LIVE REVIEW: Thirty Seconds To Mars, Jagwar Twin, OVO Hydro, Glasgow, 06/06/2024
Photo Credit: Alia Thomas – Birmingham Utilita Arena – 9th June
On a very poignant day when D-Day commemorations were happening around the UK and France Thirty Seconds To Mars brought their re-arranged tour to the OVO Hydro arena by the banks of the river Clyde. Singer and actor Jared Leto had acting commitments in April hence the tour being rescheduled to June, but it was well worth the wait that’s for sure. There would have been around 7000 in the arena at 7.30pm when Jagwar Twin (aka Roy English) took to the stage in traditional Scottish dress commenting that it feels pretty god damn sexy! Hailing from Orange County, California the trio on stage played a mixture of alternative rock, rap and breakbeats mainly from the 2022 album 33 with The Circle and Down To You opening the set. Soul Is A Star was a very emotional moment for Roy English, the guitarist plays an amazing solo before English tells the story of how last year was one of the hardest of his life, no money, no home, the phone torches were out for this special moment. This was another great example of how open modern musicians are to talking about their mental health. The mood was lightened a little after this as the crowd joined in a short version of the Scottish classic Ye Cannie Shove Yer Granny Aff The Bus!
The best two tracks are left to the end of the 40-minute set, Happy Face has the growing crowd singing along to what is by far their biggest song. By this point the vocalist has went full highlander and ‘taps aff’ as we say in Glasgow, we thought Willi Wonka was going to make an appearance for the last track of the set – Bad Feeling (Oompa Loompa) – as Jagwar Twin played his version of the Charlie & The Chocolate Factory song keeping the crowd entertained with the lyrics “Oompa Loompa, doompa-de-doo/I got a bad feeling ‘bout you”. There was even an attempt at some traditional Scottish dancing towards the end, a very entertaining set and this tour will bring Jagwar Twin into the spotlight. 7/10
As the countdown for take off from 100 down to 30 appears on the huge screens Thirty Seconds To Mars enter the arena from the side of the stage, fist bumping the fans as the pass by amid great scenes. The Hydro arena setup tonight was interesting with a VIP cage perched up on either side of the stage and the fans split in two sections, front circle and real circle and a large walkway for the band/fans to get more intimate. The trio got down to entertaining the fans immediately with Up In The Air, one of two track taken from the 2013 album LOVE LUST FAITH + DREAMS, confetti cannons and pyrotechnics kept the excitement high for the 12000 or so in the arena, Kings and Queens prompts the first singalong of many tonight, this was the start everyone wanted. Jared Leto was dressed for the occasion in an orange and black tartan kilt, silver and red cape and black and white gloves looking as if he has come straight from a movie set, Shannon Leto also wore his kilt. We then had two tracks from 2018’s AMERICA album starting with Walk On Water prompting another singalong from the crowd followed by Rescue Me a very memorable moment as Leto hand picks a few fans to join in for some Scottish dancing, one of the highlights of the night, the crowd interaction here was special. Next up is Seasons, the first of only three from the bands latest released album It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day, the acoustic intro as the drummer moves to the front of the walkway alongside Leto.
Before Hail To The Victor, Jared announces that their grandmother was Scottish “Hail to the Scots” he says, as guitarist Stevie Aiello goes off on a tangent with a magnificent guitar solo. Hurricane was interesting as the vocalist holds up a flare and he goes even further with the next track This Is War as the flamethrower comes out, we could actually feel the intensity of the heat coming from the flames up in the balcony seating! The crowd came to life for this one, the highlight of the set for us while the charismatic frontman decided to walk through the crowd during A Beautiful Lie, rock at it’s finest here! We then head into a few acoustic tracks as the band take requests from the fans with Alibi, The Kill (Bury Me), Was It A Dream and Attack being the tracks chosen, but only the chorus is played for each song perhaps not working out the way they had planned it to? The only cover during the set was Micky Ekko track Stay when dozens of balloons were released into the crowd, the guitar on this track were excellent. City Of Angels sees everyone get the camera torches on, the chants during this song reminded us of U2 track I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, we were then treated to the first play on the tour of Never Not Love You, great moment. The encore began with Stuck followed by The Kill (Bury Me) with Leto again inviting dozens of fans on to the stage which was now jam packed with smiling faces enjoying their moment of fame. The singer also requested that he wants 200 people up on shoulders, can it happen? Well they were damn close if not! The night ends with Closer To The Edge, a track from the 2010 album This Is War, the energy from all those fans still on the stage was delightful to see as everyone joined in for one final singalong “No, I’m not saying I’m sorry/One day maybe we’ll meet again”. A memorable end to the night then. The tour is heading to Europe and then back to the USA next month. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
Photo Credit: Alia Thomas – Birmingham Utilita Arena – 9th June
