March 19th 2010 -
The day which I have longed for for six years: 30 Seconds To Mars concert in Vienna!
I was going there again with my best friend Neumi and her boyfriend Phillip. So at 1:00 p.m. we drove away from Bad Ischl towards Vienna. During the driving we listened (of course) to all three 30 STM albums. A way of revision because I haven’t listened to the older ones for quite some time
At about 4:00 p.m. we were arriving in Hütteldorf (a part of Vienna) where we parked our car and then we drove with the subway to the city centre.
We were driving to the railway station and went to our youth hostel “wombats – the base” (so this awesome night had another positive side effect – I completed my wombats series , which means that I’ve been to all hostels which exist now – they’re cool, if you ever come to Vienna you have to stay in wombats
) which was really nice but I already knew that from the other three hostels I’ve been in.
It was already time to leave, so we quickly packed the few things we took with us together and went for a little snack to a McDonald’s in the Mariahilfer Straße.
Afterwards we took the subway to the Gasometer (where the concert took place). When we arrived there, we first went into the shopping centre but thought “No! This can’t be here! Out again!!!” but then another subway arrived and we followed to people to the right hall.
There were already a lot of people waiting outside but not as many as at the Placebo concert, so I didn’t get worried. The dumb thing was that the queue was forming alongside the pavement, nothing unusual, but the parking space was right next to the concert hall and so car were driving to where the people were and this was quite annoying … and it lead to the fact, that people weren’t lining up anymore but just made their way forward, which I thought was really unfair, but what could you do?
Talking about people here: A few great sights again:
Two girls with HUGE black tied ribbons in their hair, a girl with a (completely awful) 30 STM hat and a poser who tried to look like Shannon but FAILED!!!!
Oh yes, and the people from the 30 STM street team Vienna were handing out self-made flags with the pyramid on them … they didn’t look very good, but it’s the idea that counts. Right?
Phillip went to a toilet in the shopping centre and when he returned, he handed both of us a bottle of Zipfer Radler (mixture of beer and lemonade). That was really nice of him! And it was good!
As we waited in front of the building, another band called “Youno” was building up their stage next to the Gasometer on the roof of their bus.
The bad thing was that they started playing when we were almost in the building so the timing wasn’t exactly a good one.
When we were in, Neumi and I bought the “Into The Wild”-Tour t-shirt and I decided to buy a programme and a poster later on. We decided to wear it over our shirts because we didn’t have a bag with us where we could put it.
And then the big search for the concert hall started. This sounds pretty weird but it wasn’t that easy to find the regular entrance. We asked some security and he said either at the complete left or on the complete right. So we went to the complete left and really found the entrance which was really well hidden. I wonder what the objective behind that is …
When we were in there, we realized that the place was rather small, at least compared to the Stadthalle in Vienna (nobody had been to the Gasometer before). In there, Phillip bought us a vodka orange and then we looked out for a good place to stand. We decided to stand at the left side of the stage (again) but this time closer. I had a really good view of the whole stage which I never thought possible when we were waiting outside.
Then it was time for the first support group: Street Drum Corps.
If I ever read that name somewhere again I’m sure I’ll bring ear plugs! I don’t know what other people think of it and maybe it was because we were right in front of the loudspeaker or because the acoustic wasn’t settled but it was horrible! Loud, loud, and LOUD!!!! My ears were hurting like hell afterwards. They were drumming on dustbins and playing guitar with a lot of base and the singer wore trousers and didn’t close his fly. Either on purpose or not but for him I hope that it was the first one. A lot of people liked that sh*t but I just felt sorry for my ears. At the second half of their performance the singer appeared in nothing but black and yellow and pink tights and a gas mask! I mean WTFF????? And he was acting like he was shot and then “shot” in the audience with his mikestand … yeah, alright. This was when I decided to go to the toilet and guess what? The toilets were exactly over the concert hall and they were vibrating!!! Interesting feeling, I can tell you!
Well, the seconds support band was better, they were called Carpark North from Denmark and they were really good! I liked them a lot and it was very regenerating for my ears!
Alright and what followed next was the longest half of an hour ever!!! 9:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. until 30 STM started to play.
But then it finally started! 30 Seconds To Mars and I loved it!!!!
They started with “Escape” as an intro and then the black curtain, which had been hiding the stage before, fell and there they were! FINALLY!!!
Setlist:
Escape
Night Of The Hunter
Attack
Vox Populi
From Yesterday
A Beautiful Lie
This Is War
100 Suns
L490
Hurricane
Alibi
Revenge
The Kill
Closer To The Edge
Search and Destroy
The Fantasy
Encore:
Kings And Queens
Alright, I try to mention everything I remember, either with the song or elsewhere, which is because at certain things I don’t remember when they were exactly.
