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A review of the Muse concert at the SECC in Glasgow, 7th November 2006.
''A review of the Muse concert at the SECC in Glasgow, 7th November 2006.''


==First Night reviews==


The Times November 14, 2006
From The Sunday Times
November 12, 2006


'''Pop'''
<h1 style="font-size: 2.5em">The Review: Brilliance amid the bombast</h1>
David Pollock


====Muse====
Anyone other than an 18-year-old goth with a science-fiction fixation might examine the bombast and outright pomposity of Muse’s recorded works and be put off listening to an otherwise talented and creative band. Yet that’s precisely why they work so unaccountably well in the live arena.
Stephen Dalton at MEN Arena, Manchester


FOR their biggest British tour to date, Muse are pulling out all the stops. Ablaze with kaleidoscopic lights, supersized video screens and a hydraulic drum riser mounted on what looks like an upturned Dalek, their retro-futuristic stage show is unlike anything seen since the heady heyday of 1970s progressive rock.
Matt Bellamy and his accomplices combine both meticulous creativity and arch belligerence, and run with them in an often spectacular show that seems beamed in from a particularly noisy future. Not since Pink Floyd has a large-scale band created such an unashamedly high-concept rock spectacle, and got away with it.


Riding high on the charttopping success of their new album, Black Holes and Revelations, the bombastic West Country trio are living proof that nothing succeeds like excess.
Continuing the sci-fi theme explicitly adopted by the band for their recent Black Holes and Revelations album, the impressive stage layout resembles a mixture of the sets from Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey.


Thankfully, Muse specialise in songs that are huge and flamboyant enough to transcend the patent absurdity and potential hubris of such a setting. An epic fusion of shimmering disco-rock and sci-fi paranoia, Knights of Cydonia, their opening number at the Manchester Evening News Arena, felt like mini-opera in itself.
Two grids of brightly lit scaffolds shaped like industrial cranes criss-cross the stage, with fluorescent tube lights hung between them, while large video screens pepper the front of the hall. When the image feed and lights work in unison it seems like the band are appearing in 3-D, and it’s surely the most spectacular live setting of the year.


The guitarist and singer Matt Bellamy also rose to the occasion, striking gladiatorial poses in an eccentric outfit that resembled a Victorian greatcoat, complete with a single Byronic sleeve extension for extra windswept melodrama. Had he arrived on stage atop a two-headed stallion, the overall effect would have been no less bonkers.
The crowd, in excess of 10,000, was primed for an energetic performance. Bellamy is a ball of edgy frustration. A musical polymath, the frontman is equally adept at rock guitar, classical piano, and singing in a sub-Bowie falsetto, while his supply-teacher good looks are exaggerated by mascara and a stern, almost fascistic uniform of black shirt and trousers.


The show, dominated by tracks from the new album, remained at this hysterical pitch for almost two hours. Bellamy, alternating between piano and guitar, jammed every available second of stage time with wounded falsetto sobs, baroque keyboard flourishes, cod-classical allusions and shuddering blasts of feedback. The brawny funk rhythms of Supermassive Black Hole lumbered a little, while the usually nimble Plug In Baby sounded uncharacteristically sluggish — none of which appeared to trouble the enraptured young crowd, who roared along to every note.
In contrast, the bassist, Chris Wolstenholme, and secondary guitarist, Morgan Nicholls, stand like drones at Bellamy’s side, while the drummer, Dominic Howard, is all but buried beneath the lights.


Employed indiscriminately, Muse’s chief strength can feel like a weakness. Around the middle of their set, all this overstuffed bombast began to work against them. As the intergalactic anthems stacked up, each more thumpingly preposterous than the last, their emotional clout began to diminish. Bellamy generally includes one or two more introspective songs on every album, many of which rank among his best work. A few such softer moments might have provided some much needed variety and respite from all this operatic overkill. The cumulative effect here was rather like being force-fed an endless supply of overrich chocolate cake.
The musical set is a killer, 20-odd songs littered with mountainous guitar riffs and unexpected periods of emotive, piano-led calm. The melancholy yet quickfire buzz of Take a Bow opens the show, quickly segueing into Hysteria’s familiar sonic, booming, guitar intro. Yet by the fourth song, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Bellamy is sitting at his piano, bathed in a blue spotlight and playing a fluttering coda against a fairy-lit backdrop.


