Thirty Seconds to Mars, Arena Birmingham - review

Bounding around the stage with his regal cape fluttering behind, the Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman commanded the arena.

When Jared said ‘jump’ the whole standing section of Arena Birmingham pogoed as one. When Jared said ‘stand up’ the seated audience leapt to their feet. And when Jared says ‘open up the mosh pit’ – well you better stand back.

There was certainly pressure on Leto to entertain as the trio had become two – lead guitarist Tomo Milicevic has pulled out of the Monolith Tour to deal with ‘personal issues’. Leaving just Leto and brother Shannon, on drums, to own the stage.

But from the moment the house lights went down, this didn't look like it would be a problem. The brothers certainly like to make an entrance.

In a sci-fi moment, lights appeared in a huge crate-like ‘monolith’ in the centre of the arena as the sides began to rise forming a huge lighting rig – and revealing Jared and Shannon Leto.

They fired into such energetic tracks as Up in the Air and the favourite Kings and Queens with the enthusiasm and stage presence of an entire band. Leto interacted with the crowd straight away and almost immediately had the arena jumping, clapping and singing along.

The anthemic Search and Destroy from the This is War album, followed by the title track, united the crowd in song before dozens of enormous, inflated balls descended on the arena to be bounced and kicked around.

Chatting to the crowd once more Jared, in glittery gauntlets befitting royalty, invited two fans – including a lively ‘Nathan from Birmingham’ on stage to lead a ‘sing-off’ between the two sides of the arena.

The exuberance reached a crescendo with their biggest hit The Kill (Bury Me) from 2006, before the energy levels were taken down a little for a beautiful cover of Rihanna’s Stay – performed with a sultriness that she could only dream of (and while fully clothed!)

The pace stepped up again with Hurricane, popular sing-along City of Angels, the ‘hard-core’ Night of the Hunter before going into the encore with Rider, a new song from their fifth album which will be released on April 6 (as Jared may have mentioned once or twice). A relatively tame song and surprising choice to end this section.

They returned with another new song, Walk on Water, which has been a recent chart hit and has a very catchy chorus to inject some excitement back into the eager-to-sing crowd.

Dozens of fans then joined the band on stage, with Jared hand-picking ‘the crazy ones’ to finish with another This is War classic Closer to the Edge.

This was the Jared Leto show – with the man and the music running at 100mph from the off. It is impossible not to be completely absorbed by this charismatic frontman and caught up in the energetic performance.

Leto is king and clearly adored by his thousands of loyal subjects. After last night’s performance – long live the king.