KROQ Epicenter Twenty-Ten: Thirty Seconds to Mars

Photo by Alex Rauch

Rock star, famous actor, gorgeous sex symbol: Jared Leto is the teen dream. This man knows how to entertain (and make girls scream). And that’s not to discredit the star power of the rest of the members of Thirty Seconds To Mars.

Jared’s brother Shannon Leto was a veritable animal on the drum set and Tomo Miličević bit into some sick power chords. It’s evident that this is neither a hobby amongst brothers, nor an exploitative vie for more fame on Jared’s part. This is pure, passionate performance.

A purple twilight began to set in on the sun-burnt audience and girls began to push themselves up towards the stage. Backstage was filling up in what looked like a scene from our hypothetical movie called “Attack of The Killer Groupies.” Amazing taiko drummers took the stage with Shannon, setting the tone of the set as something sexy, rhythmic, and luscious.

Young women in their denim booty shorts, torn up band tees, and botoxed lips screeched “Hey, hey! Wave at him! He’s facing us now!” The “he” in question was obviously Jared Leto. Wearing a white leather jacket, red fingerless gloves, black skinny jeans, with a bleached blonde mullet, Jared is skinnier than ever but wearing a consummate smile.

[Photo Gallery] KROQ Epicenter…

This wasn’t just a concert; this was a theatrical performance. Jared has a command over the audience that we have never seen from any musician. He threw out bottles of water to the thirsty audience, engaged them in shouting competitions, pointed out specific fans, and even took a fire hose in between his legs and sprayed down the audience (that’s what she said.)

Of course the performance wasn’t only about a crush-worthy celeb squirting girls with his long hose; Thirty Seconds to Mars are amazing musicians performing songs like “The Kill,” “Night of The Hunter,” “This is War,” and “Attack” with flawless execution. It sometimes seems like unmentionable musicians are hard pressed to be enthusiastic about their performances but Thirty Seconds to Mars seemed to be having the best times of their lives.

Jared even said to the audience as a sort of mantra, “Our mission is to make sure you have the best time of your f**king life.” His level of engagement with the audience made everyone feel as if he was singing specifically to them which is the hallmark of having that “X” factor. And the most heartwarming part of it all, is that every time Jared turned away from the audience, he smiled. He obviously loves his fans.

The show ended the most epic way possible: Thirty Seconds to Mars grabbed the groupies on the side stage and lifted some of the audience members up so that they could sing with them. Then they washed the audience with purple light as they threw out giant white balls. The purple of the lights matched the previous purple of the twilight and the taiko drummers rejoined Thirty Seconds To Mars onstage.

Everything had come full circle. And for a split second, every single person in the audience believed that this moment was made for them which is “such a beautiful lie to believe in.”