Muse ended the show, as they began, with another grandiose showstopper from Black Holes and Revelations. Surly and swollen, Take a Bow crashed over Manchester like a tidal wave. Screens crackled with footage of disco-dancing Martian robots. Giant pink balloons full of red confetti zigzagged out into the crowd. The overall effect was dazzling, audacious and triumphant. But ultimately a little exhausting.
It’s this balance of power and control that make Muse so compelling live. The strident yet melodic metal of Plug in Baby, New Born and Bliss are among the highlights. Their snarling cover of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good continues to defy the questionable logic of covering such a classic, while Supermassive Black Hole is a titanic song, this time penned by the band themselves, accompanied by an animation of CGI robots performing a dance routine.


''The tour continues: Birmingham NEC, Nov 14-15; Nottingham Arena, Nov 17; Sheffield Arena, Nov 18; Newcastle Metro Arena, Nov 19; London Wembley Arena, Nov 21-23''
One smashed guitar at the end of Stockholm Syndrome and a billowing, seemingly never-ending cloud of stage smoke to obscure their exit later, and it’s hard not to shelve those preconceptions and praise Muse as a band whose live show must be seen and heard to be believed.


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 10:21, 24 August 2009

A review of the Muse concert at the SECC in Glasgow, 7th November 2006.


From The Sunday Times November 12, 2006

The Review: Brilliance amid the bombast

David Pollock

Anyone other than an 18-year-old goth with a science-fiction fixation might examine the bombast and outright pomposity of Muse’s recorded works and be put off listening to an otherwise talented and creative band. Yet that’s precisely why they work so unaccountably well in the live arena.

Matt Bellamy and his accomplices combine both meticulous creativity and arch belligerence, and run with them in an often spectacular show that seems beamed in from a particularly noisy future. Not since Pink Floyd has a large-scale band created such an unashamedly high-concept rock spectacle, and got away with it.

Continuing the sci-fi theme explicitly adopted by the band for their recent Black Holes and Revelations album, the impressive stage layout resembles a mixture of the sets from Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Two grids of brightly lit scaffolds shaped like industrial cranes criss-cross the stage, with fluorescent tube lights hung between them, while large video screens pepper the front of the hall. When the image feed and lights work in unison it seems like the band are appearing in 3-D, and it’s surely the most spectacular live setting of the year.

The crowd, in excess of 10,000, was primed for an energetic performance. Bellamy is a ball of edgy frustration. A musical polymath, the frontman is equally adept at rock guitar, classical piano, and singing in a sub-Bowie falsetto, while his supply-teacher good looks are exaggerated by mascara and a stern, almost fascistic uniform of black shirt and trousers.

In contrast, the bassist, Chris Wolstenholme, and secondary guitarist, Morgan Nicholls, stand like drones at Bellamy’s side, while the drummer, Dominic Howard, is all but buried beneath the lights.

The musical set is a killer, 20-odd songs littered with mountainous guitar riffs and unexpected periods of emotive, piano-led calm. The melancholy yet quickfire buzz of Take a Bow opens the show, quickly segueing into Hysteria’s familiar sonic, booming, guitar intro. Yet by the fourth song, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Bellamy is sitting at his piano, bathed in a blue spotlight and playing a fluttering coda against a fairy-lit backdrop.

It’s this balance of power and control that make Muse so compelling live. The strident yet melodic metal of Plug in Baby, New Born and Bliss are among the highlights. Their snarling cover of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good continues to defy the questionable logic of covering such a classic, while Supermassive Black Hole is a titanic song, this time penned by the band themselves, accompanied by an animation of CGI robots performing a dance routine.

One smashed guitar at the end of Stockholm Syndrome and a billowing, seemingly never-ending cloud of stage smoke to obscure their exit later, and it’s hard not to shelve those preconceptions and praise Muse as a band whose live show must be seen and heard to be believed.

See also


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