30 Seconds to Mars Hope to Make New Year's Eve Shows a Tradition

By Steve Baltin Posted Dec 29th 2010 10:00AM

As the clock strikes midnight this Friday night and 2010 says goodbye, Patti Smith will ring in the New Year on stage at New York City's Bowery Ballroom, as she has the last dozen years, and Phish will be rocking Madison Square Garden, where they have held court four times. For many bands, New Year's Eve concerts are a tradition, one that 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto has long admired.

"I always loved how the Grateful Dead and some other bands that I knew of as a kid had the big New Year's Eve shows," Leto tells Popeater. "It was an annual thing that fans and the band ... you could tell they had a lot of fun with, and it was a big part of their lives and their culture."

And for the first time, Leto and his bandmates will be performing when the calendar changes. "We figured that it was a great way to start the New Year off, on stage," Leto says. And this definitely won't be the last time. "We want to start the annual 30 Seconds to Mars New Year's Eve show and do it in a different place every year," he says. This year, the winning city was Las Vegas. Why Sin City? "Vegas just kind of worked out. It was close to home and it seemed like a fun, crazy place to bring in the New Year."

It marks an end to what has been another hugely successful year, one that culminated with their biggest European tour to date, including a show in December at London's O2 Arena, the same venue that held the Led Zeppelin reunion show and where Michael Jackson's comeback shows were booked before his passing. That is big-time company. "It's pretty insane, it's humbling and really something we're very grateful for," he says of the tour.

Following the New Year's Eve extravaganza, the group takes a week or so off before hitting the road in the States again for 19 dates, beginning Jan. 10 in Glendale, Ariz.

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