Muse – Review
Manchester Etihad
Stadium
1st June
2013
When I was just starting to really get into music, Muse
already had a reputation as one of the world’s greatest live bands. It is quite
daunting to think that the Devon trio’s ground-breaking third album Absolution is now ten years old. At the
age of eleven, Muse’s combination of progressive rock, heavy metal and
classical styles was a lot to take in, but even then I knew that they were
something special.
Already with three genius albums and a legendary Glastonbury
headline slot behind them, the warped yet undeniably intelligent mind of lead
singer Matt Bellamy pushed for greater things. The release of Black Holes and Revelations propelled
them to the heights of London’s Wembley Stadium; it was here that they proved
that their live shows were made for a grander scale, with their showcase of raw
talent, energetic performance and brilliantly designed production fusing to
create the spectacle which is a Muse stadium show.
This was to be my first stadium show since seeing Coldplay
at Bolton’s Reebok Stadium back in 2005. Entering the Etihad gave me the
festival feeling, passing food vans, travelling towards the pitch entrance like
cattle, people relaxing with a drink in the sun– all these factors contributing
to an atmosphere which preceded an exciting day of music. The support in
Manchester came from Bastille and Dizzee Rascal. Bastille played a humble set, not interacting
with the crowd too much at all, but impressing with their live sound all the
same, the filling stadium appreciated hits such as Laura Palmer and, a song that has been sitting high in the iTunes
download charts since its release, Pompeii.
Next up: Dizzee Rascal. I was confused to why Dizzee had
been given a supporting slot for Muse, at the time of the announcement it
seemed like utter madness, the supposed pioneer of Grime could stylistically be
no further from the bill toppers. His performance went down as expected. Only a
section of younger audience members seemed to get any enjoyment out of the
repetitive set which consisted of Dizzee spinning around on stage while he and
his brother attempted to work the crowd using some of the most desperate tricks
in the book, including “my side is louder than your side” and even the classic
“oggy oggy oggy” chant. About half way through the set I concluded that the
involvement of Dizzee Rascal was effective in a sense, I doubt I was the only
one thinking I would appreciate Muse a lot more after such an unimaginative
display of worn-out, mind-numbing bollocks.
The wait from when Dizzee was sarcastically clapped from the
stage to when the sound begin to well at the start of the Muse set seemed to
drag for an eternity. The humungous stage, which had been pretty bare for the
support acts, lit up bright, looking more like a spaceship launch than the
beginning of a gig. The band appeared onstage, and with a blast of fire from
the end of the walkway, they cracked straight on.
When paying 49.50 for a standing ticket, you expect not only
a top notch performance, but good production too. The stabbing opening notes of
Supremacy were accompanied by
fire-belching chimneys at the top of the stage; even from my position, the heat
belted against my skin. The Etihad also provided surprisingly good sound
quality and was necessarily loud for Chris Wolstenholme’s bossing bass riffs.
After the frantic ending to Supremacy opened
an early first mosh pit, Muse played through a crowd pleasing run of Supermassive Black Hole, Panic Station and
Bliss. The production proved to be
consistently superb, each song having its own production narrative, for
example, Panic Station was
accompanied by grotesquely exaggerated animated world leaders who marched along
in the background. Muse continued to make playing complex music look easy in
the foreground, Bellamy using all the space available from the stage and the
walkway, playing the entirety of Bliss in
the centre of the pitch, a successful attempt to bring the show closer to
everyone in the stadium – at least at some point!
A suited business man was the focus for Animals, at first just on the screens, but later appearing on the
stage with the camera man following him. A few spectators on the front rows of
the crowd caught some of the Muse themed money he was throwing around as he
headed down the walkway. Later, we all felt a little richer, as when the song
dropped, the Muse money exploded confetti-like, sending the audience scrambling
to catch it and hoarding it up from the floor: perhaps Bellamy’s intention
here? Eventually the business man collapsed, the screens lingered on him even
as Wolstenholme appeared beside him and began the Man with a Harmonica intro to Muse anthem Knights of Cydonia.
Video credit to vibrantXhearts
After a typically chaotic crowd response to the song, I
noticed a guy with a bloody nose and a wide grin recovering on the edge of a
large pit; it wouldn’t be a Muse gig without a few casualties after all.
Wolstenholme and drummer Dom Howard then played an impressive drum and bass
jam, allowing some recovery time before Bellamy began United States of Eurasia on a piano around the kick off spot. It
was just beginning to get dark as Hullaballoo
favourite Dead Star caused yet
more crowd chaos; It was a tribute to Muse’s success and long-standing fan base
that a B-side received a similar reaction to their main singles.
