Jared Leto of Thirty Seconds To Mars surprised New Yorkers on Monday afternoon with an impromptu acoustic performance in Penn Station and again outside Madison Square Garden.
“Look at all you crazy people out here,” Leto said to a crowd of a dozen that quickly multiplied to about 100 hovering fans. The singer was joined by a group of nine choir performers (who weren’t actually choir performers, just backup singers in themed garb) in front of the entrance to tracks 18 and 19 inside Penn’s Long Island Rail Road ticket area.
Leto performed “Walk On Water” — the first track off Thirty Seconds To Mars’ album “America,” set for release this Friday — not once, but three times for the group of unsuspecting fans who eagerly sang along.
An offer of free tickets to the band’s June 20 Madison Square Garden concert to fans who sang the loudest caused a mosh pit of sorts to break out under the main LIRR departure board across from Starbucks.
“It’s just another day on the job,” one of the five NYPD officers monitoring the scene said.
According to a spokeswoman, Leto handed out 150 free tickets to the MSG show.
The surprise performance kicked off Leto’s weeklong journey across the country to promote “America.”
“You guys know today we’re starting a journey from New York City to California, I’m gonna be hitchhiking across the country,” he said to the crowd. “I’m gonna be hopping on trains and automobiles maybe even a donkey in the Grand Canyon and this is the beginning. This is the start of this crazy, incredible journey. So, thank you guys for coming out to celebrate.”
Leto moved the crowd outside of Penn Station to perform the track for a third time on the sidewalk in front of the concert venue. An advertisement promoting Thirty Seconds To Mars’ upcoming tour date lit up in red behind him.
Later in the day, he performed a pop-up in Times Square before moving to Union Square and Grand Central Terminal.
The band’s 2018 summer tour begins Friday in Toronto and wraps up July 22 in Phoenix, Arizona.
