Willowcreek: 30 Seconds to Mars

When I heard the boys were coming to town I emphatically knew I must go to this concert. Usually concerts are not one of the things on my priority list of things to do. I can download/buy anything I want to listen to and often do, as music is a huge part of my life. Besides I get very tired of listening to the same old songs played over and over and over again on the radio so ~ I need must make ~ my own mixes to fit whatever is happening in my life. Most times without meaning to the songs are prophetic, eye opening discussions with my subconscious mind and my waking reality.

But I digress, knowing that most people don't even know who 30 Seconds to Mars are I beseeched Lexar to accompany me, she said she would look into her finances and get back to me. 10 Short days before the concert I still had not heard from her and so decided I would solo the event. This created a mild feeling of unrest in me but I refused to miss it as it has been 4 long years since the boys have graced Toronto with their presence and who knows if or when they will ever come again.

When I told Dash about the venue and that I would be going alone I fully expected some sort of "cry my leave" from him as it was at the Sound Academy on the Harbor front. All he said was that he knew the area and it was fine.

So I show up dressed to the nines in a brand new exquisitely cut frock, still feeling a might like a loser for having no one to go with me but lo and behold the boys are so loved by their fans the "Echelon" that there were several of us loners awaiting excitedly in line. One such girl Raine and I decided to buddy up and watch each others back.

Once inside it became all to apparent that this was no normal concert. The stage was a mere 5 feet from the dance floor upon which we all were placed (no seating here). So Raine and I decided to go for center/center as those before us had already gotten to the front. We talked strategy for the ensuing crowd to get front row and about our individual love for the band members and or movies.

Let me be clear I have only ever been to a select few concerts - Metallica & Guns n' Roses, Ozzy Osbourne & Alice in Chains (all at the Mile high Stadium MHS in Denver, Colorado) 311, Everything, and Rage against the Machine (at the NSect Club NSC- a bar I worked at in my 20's). MHS as you may or may not know has seating and the those so far back in order to see anything you had to watch those humongous monitors mounted everywhere and the NSC was a dive bar peppered with Military and Skin heads alike, but as an employee had never been down in it.

So as I turned to Raine and suggested we "get in it" I had no real concept of what that would mean. She tried to her credit to tell me "we'll be pushed if we're in the middle" and I anticipated that but not the actual scope to which this would eventually lead. So "in it" I did get. I started about 6 bodies back, when the boys came on Jared's immediate request was for everyone in the back to take 3 "huge" steps forward and then it was on. We were pressed so tightly together it was much like sardines in a tin can, I wish I could say it was without the smelly sauce but that was to come soon enough. For every single person began to sweat buckets.

Over the course of the set Jared continued to request this over and over again. I'd guess about 1/3 of the way in I was front row center. AMAZING! The pit of that travel commenced to become like a surging tide, that actually ebbed and flowed in circle then from left to right at moments it was not even necessary for me to expend any energy to stand or jump as the flotsam of bodies made it impossible to do anything other than those around you.

Crowd surfers were moved over the top of my head and passed to security to be processed back into the tide from the rear. Periodically Jared would toss open water bottles into the swarm to cool us off. It was glorious. The barricade was pressed tightly to my bosom, hands pumping to the tuneage, bodies pressing in on me sometimes requiring me to duck and cover my head or simply press my arms tight to my body in order to create room to breath.

It wasn't until the encore that I finally relented my position, Jared had invited about 30 of his closest nutcases out of the crowd and on stage with the band, I of course front row center was their ladder. At one point head ducked into the chest of the massive security guard hands holding onto my long free flowing hair to keep it from being pulled heard a crack and immediately began to think I might die, these idiots were so enthralled that in their eagerness to be near the object of their obsession were going to break my neck and all I could think was, "ain't this great".

I finally requested security to remove me from the mob. Once they did I realized my make-up had melted off and that I was soaked right through to the bone. Lovely really. I've never enjoyed anything more and been happy to look like I'd been dragged straight out of the nearest gutter, brand new shirt ruined and all. I know it's gross but I still haven't washed it, it sort of feels like a medal to me, it says "I survived the crush of the Echelon". And I'm proud beyond measure of that.

After wards the band signed autographs for the masses, me among them. I now am the owner of a signed copy of "A Beutiful Lie". I almost didn't bother but I thought this was my one shot to possess and prove I was there I met them and it's priceless. When I approached Shannon I couldn't speak he is so much more stunning in person than pictures can do him justice to Jared I said,"This was the most fantastic thing I have ever been apart of." He smiled and replied,"Thank you, and thanks so much for coming out." It was evident tired as they were that this was a genuine feeling from them. I am enamored with how they incorporate their fans into their lives.

It was an experience I shall treasure but one I shall not repeat, at least not "in it". I'm still sore! Here are my favorite photos from the night - mind you my Blackberry takes crap pictures and you try getting anything good with no flash in a mosh pit:

Me Front Row Center

Taken by Jared himself and posted to Twitter during the concert. I just had to have it and as you can see edit it for posterity with Photoshop so you can see me!!!