Echelon Tour Review
March 9th, 2012
Japan – September 23, 2011
By Akii Ishikawa
I attended my first Thirty Seconds to Mars show on the 23rd of September, 2011 at a venue called Studio Coast in Tokyo. Even though it was months ago, I still remember it as if it were yesterday. I didn’t have to travel as much as I thought I would, only for about 2 hours on train.
I got to the venue at around 15:30 since I had a Golden Ticket and after waiting for about three hours, the show finally began. I was lucky enough to be at the front row of the concert and when the lights went out, I literally started screaming and jumping because I was so excited. First, Jared came on stage with his acoustic guitar and sang a couple of songs which was amazing. My favourite song to hear live was A Beautiful Lie, because Jared’s vocals were perfect and Tomo’s guitar riffs were fabulous and Shannon’s intense drumming was so powerful that I could feel myself being pulled in the force of their music. I just loved how they all try to entertain the audience and it moved me so much because you could tell that they are thinking about you when they are on that stage. Jared was jumping into the crowd so many times, it was incredible. Tomo was running from left to right and well, Shannon couldn’t move because he was up on the tower, but you could see that he was enjoying it, which made us feel fantastic.
One of my favourite moments of this whole experience was meeting the band. MARS’ music had saved my life- it made me able to go through the darkest times of my life, it gave me hope and without it, I most likely would not be here right now. So when the time came to meet my heroes, my mind went blank and I froze up completely. Tomo came around first, and I was so shocked that this was really happening and when we were talking, I forgot to give the poster so that he could sign it until he told me. By then, I was gradually de-frosting and I could talk to the guys properly, but because I was hyper, they probably thought that my words were like a full-speed roller coaster. Meeting Jared and Shannon was so surreal -in a good way of course- when they stood in front of me, I could really sense their aura and before I knew anything, I was crying tears of joy. Jared had noticed and he joked around, poking me, making sure that I was okay. This made me cry more because they were all so caring and I really did not think that I would be able to connect to them as much as I did.
This day was the best day of my life.
I cannot thank you enough for everything that you’ve done -music, giving me light, being so caring and being you.
Jared, Shannon, Tomo and the Echelon, you’re amazing.
Akii Ishikawa x