"ELLE EST UNE MARS VIERGE"
26.7.2011
My big day began the way it usually does, waking up to ‘Vox Populi’ as my alarm went off from the other side of the room. I woke up with a smile on my face – today was the day. Tonight I would be going to my first ever 30 Seconds To Mars show.
After a quick breakfast at the hotel I decided to head off exploring by foot the streets of Kowloon. I headed up to the Ladies Markets (which don’t really only cater for us girls at all).
I headed back to the hotel about 3 hours before I had to leave, thinking I needed plenty of time to get ready, tweet like crazy and pretty much just compose myself. As the hours ticked past and it got closer and closer, I could feel my energy level and heart rate rising. I ended up almost being late because I couldn’t drag myself away from Twitter and the well wishes of my Echelon family from all around the globe, but of course, mainly my beautiful Aussie Echelon who have supported me every step of the way. I got a little emotional as I said goodbye to them, shut the hotel room door behind me and set off on the night I had been looking forward to for so long.
I headed downstairs and jumped in a cab; the ride only took around 15 minutes – of which I was tapping my feet on the floor and fidgeting with my bag in anticipation the whole time. This was it. It was time and it was happening.
When I arrived at KITEC I walked in, wearing my crown and another custom designed Mars shirt, to the curious looks of a few locals standing outside. I made my way up a few escalators, still wondering if I was going the right way until a familiar face from the night before at Hong Kong airport yelled out “Hey Bec!” Relief set in, but my excitement levels were through the roof seeing other people kitted out in Mars shirts, posters of 30 Seconds To Mars around the walls and the Merch shop visible behind a clear pull-down window.
I made my way over to the Golden Ticket table where I found more Echelon I’d met at the airport. I waited in line with them for around 40 minutes before Sarah came out to sort us all out. I put on my pink wristband and waited. Our group was small; only around 15 of us and we waited anxiously behind the barriers on the steps (to the dirty looks of some people who were waiting upstairs in line!) I got to know some of my fellow GT holders waiting here; a lovely girl from Japan who though didn’t speak much English was so friendly, a New Zealander who was lucky enough to be here on work at the same time as the concert and lots of Hong Kong Echelon who were all curious about why I’d travelled so far to be there. After about half an hour, the doors were open and we made our way inside.
One thing I noticed was the calm. There was no pushing or shoving or aggression, something that I usually endure when the doors first open at a concert. I guess that’s Echelon for you!
I managed to get a spot right at the front, centre of Jared’s ‘catwalk’ as I like to call it. I was at the Mars barrier and I couldn’t be happier. We waited for around half an hour before the general ticket holders came pouring in, which felt a bit chaotic by comparison.
After about half an hour, Mars’ road crew came on stage to sing us a few songs... Green Day, Foo Fighters... just to name a couple. Illy also came out to do a song and chill out the crowd. As 9pm ticked closer and closer, I began getting excited to a point where I could barely take it. The anticipation was growing and MARS was getting closer and closer.
At 9pm the lights went down and my heart started beating out of control. A familiar drumming started coming from the darkness.
As the intoxicating rhythm of Escape got louder and louder, the crowd screamed and I felt my stomach doing summersaults. Suddenly Shannon was on stage, drenched in spotlights, drumming to my right, Tomo was rocking out to my left – and barely visible through the dim lighting, Jared walked to the middle of the stage and got into position. Suddenly the lights FLASHED in our eyes and Jared’s silhouette, standing perfectly straight, looking down with his hands behind his back, was in front of us. THIS IS WAR! We all screamed.
The first song was ‘A Beautiful Lie’ accompanied by footage from the music video. Jared wore his sunglasses in true rock star fashion for this, spinning around in circles with his guitar. I couldn’t hold my camera still because I was shaking so hard. My body felt numb and I was loving every second!
