Philadelphia Weekly

MUSIC > WEEK'S WORST

Week's Worst: Thirty Seconds to Mars / Further Seems Forever

By Chris Parker

Add Comment | Comments: 2 | Posted Apr. 27, 2011

Call it 30 Seconds Seems Forever since that’s the listening experience. It’s Barney for rockers—the most sentimental, formulaic overproduced crap since Bennifer made Gigli. Weepy manchild Chris Carraba helped found Further Seems Forever in ’98 before moving onto a career making tweens wet with sensitivity. FSM called it quits five years ago after a succession of singers, only to have Carraba resurrect their whiny, atmospheric first wave emo-punk for this tour. It’s hard to imagine something worse unless you threw a faded child star into a faux hard rock act and fed them Hoobastank coated in keyboards lifted from Phil Collins. Jared Leto’s so-called singing is a breathy melodramatic rasp that approximates Trent Reznor, but it’s a Beverly Hills High School production of Less Than Zero, inspiring less menace than Kate Moss in the food court. “Closer to the Edge”? Only if you’re counting the periphery of fame.

Thirty Seconds to Mars: Sat., April 30, 8pm. $32.50-$39.50. With Anberlin, CB7. Susquehanna Bank Center, 1 Harbor Blvd., Camden, N.J.856.365.1300. livenation.com

Further Seems Forever: Thurs., April 28, 7:30pm. $23. With mewithoutYou. Theater of Living Arts, 334 South St. 215.922.1011. livenation.com