though, he sounds pretty damn good in person. There wasn't a whole lot of change between the CD and live. Definite bonus. Live music is so much better than studio b/c it is real. No multiple takes and layering of music.
Like Cage the Elephant, Leto worked the crowd and tried to get them pumped up. He even hopped down and got into the crowd and had them sing part of a chorus with him before he made his way to the back of the house and stood up where the sound board was at and talk about insane…
As much as been talked about Leto's ego, attitude, however you want to put it, yeah, you could see it, but to be honest, the man can sing. Plain and simple. 30 Seconds pulled out a rare trick out Thursday night that you wouldn't see a lot of bigger bands do. Their new album "This is War" was due to drop five days after the show, but they were selling it at the show, and as an added bonus, the band was set up at a table to sign autographs at the end of the show. NUTS!! As the show winded down, I got in line with my step-son, cd in hand, to get it autographed for my wife, huge Leto fan, as a perfect Christmas gift. Already knowing I had the CD before it hit the shelves was good enough for her, I tried for the autograph. Yeah, so didn't happen. As great of an idea as it may have sounded, the layout for it was not ideal. They didn't set up any kind of perimeter for fans staying and leaving, so there was a major jam of people trying to get to the table. We were probably a hundred or so deep, easy, and after moving maybe eight feet in thirty minutes, we decided to roll and beat traffic. The wife wasn't too disappointed. She would have stayed and understood why we didn't. I would have just gone to the truck and chilled while she stood in line.
All in all, 30STM and Cage the Elephant put on a terrific show. We have pictures up on our Facebook page (search of ITZ Magazine). Hopefully we will be able to get readers and fans of ITZ to some of these concerts so they can enjoy the experience as well. Be on the lookout.