Review and Photography : Stephen Brophy for MPM
Muse have been one of the biggest rock bands in the world for a long time now, when they released their latest album in August, Will Of The People, like the previous 6 albums it went straight to number one in the UK.
The album Tour rolled into Dublin on Wednesday night for the bands first visit in seven years and the atmosphere was building all the time towards the start of the show, you could feel this was going to be a bit special.
Taking the very big support slot on this Tour are Nova Twins. The band consists of Amy (Vocals/Guitar) and Georgia (Bass) and Jake (Drums) with that live drum sound being very important in their sound for me. The music, well it can be a little chaotic, in a good way, loud, brash, gritty and very much rocking.
Not going to pigeon hole the band into any genre or style as I think it’s not only a frivolous task, but also unfair on them, at the end of the day it’s modern, it’s fresh and it smashes through boundaries, and to listen to them on album and see them live are two very different but equally brilliant beasts.
This Tour I believe is massive for them to expand their audience even further after a hugely successful Festival season.
Although having a slightly restricted space to work in somewhat detracts from their brand of chaos, I know they would be down on the barriers with the crowd if they could be, but they still grab this opportunity with both hands and rarely stay still as they criss-cross they front of the stage.
The crowd is large while the band are on, a lot bigger than you see for a lot of support acts and their growing reputation I’m sure has done a lot to help with that and as they set unfolds the audience becomes more and more engaged.
Amy sings and wraps and when not playing guitar Georgia changes her Bass sound and produces some very different and terrific sounds that fit perfectly with their overall sound.
The girls work so well together and off each other with Jake’s sound so solid off to the side. For me, ‘Choose Your Fighter’ is probably my pick of the set, but there’s no duds in there and more people are up and moving as they hit their stride.
Keep an eye on this band they are going places, and hopefully they will be back over here again soon.
As people catch their breath everyone’s attention moves to the headliner and when you haven’t visited in a while we tend to go give a little extra so that doesn’t happen again. When the lights dim again I could already feel the excitement before anyone showed up on stage, with the ramp in the center of the crowd and the photo pit around it we were already in the thick of things and it felt great. Any of the gaps around are completely filled now and the venue is looking pretty packed.
Arriving out on stage wearing the WOTP masks as shown some of the latest videos before revealing their true selves. Opening the set with the title track from the new album is no surprise and it sets the scene for what’s to come, but at the same time the style isn’t going to suit everyone, Muse have never been a band to stay still and each album has evolution and change, I like to go with it and have enjoyed a lot of the newer material.
There is a really great cross section of songs from all of the albums with I think Absolution and WOTP getting the most coverage, so when a band like this who were never shy away from experimentation or adding new influences into the mix put a set like this together it could be a mess, tonight it’s just a sheer joy, everything flows perfectly, the band are pinpoint accurate and crowd are lapping up everything and the atmosphere is brilliant.
Then they unveil the the stage setup, moving from just a great lighting rig to a massive head at the back center of the stage which fulfills many purposes from video screens to an ominous character that rotates, it all just adds to the show, providing more excitement as pyrotechnic flames come from the side and center of the stage to the massive ticker tape canons and the biggest explosion of paper I think I have ever seen in one go that just exploded towards those in the seats and over and onto those on the floor.
Finally the head is replaced by a massive Demon with extending hands at the side of the stage, it’s amazing.
But it’s always the music, always the focus, for me and from the new songs it’s a toss up between the ear worm that is ‘Won’t Stand Down’ and the much heavier ‘Kill Or Be Killed’ both excellent songs in their own right.
Naturally we all levitate towards the bands biggest tracks and the crowd reaction is feverish once the opening bars of ‘Running Out Of Time’ kick in or ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ which was wonderful.
The difference between Muse, for me, and most bands that are innovative, experimental and very artistic with their video output is that they really have the songs to back it up.
Uprising’ is supercharged with huge crowd participation on vocals and it’s just not possible to stand or sit there without moving along to ‘Starlight’ great songs that just keep coming at you closing out with ‘Knights Of Cydonia’ before receiving a massive ovation and thanking the crowd for a hell of a way to open this part of the Tour.
What you ignore is just how good a band Muse are and how good a set this has been, the production itself on this Tour (as is generally the case with the bands shows) is simply stunning and a show in itself and everything is so precise, I’m not a huge fan of intermixed Video content in live shows, but this is just about perfect, it works to and develops the storyline and it is so well done.
A band still on top of their game, a show that you just should not miss, it’s that good and not many bands have the ability to weave their biggest songs into what effectively is a concept show, and I’m sure a huge amount of work has gone into it, but they do it with ease.
As I left the 3 Arena my mind was blown, nights like this don’t come around very often, treasure these moments.
