Knights of Hyperbole

When I told a friend who reads this site that I was going to see Muse at T on the Fringe, he laughed and rolled his eyes. “You and Muse! Muse, Muse, Muse!” I had to concede his point... it’s possible that I may have hyped the band just a tad over the years.

Origin of Symmetry: A noisy guitar-crunching shrieking wailing exhilarating blast of my god, they’ve saved rock’n’roll excitement...

Absolution: It was hard to believe they could top Origin, and they have, oh yes; they’ve over-the-topped it. Muse are the kings of the high-wire, thrilling the rock and roll circus as they go higher and higher.

Black Holes and Revelations: I guess I will have to scream it in all-caps: WHEN THE HISTORY OF ’00s ROCK IS WRITTEN, MUSE WILL BE ON THE FRONT COVER.

Showbiz was pretty good, too.

The trouble is, by setting the bar so high with my rave review for Origin I’ve had nowhere to go that’s higher, and have ended up bashing my words against the limits of hyperbole like a bat flapping at the ceiling. So I’ll have to keep this review modest, just so I have somewhere to go next time.

That was the best rock concert I’ve ever been to, ever. The only one that’s come close was Midnight Oil in 2001.

For reference purposes, I’ve put their hugeness into convenient graph form:

Convenient Graph

So, how huge were they? So huge that they opened with Black Holes’ closing track, “Knights of Cydonia”, and closed with its opening track, “Take a Bow”, just to prove that both songs were equally huge. Every song in between? Huge. Guitars? Huge. Drums? Huge. Matt Bellamy’s piano interludes? Huge. “Starlight”, “New Born”, “Apocalypse Please”, “Time is Running Out”, “Supermassive Black Hole”, “Plug In Baby”, “Stockholm Syndrome”? Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge.

And the audience? Huge. I could hardly hear Bellamy’s vocals half the time, because we were smack in the middle of the world’s biggest Muse singalong. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

I took some photos. For obvious reasons, some are a bit blurry. Follow the subtle link below to see them.

MUSE

25 August 2006 · Music

Finally found the set list on one of the fan sites...

Knights of Cydonia
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
Showbiz
Map of the Problematique
Forced In
Bliss
Butterflies and Hurricanes
Intro/Apocalypse Please
Invincible
Starlight
Plug In Baby
New Born
Time is Running Out
Stockholm Syndrome
Take a Bow

http://invictus.softmeg.com/forums.php?m=posts&p=477448#477448

Wow, it sure got heavy down the front:

http://invictus.softmeg.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=17006

Added by Rory on 25 August 2006.

aww! best gig ever! exxxxxcellent.

i've been waiting for this review all day with bated breath... there is something so dead charming about your muse enthusiasm :)

Added by shauna on 25 August 2006.

just checked out the photies too... rawk! they turned out great, looks like you had a good spot! i like the alien appendage.

we got the last train home after demetri, it was chock full of muse fans and some had lost shoes in the crowds, they were all very wet and smelly. mark of a good gig, evidently.

Added by shauna on 25 August 2006.


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