There was definitely an underlying theme of corporate
destruction throughout the set. During Feeling
Good, a business woman was the voyeuristically followed by the camera as she screamed down her
mobile phone, again appearing on stage and again meeting an abrupt death at the
end of the walkway. Meanwhile Bellamy insisted he was feeling good, in contrast
to the fortunes of the business woman, who remained still as the sun finally
deserted the stadium.
Bellamy owned Follow
Me, taking full advantage of not having a guitar part in the song, dropping
to his knees as the second chorus hit, a performance that oozed emotion. Then,
Wolstenholme took lead singer duties for another gem from The 2nd Law, Liquid
State. This now gave Bellamy reigns to enjoy only have a guitar part, he roamed
the entirety of the stage, making sure the seated crowd on the flanks were not
left out. Recent single Madness received
a great ovation after its initial mixed reactions at the time of its release.
Matt eyeballed a camera, wearing lyric-generating glasses, for the first period
of the song before rocking the Brian May-esque solo out and then harmonizing
with Wolstenholme brilliantly during the song’s epic finale.
The crowd then took role of lead vocals as Bellamy led them
in a verse of House of the Rising Sun, from
which the fuzz bass intro of Time Is
Running Out emerged. The Absolution anthem was followed by a
roulette style choice on the screen between New
Born and Stockholm Syndrome, a
win win situation which ended with the tiny white ball signalling the later. The
speed that Stockholm Syndrome reaches
invites an insane light show and the song’s intensity peak was marked by a line
of steam jets that engulfed the stage once unleashed.
After a brief interval, all three band members arrived on the
b-stage, Bellamy asking for phones and lighters raising for the gentle Unintended. Before the gig, we discussed
the giant light bulb waiting in the stand and its possible functions, we found
out the answer during Blackout.
Bellamy laid down on his back on the edge of the stage and began to sing, as
from our right, the light bulb took flight and hovered above the crowd. About
half way through the song, the spotlight hit the light bulb and a ballerina
dropped from within with a flurry of confetti and danced, suspended over the
crowd, eventually drifting away to the opposite side of the stadium as
Bellamy’s softer tones brought the song to a haunting climax.
During Undisclosed
Desires, Matt left his band mates on the b-stage as he hopped down to crowd
level to shake hands with as many of the audience members as he could as he
headed back down in the direction of the main stage. He took a brief detour
under the stage where he stood, hand outstretched, above coffins containing the
business man and woman who had earlier met their theatrical onstage demises. He
then continued his lap of the crowd’s edge, one fan got a large cheer when Matt
pointed out their Origin of Symmetry tattoo
to the camera man, and he pushed on to get through a good hundred more
handshakes before the song ended.
The encore began with Unsustainable,
the controversial dubstep inclusion to The
2nd Law. This song featured a special guest, Charles the Robot,
a twelve foot monster whose contribution was to blow steam from his ears in
unison with the fires blown from the stage’s chimneys. It seemed that many of
the Muse fan base seem to have accepted the dubstep track, it would have been
hard for naysayers to dismiss the song whilst some of the most amazing live
production took place in front of their eyes.
Twenty-three songs in and Muse still had enough stadium
sized tracks to provide the epic finish required. Plug in Baby turned the stadium volume up a notch, Bellamy
patrolled the front of the stage, letting the crowd sing the second chorus,
before shredding an additional Sweet
Child O’ Mine style solo to bring the song to an end. Wolstenholme then
pointed to a portion of the crowd in front of him and signalled them to join
him in the clicking of fingers, beginning Olympic anthem: Survival.
Another encore later (not the typical silence but Isolated System), the band returned for Uprising. The crowd gleefully accepted
this song, chanting along with Matt in the chorus. It was brilliant to see 60,000 people singing “they will not
control us, we will be victorious” within this politically confused world. Matt
played the breakdown with one hand, punching the sky with the other, leading
the crowd to do so too; this stuck out for me as a truly triumphant moment in
the gig.
Muse closed with Black
Holes and Revelations hit Starlight, the
crowd clapped along with the Queen-style beat and Bellamy gave up guitar duties
for the song so he could venture down the walkway and work the crowd one final
time. After the final note, the band received their deserved praise and Matt announced
“the North beats the South again!” before leaving the stage.
Verdict: With
such an impressive live reputation built up over the years, Muse did the
unthinkable and surpassed even my high expectations. Matt Bellamy in particular
seemed to have built upon his already mesmerizing performance skills and added
an extra element of showmanship to his arsenal. Also, this tour seems very much
like a landmark in the history of concert production history. Recently on
Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto stadium tour
they dared to push similar boundaries with the addition of the flashing fluorescent
wristbands every audience member was given on entry, these went on to light up
at the appropriate times during the gig. Muse have now set the bar for what is
possible in the stadium environment, making sure that there is enough going on
to keep even the Musers on the back row of the top tier on the edge of their
seat with their innovative and futuristic show. What an exciting time for live
music, and what a band Muse have become.
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