At “Night Of The Hunter” Jared appeared with sunglasses … well, they looked cool yeah, but I was a bit afraid that he fell over something
But after one song he put them off … phew … *gg*
And he was running and jumping around on stage! It was amazing! What I really loved about the concert was, that he also went to the sides of the stage quite often, so that everybody could see him, at least for a while. That was really nice.
When they played “Attack” my happiness rose immediately because that was my favorite song of the last album and I just loved the fact that they played it.
I think there, Jared wanted from the back of the hall that they stepped three big steps forward but they just didn’t. He tried and tried but nobody did anything. So he was like “Do you understand me?” As they didn’t do anything again he was like “We need a little bit of practice on that.” And then he went over to our side of the stage. “You think you can do that?” And we were all screaming like mad. And he went “You know, the idea behind this was to get you closer to the stage.” And everybody laughed again. Well, we did it then and I was pleased that my view on the stage improved! There were just people in front of me now who were smaller than me. Woo-hoo!
At “Vox Populi” the guys of Street Drum Corps appeared again and made showed us how to do all the acoustic stuff but it wasn’t THAT loud anymore, thankfully. And you do most of it with your hands and feet anyway so … it was good.
Then they played “From Yesterday” and “A Beautiful Lie” with the videos in the background (where they cut out Matt *sob*) and they did the same with “This Is War”. What I loved about that was that they put pics in the projection show which were really provoking like when the song goes “A moment to lie” they put a pic of George Bush there. Thumbs up!
“L490” was played by Shannon and a huge singing bowl and then he played the rest with his guitar sitting on the edge of the stage. Nice!
I think it was after that song when Jared appeared and asked us to sing something usual for Austria. But when nobody started he explained, “Oh come on! Something you sing at soccer games! Like …” and he sang the American hymn with na na na! That was really cool and the whole hall laughed. Well, we didn’t sing our hymn just some stuff I didn’t even know, but as it was similar to na na na it wasn’t a big problem
Then he talked a little bit like he had been to the “Palace” a couple of hours ago and he said that “Everybody talks about London or Rome or Paris but Vienna is beautiful!” And that he would move here and we could all visit him
Would be cool, yeah
I’ll definitely remind him of that offer. *gg*
I’m sure he says that in every city they play in but I thought it was really nice of him.
And then he asked “For how many people is this their first 30 Seconds To Mars concert?” and a lot f people raised their hands. Next question was the best: “How many people don’t understand what I’m saying?” Apparently somebody in the middle raised his hand because Jared pointed there and smiled.
Then he played “Hurricane” on the piano (beautiful) and “Alibi” acoustic on his guitar. One word: *yearning*
Then he asked us what song we would like to hear and everybody shouted and shouted and suddenly he said “You don’t know that song.” a bit skeptically and then he started to play “Revenge”. Beautiful!
When they played “The Kill” Jared jumped at some point in the stage – on the other side of the stage. My luck! *gg* But the securities pulled him back quite quickly. We didn’t know what was going on until he started screaming in his mike “Stop! Stop the music!” and everybody stopped. “Alright. Nobody moves right now and looks if somebody is under them on the floor. Pick everybody up!” So we thought that he didn’t jump over the whole security barrier and kind of flew into the audience and knocked some people over. He then asked “Is everybody alright? Anybody still on the floor?” and then they played “The Kill” again. And he jumped again but this time everything went great … well, for the audience. Jared lost a shirt!
Seriously, somebody was ripping off his shirt. OMFG!!!
At “Search and Destroy” at the refrain Jared screamed all the time “I wanna see everybody jump!” and everybody did
great feeling! I loved that song.
And he made kind of a contest there: one side of the stage against the other with screaming along the song. I don’t know, you probably won’t know it, but there are some a-ah-ah’s in there (Jade knows I’m sure!
) and that was our contest. Our side won. *hehe*
Well, when they disappeared we sang our soccer-song again and Jared appeared again.
He played annoyed and was tripping with his foot on the floor, arms crossed in front of his chest: “You are wild animals. You ripped that shirt right off my back. … This is all I have left!” he said and pointed at his collar which didn’t rip off.
And then he started to get people up on the stage for “Kings & Queens” he even looked at me but didn’t put me up. *weep* He said everybody who could get up by stage diving but I didn’t try because nearly nobody got to the stage that way. There were about 20 people up there but I didn’t care that I wasn’t on there as well because he didn’t really care anyway.
During the concert Jared threw his water bowl into the audience and his pick and Shannon his drumsticks but I didn’t get one … *hmmm* Never mind, the evening was AMAZING!!!!
When we got out I bought my poster and my programme and then we were off to our youth hostel.
Oh, and what I almost forgot: I left my voice in the Gasometer =)
