Australian four piece Angela’s Dish scored the opportunity to open the momentous night for the US rockers at The Arena. They played a solid set with confidence and even received some crowd participation. However, as anticipated the crowd was restless but generally seemed to be enjoying the vibe or maybe it was the countdown to the main act.

Tonight it was Brisbane’s turn to experience 30 Seconds to Mars first tour in Australia. Setting the mood for their otherworldly experience the stage design included oriental lanterns hanging from the ceiling and the trinity logo featured in their second album A Beautiful Lie as their backdrop. With a kill of the lights and epic music blaring over the speakers this was the moment the full capacity crowd had been dreaming about for a long time.

30 Seconds to Mars ran on stage fully masked (reminiscent of their From Yesterday music video) as they launched into the title track off their latest album A Beautiful Lie which translates far better live. They then played a high impact Battle of One courtesy of drummer Shannon Leto’s energetic pace and the crowd was very enthusiastic singing along to favourites such as From Yesterday and even carried parts of songs such as during The Fantasy. During The Kill front man Jared Leto even jumped into the audience in a brave attempt to intimately connect with the crowd.

Their high energy performance was both aurally and visually enjoyable as guitarist Tomo Milicevic and Jared Leto interacted with each other spinning with their guitars and rocking out – seemingly enjoying the performance as much as the eager audience. Leto certainly has the makings of a great front man evidenced by his sheer ability to control the crowd with ease and his theatrical presence using the stage to full capacity.

A memorable moment of the night included Leto’s acoustic solo encore performance of crowd request Echelon from their self titled album which was followed by A Modern Myth. He became completely lost in the performance and was blissfully unaware of all the chaos reigning merely a metre in front of his feet.

30 Seconds to Mars then finished the show with a riotous rendition of Attack leaving the crowd eagerly anticipating the band’s return to Australian shores which they have pledged to fulfil “again and again and again.”