New 30 Seconds to Mars Music Video!

The “Closer to the Edge” music video for 30 Seconds to Mars’ European single from their This Is War album has finally been released. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Now we just gotta wait for the video for “This Is War” and for Archive and their live DVD to drop!

BARB!EK!LLER

PS: you can now download it here. Get it while you can!

30 Seconds To Mars’ “Closer To The Edge” Music Video

Really, this is a fabulous day to be a member of the Echelon.

After spending  just two shows with other fans of 30 Seconds to Mars, I have come to the serious conclusion that I will be able to go to any other show and not have as much of a memorable night as I did in Philly and Allentown. Shannon, Tomo, Jared and Tim have an energy that cannot be duplicated by any one else! Plus, there is such a unity not only amongst the members of the crowd but between the crowd and the band as well. I have never experienced something like it before and while I suggest that each and every single one of you go to a 30STM show, I know that most of you won’t.

However, the guys have blessed the members of the Echelon and all of their fans with a beautiful video compilation of clips from their lives shows and made an entire music video out of it for their new single “Closer To The Edge”, which Jared said will be publicly released tomorrow. The video above is a video camera recorded version that was taken from the early release of the video over in New Zealand.

While Bartholomew Cubbins has gifted us with absolutely stunning videos, I have to say that I think this is going to be my favorite. I absolutely got chills just watching it and I have to say that I don’t think anyone will truly appreciate it unless you have experienced it yourselves. But anyways, keep an eye out for it and take the time to watch the video before it gets removed by shitty ass EMI!

BARB!EK!LLER

An Insane Day In Allentown!

I have been to more shows in my life than I can possibly count. Some of them were shows that I actually went to because I knew a band that was performing and some shows I just went to because I got in for free. Either way, there is nothing like a 30 Seconds to Mars show. After winning tickets from Radio 104.5 in April for the Electric Factory show, I knew that I HAD to go to another show. For some reason, the guys planned to do a show in Allentown a little bit over a month later.

Now, for those who don’t know, the Croc Rock is such a fucking shitty venue; only beat by the shittier Trocadero. As I found out during that concert, they didn’t have any air conditioning and a show in the middle of summer with no air conditioning and a small ass packed room is enough to make you feel like you are dying.

Anyways, my grandparents and I left the house around 1:30 and we stopped for lunch before driving our way up to Allentown. We finally made it around 3:30 and my grandmother and I grabbed our chairs and took our places in the already somewhat filled alleyway. Thing is, 30STM’s fans are die hard. They will show up extremely early and stay extremely late but I didn’t expect for like fifty or so people to already be there. The wait went really quick though as we made friends with the nice ladies sitting next to us (Josette and Nicole), who we spent the rest of the show with and I caught up with Angela. Then Patricia showed up and we spent some time with her before she finally went to sit in the bar and wait for Patrice and Lisa.

While we sat there, Fred (ex-singer/guitarist for Taking Back Sunday and current singer for Terrible Things) came outside for a brief moment and Tomo came out as well, hurriedly making his way to the tour bus. Hardly anybody noticed his departure but a lot of people caught him on his way back into the building and he stopped to say hi and to take pictures and sign autographs.

The doors were supposed to open at 7 but, as usual, the doors opened up late and we were hurriedly ushered through the doors and up the steps to the stage. My grandmother went off to stand by the side of the floor while Nicole, Josette and I made our way onto the floor. Surprisingly we didn’t get that far away from the stage and everything was going smoothly until people tried skipping in front of us. Josette ended up on the side with my grandma while Nicole and I decided to brave the crowd.

The time spent in the crowd alone is going to make this show the most noticeable for me. I made friends with a rather large group of people (Mike; Danielle, who remembered me from Philly; Kelly; Dominique; Jess; Gwen; Lisa and anybody else I may have forgot). Mike was fucking hilarious and I’m not going to go into reasons why but just know that he looked pretty much exactly like his mancrush Jared Leto, down to the pink mohawk and everything. That whole night was filled with laughs and dildos (*cough*Jess*cough*) until the show started.

Terrible Things weren’t exactly my cup of tea, and it appeared from a quick look around the crowd that the audience agreed. Once they were off and we waited some more for the instruments to get set, 30STM finally came out. Shannon took his place behind the drums and Tomo stepped out with his spiked helmet on and a gas mask. Jared sang “Escape” from off stage and then finally came running out, wearing a uniform jacket and facepant, where he played the rest of the set. I was pleased to hear that his voice was considerably better and it didn’t take him any time at all to teach the crowd their parts that they needed to sing. I have never heard a crowd as loud as the Allentown show and sometimes it was hard to hear him over us. Jared looked genuinely pleased with us and excited to be there despite the fact that he said he was running on like 5 hours of sleep for the whole week.

The dildos were thrown on stage and he threw one back into the crowd after going on a bit about hoping that they weren’t used. He beckoned us all to take three steps forward and he wasn’t happy when we didn’t move but there was honestly no room to move, we were packed in there like sardines. He commented on Lester about how he was going to be in the new music video for his signature standing on top of people in the crowd. Then it was time for the acoustic set and Jared sounded absolutely beautiful. You can catch some of that here. Then they went back into more This Is War songs before stepping off stage where they waited until the came back to do “Kings and Queens”, Mike got up on stage and after I lifted Nicole up to crowd surf, so did she.

The set was very short compared to their other shows and I kind of blame that on the venue for being so excruciatingly hot. However, it didn’t matter to me because they put on an amazing show and I got one of Jared’s guitar picks out of that along with Tim’s signature and a whole slew of new friends.

I never went to a show where you can meet and connect with so many people. 30STM fans are amazing and I am insanely proud to be apart of the Echelon!!! I love you all and thank you for making Allentown amazing for me.

BARB!EK!LLER