MTVu Campus Invasion, Tampa.

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When I hear the initials “MTV” my first thought isn’t exactly “good music”. Sure, MTV used to be a good station back in the 80s (or so I’ve heard) but today they’re just in it for the ratings, putting out crappy “reality” shows about people in Jersey and the OC (who falsely represent everyone from those areas…come on, fist pumpin’ and hair gel? No.) and occasionally playing small portions of music videos. We don’t even get the full song from them anymore! That’s why I was surprised to find out that they were going to put on a show with 30 Seconds to Mars, Neon Trees and New Politics! I had hope for MTV for a minute, but all hope was taken away when I arrived at the venue.

Due to circumstances out of our control, we didn’t have the luxury of arriving at the venue at 7am the way some other Echelon would have. If you know anyone in the 30 Seconds to Mars family, you know going to the extremes for this band is nothing unusual. Unfortunately, we were forced to arrive at the venue pretty much last minute. We even missed the New Politics set. Being in the Echelon myself, I could have dealt with that, but I forgot one crucial piece of information: this was a free show, at a college, on a friday night. We were stuck in the back of the crowd with stereotypical frat boy clones who were smoking weed and didn’t know squat about any of the bands.

To top it off, MTV kept filming the tour and getting people to “go wild” for their stupid cameras. The bit of attention directed at the stage came from the hard core fans standing up front.

Part of the reason I love rock shows so much is because they make me feel at home, everyone there is there for a common reason: the love of the music. And yes, we’ve had our fair share of douchebags. Getting burnt with cigarettes, trying to avoid fights with drunks, and trying not to get trampled on by the sea of fan girls who so desperately want to grab the singer’s crotch are all in our list of sucky moments at shows. But never have I felt completely out of place at a rock show before. And what made it worse was that I felt out of place at a 30 Seconds to Mars show. This is my favorite band and I consider The Echelon my family, this show felt wrong and the energy was completely off. I highly recommend avoiding MTV shows at all costs but if you absolutely MUST go, get there early and be up front with your fellow fans! Having my best friend with me helped but everyone around me just didn’t have the energy required for a good rock show.

Now that I’m done bitching out MTV, I’ll bet you all want to hear about the bands. Well as I said before, I didn’t get to see New Politics but Neon Trees and 30 Seconds to Mars both rocked the stage!

Neon Trees:

From what I’ve researched, Neon Trees first officially formed in 2005. It sure doesn’t seem that way! Tyler Glenn’s stage presence is everything you want in a frontman. He’s funny, energetic and, most importantly, talented!  I was only familiar with their song Animal, but every song they played was fun to listen to and they didn’t skip a beat.

It always makes me proud to see a girl who can hold her own in the rock world and between The White Stripes and Mindless Self Indulgence, I’ve gotten used to the thought of female drummers that can rock it just like the boys, but drummer Elaine Bradley shocked me when Tyler told us of how she had been sick enough to stay in bed just before the show but decided to take a flight down to Florida to perform for us anyway. And even more amazing is you never would have guessed she was sick throughout the show. Clearly this band isn’t just a hobby; dedication and passion are obvious in all the members of Neon Trees. Regardless of how little energy the crowd was giving back, they kept on engaging everyone and kept rocking! Even when Tyler had a moment of being tongue tied, he ran with it flawlessly and joked about himself. A band that knows how to keep moving in the face of every obstacle a show could present is a true rock n roll band, even if the music style itself isn’t traditionally “rock n roll”. They had a very poppy feel to them but something about Neon Trees still says “screw what you think, I’m doing this for the love of the music and the art”. Very punk rock, if you ask me.

30 Seconds to Mars:

Anyone else notice that the band you want to see the most always seems to take the longest setting up? 30 Seconds to Mars adds to this build up by playing epic songs like O Fortuna before revealing themselves on any stage. They make up for this build up by bringing a show packed full of energy from begining to end. Singer Jared Leto had the crowd constantly engaged by making us “jump and touch the sky” for just about every song. As energetic as Jared is, the rest of the band wasn’t holding still either. In fact, S and I had a difficult time getting any good pictures of guitarist Tomo Milicevic, who’s known for his incredible energy (and kick ass hair).

Every member of 30 Seconds to Mars had something to contribute. Even touring bassist Tim Kelleher has the same onstage energy and passion as the other members.

Drummer Shannon Leto gave the crowd a jumping break and slowed things down in the middle of the set for a few minutes by playing the song he wrote, L490, on his acoustic guitar with Tomo accompanying him on electric. If you’ve never heard L490, it’s a beautiful, simple and calming song. I’ve heard some people say it’s so soothing, it helped them get rid of their headaches.  If you don’t believe me, take a listen and decide for yourself:

Shannon and Tomo executed it flawlessly, just as they had for their other songs, and we even got to hear the chanting monks at the end, which freaked some of the new comers out (and provided some great entertainment for me to see them so freaked out).

Instead of permanently slowing down, the energy of the show just kept picking up and it was taking the crowd with it.  I had noticed a pattern with people around me criticizing the band but even they couldn’t resist the urge to jump around and have fun!

At one point, Jared Leto called the Echelon his family. If you’re in the Echelon, you get why. If you’re not, you probably think we’re full of the brown stuff. There was a girl behind me when Jared said this who said “Yeah right, he’s just saying that cause he’s kissing their ass”.  My first instinct was to roll my eyes and ignore her, but then I just had to smile.
As if the band knew they were going to have critics in the crowd questioning their love of the fans, they invited us on the stage for their performance of Kings and Queens. I didn’t believe it at first, I thought they were playing a joke. And then I remembered, this is 30 Seconds to Mars, they are anything BUT ordinary. Their music, their videos, and now even their live shows had the fans involved in every aspect.
My only disappointment was that they didn’t play any songs from their debut self-titled album, but there are only so many songs you can play during a set. If I had it my way, the show would have never ended. Even if you aren’t the biggest 30 Seconds to Mars fan, I highly reccommend going to one of their shows! It’ll be an experience like none you’ve ever had.

Provehito In Altum,
C

Found a fairly old school bumper sticker on the way into the venue. Also saw a Mithra one but didn’t get a pic. Echelon attack in full force 😉