30STM in Philly (Post 1 of 2)
Well, I went hog wild and took off Monday 03/20 to Wednesday 03/22. Monday was mostly to rest up and get some errands done. Besides, who likes to go to work for one day.
Drove to Philly Tuesday morning. Stayed in the same hotel my family stayed at for my cousin's wedding, so it was familiar. Not a bad drive. Much much better than the trip to the wedding, where there was a huge multi hour snarl of traffic. Actually got to check in before noon. Cool. Called celeste_506 and dumped my suitcase in the room.
Like my visit with sabriel_0405, Celeste and I got along like we'd been real life friends forever. Just this instant karma.
We went to a local Italian restaurant for lunch. Don't recall the name. Beautiful restaurant, nice food. Excellent company.
We went ahead and drove down to South Street. We hung out in the Copabanana, several doors down from the TLA (Theatre of Living Arts). Bob the bartender was a trip. He entertained us with Movie reviews and trivia. (The second X-Men movie was on the tv.) That was probabaly the closest I've ever gotten to the whole Cheers experience.
Bob had very specific tastes when it comes to movies. Not mine, mind you. After he trashed "Alexander" and said he didn't understand the appeal of Colin Farrell, I figured I shouldn't mention the front man of the band we were going to see. *g*
We also were joined (in the strange bar chat) with a local man that worked as a drummer. He's the kind of dad who his kid's friends like, but his kids are mortally embarrassed of. We also learned that Bob's girl was expecting his first child. He decided he was going to be the kinda dad who embarrasses their kids. LOL. Said he couldn't pull off the overly authoritarian dad.
After the drummer left, we had two other gentlemen join us in the movie chat. They were going to see a concert as well. One of the former members of the Kinks. They were neighbors. I think the one gentleman was gay, just from his manorisms. He was the chatty one. He asked about my shirt. I sketched the phoenix on the shoulder of a red shirt. So I told them about 30STM. You know, it's really hard for me to describe their music beyond the they're a rock group that's getting radio play on some alternative stations. And after Bob's comments I didn't bother with the Jared Leto - the actor angle.
LOL. Sometime during the bar chat, Celeste showed me her cheat sheet. She doesn't follow 30STM as obsessively as I do. So I sent her a picture before I left on Tuesday with the first names of the boys along with their role in the band. She had written down the name-role pairs. *g*
Had a bite to eat at the Copa before heading out to join the line forming in front of the TLA. Pretty nice crowd. Young. The girls in front of us were high school seniors. Very sweet girls.
I was standing sideways most of the time, watching up and down the line of people. And who do I happen to see walking toward the theatre, but the handsome Leto brothers. *g* Shannon was looking very sexy in a black leather coat, tight black pants (jeans?), boots, and dark sunglasses. I recognized him first. Jared was hiding in that black pea coat and the Castro hat pulled down over his face. If he hadn't been walking with Shannon, the lightbulb might not have gone off. *g*
I poked Celeste and tried to motion backwards with my head (trying to be subtle), then when they passed us, I poked her again and gestured to them. *g* She asked if they were posers or something. Ummm, nope. They're the guys we're here to see.
I guess Jared went into the TLA, but Shannon wandered up and down the opposite side of the street talking on his cell phone. Sorry, no pics. I didn't think of it till Shannon wandered off in the opposite direction.
One of the girls in front of us had run across the street for Starbucks. She said Jared was in there. Guess that's where they appeared from *g*
Finally got in the doors at 7. We bought CD's and went up to the balcony or, as Jared called it, the VIP seats. There were bar stools up in the balcony and in the bar. The rest of the venue was standing room only. We got dead center in the front of the balcony -- excellent seats.
In Philly, they let you buy either the self-titled or ABL to get signed. They were very strict about kicking out people that didn't buy a album. Celeste bought the self-titled, since she only had ABL up to that point. I bought my 6th copy of ABL. (1 copy of the pre-release I found on eBay. Two copies that I got the day the album was dropped. One I bought as an attempt to get the foreign release with the extra track. It didn't have the extra track, but it was one of the silver cd's. And the 5th was an actual foreign release (from Hong Kong) with the "Was it a Dream?" acoustic track.)
Back to the concert. The line-up was Moth Meets Machine, Emanuel (who managed to replace their instruments after the Texas car accident), Aiden, and of course 30STM.
7:00pm: Doors
7:30pm: TBA Moth Meets Machine
8:15pm: Emanuel
9:00pm: Aiden
10:00pm: Thirty Seconds to Mars
Moth Meets Machine was a local group. They were very loud. You really couldn't understand the lyrics. But they were such sweet guys. They were so enthusiastic about getting to be an opening act for 30STM. The lead singer was kinda cute in the boy next door kinda way.
Moth Meets Machine:
Website: http://www.mothmeetsmachine.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mothmeetsmachine
Actually, the song that streams on myspace isn't bad. Pic below from their myspace account. Singer is the one on the far right.
Emanuel:
Website: http://www.thisisemanuel.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/emanuel (Think that's the right link)
Emanuel had a car accident on 3/11/2006 in San Antonio. No one was hurt, but their van and all their equipment was destroyed. (There is info and pics on their site about the crash. Glad no one was hurt.) This was the first date when they returned to the tour. I think Celeste said it best, they needn't have returned in time for Philly.
Moth Meets Machine was loud. Emanuel was loud and abrasive. (And a quick listen online, yeah, still not my cup of tea.) Didn't like the music or the talk in between songs. Lead singer decided he should throw fuck in every other sentence. Jared manages to make cursing charming. This guy ... didn't. Also, thought he'd been spending a lot of time watching Mick Jagger. Just something in the way he moved.
The final opening act was Aiden.
Aiden:
Website: http://www.aiden.org/ (Ok, that was freaky. They have the 30STM trinity logo up on the splash page. *g*)
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/aiden
Aiden is again not my type of music. They had more potential than Emanuel. But they also had some strange "watching a traffic accident" type of appeal. Emanuel had a small baby Mosh Pit of about 6 people, they seemed to have about as many fans in the audience. *g* Aiden encouraged a huge Mosh Pit. He divided the room and a la Braveheart told half the room they were Scottish and half they were English.
Well, now I can say I've seen a Mosh Pit. And I am grateful for the VIP seats way above the insanity.
All but the first opening act did the throw the water bottle into the audience thing. Aiden's lead singer decided to also spit out water over the audience. Ewwww.
Oh, and both the singer and one of the guitarists decided to crowd surf. Ummmm. When Jared does it, it's with a wireless mike. Aiden's singer did so with a wired mike. And the guitarist did so holding the guitar. WTF?
Aiden is a bit on the goth side. They said they're coming back to Philly (summer?) with HIM. I think that's probably a better match for them. None of the opening acts "felt" like 30STM.
Ok, getting long winded. I think I'll start a second post for the main event. *g*
Linky to part 2.