Last week I went to see 30 Seconds to Mars in Cardiff as part of their Seasons tour. I’ve reached the ripe old age of 31, and up until now, had never been to a (big) music gig. I’d been to a couple of comedy shows - Michael McIntyre and Bill Bailey - and I’d been to two tiny, indie metal gigs to watch my friends band, Maelstrom, but I’d never been to an arena, or a festival, or seen a (big) artist perform at all.
Don’t feel sorry for me, I’d had plenty of opportunities to go to gigs and festivals, and even some chances to see some of my favourite bands. But I was just never fussed about them. I’d never heard a live version of a song that I thought sounded better, or even as good, as the recorded version I’d find on their albums. That coupled with the high ticket prices, being surrounded by hundreds of screaming people and queuing for ages for everything; it just never appealed to me. Basically the same reasons I’m not fussed about theme parks either 🤷♂️
My girlfriend really wanted to witness The Kill live, so I got us both tickets for her birthday (because I’m #1 bf)
Anyway, here’s a random collection thoughts on 30 Seconds to Mars Seasons gig in Cardiff, June 2024. Maybe spoilers below, I don’t know if that’s a thing for gigs?
The ticket buying process was a breeze. I’ve heard about the nightmare that is buying tickets through Ticketmaster, but I had absolutely no problems. Tickets were available, prices didn’t seem inflated, and the website worked without a hitch. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
The tickets themselves were about £70 each which to me was an insane amount of money (reminder: the only gig I’ve been to cost £4 and you got free earplugs on entry). The kicker though was that there are no physical tickets. I get it, digital society, I’m 100% in on that, but when it’s a present for someone, it’d be nice to have something physical to give them. No fear though, I made my own which I’m sure is how they would have looked anyway
As the performance was starting they began a countdown. That started at 100. That was funny tbh and the roar of the audience at 69 was ~ n i c e ~ The countdown stopped at 30 which confused me for a good few seconds
When Jared Leto appeared on stage, I felt like I was seeing something I wasn’t allowed to see. It felt a bit surreal tbh. Maybe I’m just not used to seeing celebrities
The performance was really good. Jared had really good presence on the stage, was very entertaining and sounded great - far better than I was expecting. There were fireworks and flames and Jared even pulled out a flamethrower at one point. There were screens either side of the stage which would cut between cameras focused on each member of the band, so it was really cool to be able to see so much of the drummer (who’s Jared’s brother! Who knew..).
And the set list was great. The Seasons tour was covering all of their albums so I was worried that I wouldn’t know a lot of their songs, especially if they focused on their newer albums - I’m not really up to date with them tbh. But I was pleasantly surprised to know at least 80% of what they played!
The volume of the whole performance was much lower than expected too. The small metal gigs I’ve been to have been ludicrously loud, like can’t heard properly for a couple of days loud. (I’ve got earplugs now). I was surprised that the 'Loud environment' warning didn’t trigger once on my Apple Watch
Now if you’ll indulge my 'old man yells at cloud' moment. Why is everyone on their phones all the time? There was a guy in front of me watching a Facebook live stream of a guy playing pool in his basement? I saw a guy record every single song they played, alternating between rear and front camera from time to time to get those sweet, completely overexposed selfie videos. You do you friend but I think we both know you’re never going to watch those videos again. But worst of all, why are so many people making video calls? I saw a woman call (presumably) her kids - they clearly couldn’t hear a thing and just looked so unimpressed by what they were seeing on their side. The pool livestream guy later tried to video call his mum (cute), but she didn’t answer, so he went through his contact list tapping on each person until someone answered, at which point there was a futile attempt at communication before he just flipped the camera and held it in the air for a minute or so.
phew glad I got that off my chest
My final observation was that the audience was just pretty lifeless compared to what I’d envisioned, and certainly compared to my girlfriend’s expectations and previous experiences. Sure there were people singing along, but there was a lot less movement than I was expecting - no bumping or pushing or shoving - which I found quite relieving tbh, but it did bring the whole energy down, must to my girlfriend’s disappointment. She thinks it’s because there were two types of standing tickets; an expensive, inner-circle ticket, and a cheaper, outer-circle ticket. We had the cheaper tickets and were separated from the inner-circle by massive barriers - we were probably 10 metres apart. We think the energy levels would have been higher in that inner-circle.
So my final thoughts on my first ever gig are pretty middling tbh. I had an alright time. It was fun to hear some songs I hadn’t heard for a very long time, and to sing along to them at the top of my lungs. The performance was really good; the lighting, videos, fireworks, smoke, stage presence etc etc were all top notch imo. But would I pay £70 to see them again? Probably not. Would I pay £70 to someone else? Also probably not. I didn’t come away in the state of awe that I think I was expecting, and I reckon for that money that I could buy all of their albums and blast them through my speakers at home and have just as much fun. Not to mention I wouldn’t have to pay £9 for a malibu and watery coke…