On the laser's edge

The return of Muse promised to be memorable for a couple of reasons. Firstly the stage show was rumoured to be one of the most costly and spectacular this side of a U2 concert, and secondly we have missed the little buggers. There is a real lack of acts who have no shame in going for the epic overblown rock performance nowadays, in fact you have to go back to Queen (for the music), and perhaps ELO (for the light show) in their pomp to witness such overblown theatrics. Its safe to say this wouldn’t be a Bob Dylan style show.

First off a very brief word about support act The Big Pink. This will be brief because we missed nearly all of the set only getting to catch a bit of last song, the recent single ‘Dominos’. Muse play a long set and this has forced the tour support to go on ridiculously early. I have been listening to them for a while now and am annoyed that I didn’t really see them as the debut album A brief history of Love is really rather good. I guess you call their style electro rock, kind of like Klaxons or Crystal Castles, but with more of a rockier edge. Anyway they will be playing loads of festivals next summer and I recommend you check them out. Which I will be doing eventually. Sorry this time out chaps.

For the first time in ages Muse had a bit of point to prove tonight. The last album The Resistance is their weakest effort for ages, possibly weakest ever. Weakest is maybe not the right word as its still a good record which has its moments, but when compared to others they have released it just doesn’t stack up in my eyes (or ears). The task tonight therefore is to take the new stuff into the live setting and hope the new tunes don’t hide behind a bevy of special effects. And boy are there some special effects. On stage there is nothing but 3 large polygonal towers at the start. As the lights dip, small lights go on sporadically in these giving the effects of people waking up in blocks of flats. This gives way to images of the band climbing stairs inside them until suddenly curtains fall from the flats and the band appear in gaps in the middle of the towers, one member on each as they go into recent single, ‘Uprising’. Muse – The intro live in Helsinki from You Tube This punchy track with its glam rock stomp is one of the better tracks off the new album. They follow this with the title track, accompanied by video screens on what remains of the towers plus a dazzling light show. Then third song in they go way back to play ‘New Born’ and the lower half of the towers fall away to put them onto the stage. In all honesty its all pretty amazing, not just the stage set, but the clarity of the sound and the musicianship.

Muse's low key stage set

This pretty much sets the standard for the whole show. Sometimes they play on the stage, at other times they are raised back up to play on their ‘Pedestals’ again. As well as lights they are accompanied at periods by stunning green lasers (by the way why are all lasers green?) which make wierd shapes all around the arena. Musically its all spot on too and most of the new stuff fits in well, especially ‘Unnatural Selection’ the rockiest track on the album and ‘Undisclosed desires’ which certainly has an eighties Eurythmics feel to it. Best of all though is ‘United states of Eurasia’ the very Queen sounding track, played on top of the plinth by Matt Bellamy on grand piano. This is one track which comes alive in the live arena. Wisely they opt to play only about half of The Resistance and instead indulge us with their back catalogue at regular intervals, which definitely gets the best audience reactions. ‘Hysteria’, ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ and ‘Starlight’ (with the audience clapping along radio ga ga style) are all ace, but its the rockers ‘Plug in baby’ and encore ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ which really get the crowd going mad.

After nearly two hours of audio visual perfection they top everything they have done so far with their finale. Led in by a harmonica solo, ‘Knights of Cydonia’ is still immense and perfectly baffling, the most over the top, overblown and completely bonkers tune possibly since Bohemian Rhapsody, its a perfect way to close the set. This makes me almost forget that they slipped the ridiculous first part of their symphony into the encores. In fact so good were the band that you secretly hope for a missed note here and there to prove that they are human. Which of course as all Muse fans really know, they are not, they are in fact all aliens from some distant musical planet. So despite a recent recording hiccup, the live show remains the biggest, and brightest (literally) thing on the planet. Whether its the best on their home planet we may never know. Perhaps the truth is out there.

Muse Played:

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