30 Seconds to Mars sports the dubious distinction of being an “actor-fronted band” – the actor being wispy pretty boy Jared Leto (“Fight Club,” “Requiem for a Dream”).
His mascara-soaked mug has graced an increasing number of magazine covers, even though his band’s music gives Wonder Bread a run for its money with its generic emo-pop, a sterile lovechild of Tool and Sunny Day Real Estate.
Still, the band is hitting the Fillmore Auditorium for the third time this year as headliners for the MTV $2Bill tour. The 30-city stint includes openers Head Automatica, Cobra Starship and others to be announced.
With nearly 250,000 MySpace fans and a bigger venue this time around, it’s hard to deny the group’s appeal. Easy to question it, sure, but hard to deny. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. ($22, Ticketmaster)
Fiona Apple has toured heavily behind her new album, “Extraordinary Machine,” and she’s not about to stop yet. She’ll play an all-ages show at the relatively intimate Boulder Theater on Oct. 24. Tickets are on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. ($52.50, BoulderTheater.com)
Disco Biscuits enjoy a top-tier view of the jam band scene, having earned their fans touring with the Black Crowes, Jerry Garcia Band and others in the mid-to-late ’90s. Now entrenched as masters of the squirrely form, they will bring their highly danceable trance-fusion style to the Fillmore Auditorium on Nov. 18. Tickets are on sale now. ($25, Ticketmaster)
Brazilian Girls blew away the crowds at the last couple of South by Southwest festivals in Austin, Texas. Now Denver will have a chance to catch their genre-hopping dance-rock when they hit the Fox Theatre on Nov. 8. Tickets for the all-ages show are on sale now. ($15, FoxTheatre.com)
El Vez’s persona begins as the Latino answer to Elvis and proceeds into a multitude of disparate cultural elements. The L.A.-based musician and activist (a.k.a. Robert Lopez) boasts an underground rock pedigree but uses samples, a huge backing band and multiple costume changes to achieve a genre-defying, cross-cultural audience connection. It’s all about entertaining and enlightening, not coherence. El Vez will play a Christmas-themed show at the Bluebird Theater on Dec. 14. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. ($15, TicketWeb)
Joan Jett and her Blackhearts dropped out of their Oct. 29 date at the Gothic Theatre, but the show will go on with touring juggernauts Eagles of Death Metal as headliners. Throw Rag opens. The show is 16 and up. Refunds are available, or ticket holders can get $9 cash back at the door to see the new lineup. TicketWeb.com.
