By Emma Trotter
The Pearl at Palms, 9 p.m. Dec. 31, $75 & $125 plus tax and fee. 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster
Combine emo, alternative and hard rock music styles plus one former teen drama playboy and you get Thirty Seconds to Mars. OK, so super hot lead singer Jared Leto may forever be known as Jordan Catalano in the hearts of now-adult women and My So-Called Life fans, but he’s proven he’s more than just easy on the eyes.
Thirty Seconds to Mars has gone through several members since its inception in 1998 (including Matt Watcher, who left to join Angels & Airwaves) and has enjoyed success with three full-length albums, but more mainstream fame came this year with the single “Kings and Queens,” which earned an MTV Video Music Award in September for its accompanying video. Although the group has toured with The Used, Cobra Starship and Head Automatica, they’re going back on the road with a headlining world tour.
Leto’s star power may have helped the band’s fan base, but he should get more credit for being the band’s sole songwriter. The 2009 album This is War covers topics like global crisis and the band’s infamous lawsuit with Virgin Records. Further proving Leto is anything but controversy-shy: the band’s recently released 13-minute short film for “Hurricane” was banned from airwaves and censored for explicit scenes
