It had been an hour since the opening act cleared the stage, and as 9:30 p.m. approached, the predominantly college-age crowd began to get antsy.

“Come on Catalano!” yelled a man in the back, followed by a round of giggles by those who had caught the reference to front man Jared Leto’s stint as heartthrob Jordan Catalano on television’s “My So-Called Life.”

Progressive punk rockers 30 Seconds to Mars played a show at American University Saturday night as part of their first headlining tour, “Forever Night Never Day.”

A free performance in a student lounge called The Tavern was the only college stop on the tour, and was only open to AU students and their guests - most of whom seemed prepared for a rock show, not for a celebrity sighting.

Despite the earlier cry and several swooning teenage girls, the band said Leto’s fame as an actor has little effect on their shows.

“Put it this way - if anything, the music hinders him from making more movies because he spends so much time on the band. He’s turned down Clint Eastwood just to be an opening band for The Used. I don’t know a single actor on the planet who’d turn down Clint Eastwood,” said guitarist Tomo Milivecic, sitting in the AU conference center converted into dressing room.

Though when the rest of band is in the studio rehearsing or on break from tour, their front man finds other projects to work on.

After nine months straight of touring, the other members took a vacation, and Leto went to film a movie in New York, said Milivecic.

“He doesn’t stop,” said bassist Matt Wachter.

“But he doesn’t want to,” added Milivecic. “He’s Mr. Energy...I’ve never heard him talk about taking a vacation before and lately he’s been talking about going to a tropical vacation, so I think maybe he’s feeling like he needs a break. He needs to take a rest. He’s been going nonstop for almost four years.”

The band’s intensity was apparent from the moment they took the stage, be it through long-haired Milicevic’s headbanging, drummer Shannon Leto’s attack of the drum kit or his brother Jared’s passion for performance.

Clad in a black suit, black collared shirt and a black cap, Jared Leto started the night with his fists clenched around the microphone, belting out the words to “A Beautiful Lie,” the title song off their latest album.

The play list was hit or miss, with some lesser known songs turning the crowd fairly motionless. But at best, the electricity in the room was what hits are made of: dozens of teens and twentysomethings swaying to the music, singing to the lyrics, and waving fists in the air when cued from the showman on stage.

Leto spent as much time punctuating lyrics like “Come break me down/Bury me, bury me, I am finished with you” (from “The Kill”) with screams as showing his ability to sing a cappella; as much time hurriedly pacing around the stage as reaching out to the audience.

The venue was small and intimate, with the crowd close enough for Leto to reach out and switch hats with a fan in between songs. During another song, he ran off the stage and barreled into the back of the crowd, who he had been ribbing all night about not being involved enough.

The between show banter was filled with vulgarity and off-color comments, but the crowd was receptive.

And as far as the lyrics themselves – and the ambiguous, ‘alien’ symbols on the band’s logos - Milicevic and Wachter had their own explanations.

“The lyrics are all telling stories about making choices,” said Milicevic. “Someone who’s in the crossroads of their life and is going to choose which way to go…It’s not Jared, per se, but he is telling the story of a figure that has a choice to make.”

“And the other thing about the lyrics is, it’s kind of left to interpretation. Nothing’s really meant to be spelled out. I think if Robert Plant told everyone what he was talking about in “Stairway to Heaven” it would ruin it for a lot of people,” added Wachter. “I take what I want from songs that I love, and I relate them to my own personal experiences. I think it keeps it more special that way.”

And as for the band’s image, both agreed they are lucky to be among the few bands with complete artistic control over every aspect of their product, right down to the merchandise sold at shows and the artwork on their CD.

Milivecic even handles the band’s MySpace.com site, and hooked the band’s tour website, www.forevernight-neverday.com, up with Text America. The site allows fans at shows to take photos or video with cell phone cameras and instantly upload it to a website for the viewing of those not at the show.

“Everything, from every aspect behind the world of 30 Seconds to Mars, is completely us,” he said.

More information is available at www.forevernight-neverday.com, www.myspace.com/thirtysecondstomars and www.30secondstomars.com.