Muse - Live in Concert

Well I'm completely exhausted now, but man was it worth it. We got in line an hour before the doors opened, and secured a spot right in front of the stage. The opening act was Pluto, who got a fews boos, but I thought they were quite good. They were probably the most suitable kiwi band to have as an opener.

I've written a song by song description of the show, but I may well have gotten the order of the songs wrong. I'm sure most of them are right though.

Hysteria: Well, they didn't keep us waiting for too long between sets. There was a big cheer as soon as the drum kit was unveiled, and an even bigger one when they took the cover off the piano. Then, after the usual roadie's shenanigans, the lights went out and the band came on. The deceptively mellow looking crowd immediately went completely mental.

New Born: More cheering when Matt walks up to the piano. After the initial quiet piano intro, Matt grabs his guitar and walks up to the edge of the stage to play an extended feral improvisation as a lead into the first chorus. Needless to say, more absolute madness in the mosh pit followed.

The Small Print: Another heavy song. This one's not really one of my favorites, but it still went off, of course.

Dead Star: This one is one of my favorites, but I got the impression not as many people knew it, probably because it's only on their live album. I tried to make up for them by going extra crazy for it myself, but I don't know if the people in front of me appreciated it...

Citizen Erased: I was hoping they would play a few more album tracks from Origin of Symmetry than they did at the big day out. Unfortunately this was the only one they played, but on the other hand it's one of my favorites. A very nice mood from the crowd during the soft outro, with everyone waving their arms and singing along.

Ruled by Secrecy: A bit of an odd choice I thought, since this is a fairly low key repetitive song. The audience didn't seem to be that into it either. At least it gave everyone a bit of a rest.

Muscle Museum: Not too much to say about this one. The only thing I can remember about it was that I kept getting the words wrong. How embarrassing!

Butterflies and Hurricanes: I had to bail for a glass of water during this one, so again I don't have much to add, other than that the chick working at the bar was hot and had nice dreads.

Bliss: One of my favorite songs, and apparently a popular one among the rest of the audience too. After seeing everyone bouncing up and down together in the middle of the theatre to the chorus of this song, I decided to forsake the mosh pit and join them. It was a good idea too. It was much more fun away from the sweaty face-in-armpit crowd. It looked to me like Matt was playing the arpeggio on his guitar, I'm not sure though, I was a bit too far away. Anyway, if he was, that's very impressive.

Time is Running Out: Another popular one. Matt pointed out that their bass player was playing with a broken wrist. Man, that guy is hardcore...

Sunburn: Another song I was really hoping to hear! Matt played the whole thing, including the bit that's a guitar solo on the album, on the piano.

Plug-In Baby: Last song of the main set, and one of their most popular. The audience went nuts, and Matt played the main riff like a madman, spinning around, jumping up and down, and not missing a note. Just awesome.

Encore:

Apocalypse Please: The band walked off for all of thirty seconds, and then came back to the unique rhythm of this song. Everyone clapped and stomped along, it was pretty cool, but not as cool as...

Stockholm Syndrome: A kickass song that they just had to end with. During the soft gentle chorus, they fired a whole lot of confetti into the air and turned all the lights on, and during the heavy outro, they threw giant balloons filled with confetti out into the audience, and kept playing a long epic improvisation until all the balloons had been popped. It might sound a bit gimmicky, but I thought it was a pretty memorable and effective way of ending the show. Anyway, after that they walked off, and I left on a massive high.

Random notes:

Matt has a seven string. Hardcore.

After the show we walked past the entrance to the backstage area, which was for some reason left open with no security guards around. A slowly growing group of people began to congregate around it, peeking inside and wondering if we should go in. Then a security guard showed up, shut the door, and told us to piss off.

Sorry to whoever was standing behind me during Stockholm Syndrome. I realise you probably got a faceful of dreads more than once during that song.