Saturday, December 19, 2009
What to Do This Weekend: Thirty Seconds to Mars
Posted by Michael Gallucci on Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto is kind of a douche. He’s surly, confrontational and generally unpleasant. Maybe it’s just another role for the actor, best known for My So-Called Life, Fight Club and Requiem for a Dream. Maybe “asshole rock star” is his performance of a lifetime. None of that would matter much if his band’s music wasn’t so aggressively dull. Copping their attitude from any number of ’90s modern-rockers, Thirty Seconds to Mars pile so many sounds onto their songs, they’re stifled beneath all the weight. It’s been four years since their last, breakthrough album, but Leto spills his heart out on the new This Is War like he’s still seething from a decade-old altercation. It’s an overwrought and overproduced record filled with the all-purpose declarations of pain and misery that made A Beautiful Lie a hit. Sulk with Leto and Thirty Seconds to Mars when they headline Radio 92.3’s Holiday on Mars show at House of Blues (308 Euclid Ave., 216.523.2583, houseofblues.com). Showtime is 8 p.m. Saturday. It’s sold out. —Michael Gallucci
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