Attack came on next, which I actually stopped videoing for because I wanted to jump around like an absolute lunatic! Search & Destroy was the next song. Half of the time I couldn’t even hear Jared singing because we were all singing along so loudly. Once again, the lights went down and “THIS IS WAR” flashed up on the screen and the crowd started chanting. Jared walked on stage and took off his sunglasses before breaking into song, grabbing a guitar and bopping left and right, singing. Tomo was also running around rocking out and Shannon was (as always) killing it on the drums.
Jared took a quick drink and threw the bottle to the crowd, causing a loud, frantic scream to my left. One thing that sticks out so clearly in my mind, is when the lyrics got to “To the leader, the pariah, the victim, the messiah” at “MESSIAH” Jared stopped singing, put his arms out to his sides and looked down. He spun around with his guitar again, screamed “Jump, Jump, Jump, Jump”, threw another half-full bottle of water to the crowd and then got us to sway our hands backwards and forward. We started chanting “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT” and the big red balls came out and started being bounced around on top of the crowd. Jared kicked a few to us before the lights changed and Jared was alone on stage to sing 100 Suns. Beautiful quotes appeared on the screen above him as well as stills from the This Is War video.
The next song up was Vox Populi. Tomo stood statue-like with his guitar raised above his head, stomping his feet to the beat. Jared appeared in the middle of stage and the lights went down. He ran down the stairs to the crowd and started shining his spotlight into our eyes. As the lyrics got to “ever wanna just stop?” the lights shut off and the music stopped. The crowd SCREAMED until out of the darkness Jared growled “Do you wanna surrender?” and ran around kicking the big red balls off stage. The lights went off again and all you could see was Jared’s spotlight aimed into the sky as he sang “Here we are at the start... I can feel the beating of our hearts.” I zoomed into Shannon, who was on his feet beating the hell out of his drums. Jared was doing a little side-to-side bop and then spun around with his guitar again before kicking the big red balls some more and almost kicking one straight into my face! [watch my video!] As he kicked it he ran down his catwalk right up to the edge of the stage where I was. Arhh I could almost reach out and touch him! Tomo was also running around in circles kicking the red balls and appeared to be having a fantastic time.
Next up, one of my absolute favourite songs; Night Of The Hunter. The song began with “Hong Kong I can’t hear ya” while Jared kicked the red balls into the crowd (again) before breaking into song. Jared lurked on the edge of the stage with a really piercing look in his eyes before jumping up and down and spinning around to the chorus. Something else that sticks out in my memory for whatever reason is the way he was “marching” across the stage throughout this song. I was zoomed in really close to Jared’s face at this point. He spun around in front of Shannon’s drums and he did some crazy eye action (which cracks me up) before marching across stage and down his runway to right in front of me. He reached out his hand so close that I could almost grab it. Jared went up to his raised stage to sing “honest to God i’ll break your heart...” and I zoomed in on Shannon who was going mental on his drum kit. Jared came back down his catwalk saying “Jump, Jump” and jumping up and down right in front of me.
At the end of the song, Tomo and Shannon left the stage leaving just Jared, drenched in the spotlight. He spoke to the crowd, saying they had been “looking forward to this [playing in Hong Kong] for a very long time” Jared then said “Does anyone have a request?” so I screamed as loud as I could “Revenge” over and over. Everyone seemed to be screaming ‘Alibi’ so Jared sang it. It was absolutely beautiful, I think the lighting added to the moment.
Then he went into an acoustic version of Hurricane which was completely amazing. As he sang “Do you really want me” he put his hand on his heart and everyone screamed “YES!” He then played around with his guitar for a moment, trying to find some notes I think... and then, out of nowhere he just hit that incredible note at the start of ‘Revenge’. I SCREAMED so loudly and then immediately broke down and started balling. People around me were trying to console me but I couldn’t stop crying. I wasn’t upset, I was happy and the only way I could think to explain was to tell them “I love this song so much.” Nobody else seemed to know the song, I swear I was the only person singing along with him. In fact, in my video I can hear people talking all around me. The whole thing... every time he got to the chorus and sang the word ‘Revenge’ I sobbed. I cannot even explain what that was like. It was angelic. I feel *SO* lucky to have heard it because it’s not a song they play often at all. The fact that he may have only played it because he heard me screaming it out makes me so happy. It was a moment I will NEVER forget. Even days after, I still get tears in my eyes every time I watch the video back, it was just completely magic.
