Actor Jared Leto's band nails its starring role
30 Seconds to Mars
With Campaign for Real Time and Mile 23
At: Harpers Ferry, Saturday
A shimmer of Hollywood glamour hit Allston Saturday afternoon when actor Jared Leto and his band, 30 Seconds to Mars, headlined an all-ages matinee at Harpers Ferry. The WBCN-sponsored show was free, but the wait for Leto and Co., who arrived on stage 90 minutes late, was tedious.
However, when the lights dimmed, blackening the stage, and strobe lights flashed as the quartet launched into the title track from last summer's second album, ''A Beautiful Lie" -- Leto's voice a seductive, muscly croon -- all was forgiven.
Another fact is that, superstar singer or not, the band is only now embarking on its first national headlining tour. The group toured for eight straight months in 2005, opening for the Used, My Chemical Romance, and Audioslave, among others. Then Leto began work on a new movie, ''Chapter 27," which is due next year and features the 34-year-old Louisiana native playing John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman. ''Lonely Hearts," starring John Travolta and set for a May 18 release, finds Leto in another gritty role: serial killer Raymond Martinez Fernandez.
Looking trim after losing most of the 60-odd pounds he gained for his last film role, and with a black cap pulled low, obscuring his big, bush baby eyes, Leto led the band through some highs, particularly the swooning power rockers ''The Kill" and ''Attack." But, with too many middling emo-tinged modern rockers, 30 Seconds' potential remains unrealized.
The opening bands were also star searchers: Campaign for Real Time, which won the WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble this spring and proved why with a pithy set of funky garage rock, and pop punks Mile 23, winners of the WBCN High School Battle of the Bands.
