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August 17, 2006
If this is the party at the end of the world, then sign me up.
I love Muse and and here's why. You can see the official version of this review at http://www.junkmedia.org.
In certain circles, saying you're a Muse fan is about as acceptable as admitting you like Styx. While bands like the Mars Volta get props for making prog cool again, Muse has been unfairly pegged as Radiohead wannabees since releasing their first album Showbiz in 1999. Maybe there was a brief interval where Matt Bellamy's keening falsetto and dramatic musical mood shifts could be compared to Thom Yorke & Co., but Muse have spent the past seven years shaping their own identity as a ferocious riff-oriented rock band with classical overtones and apocalyptic themes that's taken them far away from Radiohead's more cerebral electronic approach. With their latest CD Black Holes and Revelations Muse has steered the way back machine even further into the proggy depths and produced a work that says yes to every over-the-top musical notion the band could dream up. Jeff Lynne/ELO-like walls of violins? Check. Queen style choruses? Yep. Mexican mariachi trumpets? Why not? Conspiracy theories about government/extraterrestrial collaborations? You betcha. Spacey danceable funk to rival Prince? Sure. It sounds like it should be a mess, but damned if it doesn't work because Muse has the chops and self-belief to pull it off.
In order to understand Muse's appeal you need to know what they're not. They're not punk. They're not emo. They're not folk or neo-folk or twee or even three chords with a four/four beat. They're old fashioned rock in the Wayne and Garth spazzing in the car to "Bohemian Rhapsody" sense and half the fun of being a Muse fan is allowing yourself to bask in their virtuosic musical excess. I defy you to stand in front of Matt Bellamy, watch him recreate the bone-crunching, head-banging riffs in "Stockholm Syndrome" and not scream yourself hoarse singing, "Forget you? I wish I could!" And what could be more cathartic than belting, "This is the end of the wooooooooorld" in a sweaty club during "Apocolypse Please" three days after the disastrous 2004 presidential election?
Muse is massively popular in Europe, headlining festivals and selling out multiple nights at arenas like Earls Court in London, but here in the States, due to little radio or video exposure, their fan base has been slower to build. That means those savvy enough to seek out music through the internet or other sources have been privy to seeing the band in the kind of venues that make our European friends weep with envy. On their last trip through Massachusetts, Muse sold out the 2000 capacity club Avalon in Boston in November of 2004 but filled not even half of the 4000 seat Curry Hicks Cage at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst for the MTV Invasion tour in spring, 2005. This time around they played the 5000 seat Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. While there were a number of empty seats, the majority of those in attendance seemed like hardcore fans, singing and fist pumping to every song, with new tunes like "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Starlight" receiving as much enthusiasm as old favorites like "Time is Running Out" and "Hysteria."
The stage setup was as stark and white as a spaceship. Dom Howard's drum kit was transparent, with only its silver rims and brass cymbals visible. Three clear plastic tubes, perhaps thirty feet tall and ringed with spirals, stood at the back of the stage like giant vertical hamster tunnels. Before the show we speculated whether Bellamy, Howard, and bassist Chris Wolstenholme would ascend through holes in the stage into the tubes, Spinal Tap fashion. (They didn't.) The visuals consisted of freaky skeletal images and geometric black shapes projected onto three large screens behind the band. One of the video camera operators told me in the photo pit before the show that every onstage light doubled as a projector and the images from his and the other video camera were fed into them and manipulated by the lighting director. One very cool result was Bellamy's image projected onto the back of the piano as he sat playing stage right during "Sunburn."
The show opened with "Map of the Problematique" from Black Holes and Revelations and then kicked it up ten notches with "Hysteria" from 2003's Absolution. Anyone who wasn't already drenched in sweat from the 100 plus degree temperatures (one of the hottest days on record in Boston) could not help but be reduced to a puddle. The next song – "Supermassive Black Hole" received a huge roar of recognition, despite being the single only in Europe. The crowd even sang to the three songs played from 2001's Origin of Symmetry ("Bliss," "New Born," and "Plug in Baby,") which was never released in the States. The pace and energy level never let up and even though the band played for an all too brief 75 minutes, no one went home disappointed.
Muse's songs are fierce. Even the ballads grip you by whichever set of privates you possess and apply pressure. The band's m.o. is to build tension relentlessly and not release it until your irises have disappeared and you've lost control of your ability to swallow. It's glorious agony, but not for the weak.
The new songs, so production heavy on the album, all translated flawlessly to a live setting. "Starlight," which is a bit too polished and MOR for my tastes on the CD, had more guts live. "Take a Bow" was epic and "Knights of Cydonia" was so deeply prog-erific it bordered on Close to the Edge territory. If you think Muse take themselves too seriously you need only to watch the video for "Knights" (Low bandwidth or High bandwidth) which simultaneously parodies spaghetti Westerns and Sci-fi and kung fu movies, as well as takes the piss out of the band's so-called pretensions.
Muse is off to Europe for a run of festival dates for the rest of the summer and then back in the States for a few select shows in September. Catch them now while they're still playing theaters. They're a guilt-free pleasure. And so much better than Styx.
Posted by Laura at August 17, 2006 05:23 AM