Jared then pulled a guy on stage and proceeded to learn Chinese from him. He seemed to struggle a bit but was smiling the whole time and appeared to be having fun. The first thing he asked “How do I say ‘I love you’?” The crowd screamed when he repeated it in Chinese, Jared shrugged then had a huge grin on his face. He then tried “You are crazy.” But seemed to get it wrong because the crowd didn’t react a lot. Jared then gave it another go saying “You are fucking crazy” which got a huge reaction from the crowd. I was standing there with no idea what he was saying hahaha, but still enjoying the speech lesson.
Jared then asked the guy on stage what he wanted him to play; he said ‘The Kill’ so got another couple of people on stage and went to play it. Jared started asking the people up in the stands what they were doing up there. “I have a question: Why are all you people sitting up there when you could be down here?” He pointed into the stands “You, You... what’s wrong with you?” he asked. “If you’d like to come down it’s gonna be crazy and fun, come down. You’re welcome to join us. Don’t be scared... we’re not gonna bite you.” he added.
Before he started singing he said “I gotta say, this is probably the smallest concert we’ve played in a year, but I tell you what... it feels like there’s 10,000 of you – you guys are amazing.” He then started singing, before quickly stopping to say “You guys aren’t singing loud enough. I mean seriously, I want you to sing so loud that everyone in the world wishes they were here right now. Ok?” He started singing again, this time with everyone singing as loudly as possible. As we were chanting, Jared walked right to the edge of the stage to where I was and leant out over me. He walked back to his mic and finished singing then sent the people off stage.
Jared came back out on stage and started hassling the people sitting in the stands “You whimps” he said. “What are you scared of these people down here? Oh well you should stay up there, this (pointing to us) is for the crazy ones.” He added. He then said “Let’s show them how much of a good time we’re having. Get your fists up in the air and repeat after me: No, No, No, No!” He then gasped in shock, pointing behind the crowd... “Oh here they come – running down! Alright. Thanks for joining us! I was wondering what was wrong with you.” He continued. He then looked to the other side where people were still sitting, “There’s still people sitting down” he said shaking his head. The crowd went “ooooooh” as if they were getting in trouble by Jared haha. He then said “Grandma and Grandpa up there” cheekily. The crowd started chanting “come on down, come on down” but Jared kept talking. “Come in closer, we’re gonna get a little nuts.” WOOHOO! I thought. “I tell you what. We’re all gonna look back at this show. We’re gonna remember this show for the rest of our fucking lives.” He said. Amen brother! That rang so true for me. “It’ll be like “OH no, I was at that fucking show!” he continued.
He then went into reasons why he loved China. “I love China because as far as I see it it’s ok to spit a lot here, I like that.” He paused, shrugged and added “I spit.” LMAO. As much as I don’t want to admit it, my mind went gutter-wards. Hahaha. Anyway!
He then told everyone to come closer, this is where I got absolutely crushed! Thanks Jared!! He then said “This is what I wanna see. At least 50 people on the count of 10, at least 50 people get up on each others’ shoulders.” Hahaha, my video is hilarious because I said “Oh God! Don’t come near me!” After a bit of Jared saying “yes, yes, yes” he added “I wanna see people dance so hard for this next song.....” and started bopping around hilariously, kind of like a fish, before he finished. “Ok, I wanna see you dance so hard you wake up tomorrow morning really embarrassed about it.” There was loads of screaming and then he said “This song is called Closer To The Edge.”
“Are you ready?” Jared screamed. “Are you readdddyyyyyyy?” he screamed again, then started running around in circles as the music started. He ran over to Tomo, I think hugging him or putting his arm around him. I’m not quite sure because my video is all over the place because I was jumping around crazily. This was when some girl who had got on someone shoulders fell off so security shoved us out of the way and into the barriers. It was nuts. Unfortunately when the security went back over, a couple of guys weasled their way into the front row and I had been pushed away from the middle over to the side. Jared ran out onto his catwalk and was right in front of me again, fist pumping the air “No, No, No, No! I will never forget” I was SO SURE he was about to jump into the crowd because he was perched right on the edge of stage right in front of me, but sadly, no crowd diving today. That is the only thing that sort of disappointed me, but I definitely wouldn’t hold it against him hehe. He started spinning around on stage and the MARSFETTI started spraying out to my left and right. It started raining down around me as Jared ran back out on his catwalk and fist pumped as we screamed “No, No, No, No” again. “You’re the best in the world. I love you so much.” he said as the lights went out and he walked off stage. Shannon was still going absolutely beserk on his drums for a while which was awesome to watch. I remember my heart beating uncontrollably - That was FUCKING AMAZING I thought to myself.
Jared came back on stage and (as always) started picking people out of the crowd for Kings & Queens. The awesome Eche beside me who I’d been talking to all night got picked out which was awesome. After he’d assembled everyone on stage, the boys gave it their everything breaking into Kings and Queens. Jared was running across stage with his mouth open and his tongue out (lol) before instructing us to all clap above our heads. Tomo was walking around bent over backwards with his guitar up in the air getting right into it. Shan was going nuts on the drums... it was freaking EPIC! Jared started marching and skipping across stage again before coming down his catwalk as singing “In defence of our dreams”. I had my hands up in the air with my index fingers together and I’ve JUST noticed in my video he looked right at me (AHH!). Tomo was jumping around, Jared was dancing around and spinning with his guitar, it was going nuts! As the song ended Jared said “I love you guys so much” and walked off stage. Shannon walked out onto the catwalk with about 6 drumsticks in his hands and proceeded to throw them into the crowd.
The concert was absolutely incredible and unlike any other i’ve been to before. The interaction and just everything going on was amazing. It was the end of the show but for me, just the beginning of the most amazing thing that was ever going to happen to me.
I proceeded over to the meeting spot for Golden Ticket holders where I spoke briefly to Braxton. I asked him how his day was and about the lunch he had tweeted about earlier that day. He handed me a sticker and I said how much the Aussie Echelon love him so he gave me a bunch and I said i’d give them out when I got home.
Sarah then led us back behind the stage and up a flight of stairs. HOLY SHIT I remember thinking. I'm freaking BACKSTAGE at a MARS SHOW!!! It was surreal walking back there. There were signs stuck on the wall saying “BACKSTAGE” and other Mars related stuff then we passed a little area that had 3 doors, one of which was open, one of which was closed with 3-4 people standing outside it and the other closed with the sign clearly visible “Shannon’s Sanctuary”. Ahhh! It was their dressing rooms! To only imagine what was happening behind those doors!!! Lol
We made our way to a big room... a black backdrop was already set up and there was a big table of snacks and drinks waiting for us. We were given our “goodie bags” and then told about a few rules we had to follow: Only have 1 item out for the guys to sign (Jared went to sign more stuff for me so obviously they don’t really care) and please don’t hug or kiss the boys. DAMMIT! ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! hahaha. That is like, honestly the worst rule ever haha. Considering my dream for the meet was to be able to hug them and say Thankyou I was like "Noooooo" but I guess that’s just how it is.
We were asked to form a semi circle in the room and then Sarah said the boys were coming.
This is it. I’m about to meet Jared, Shannon & Tomo; 30 Seconds To Mars. These are the people I listen to on my computer every day, who are the alarm on my phone, my ringtone, who I run to at the gym, who are on my desktop background, my phone background, who I have a sticker of on my car, who I wear a Triad around my neck every day for, who I flew to Melbourne to promote and who I’ve now flown to Hong Kong to see.
This is my dream and it’s about to become reality.