SebastiaN MUSE LoverS ForeveR

Muse @ The NEC

Muse played to a second sell out night of around 12,000 at the NEC Arena in Birmingham on Wednesday 15th Nov.

The floor was packed out and even before the headline started there were people being pulled out of the crowd – the place was primed to explode when Muse took to the stage.

Muse in concert

The three-piece band, hailing from Devon, have been touring pretty much constantly since May to promote their new album “Black Holes and Revelations” – covering North America and Europe, with Asian dates planned for the New Year.

This 5th album has been widely praised by reviewers and lapped up by fans who propelled it to number one in the UK album charts.

However, while they enjoy obvious success in recorded sales – do they really deserve the Kerrang Best Live Band 2006 award they picked up during the summer? The short answer is “probably”, but that doesn’t mean they deliver a performance without weaknesses.

There’s a “take-no-prisoners” attitude from the start of the gig as the boys launch straight into their latest single Knights of Cydonia. The crowd, rather predictably goes wild and keeps the NEC security on their toes from the off and the roar from the audience even threatens to overwhelm the massive amplifier system in the venue.

Muse in concert

Muse do well to keep the pace up through the whole gig, some 90 minutes and 18 songs and there are smiles around the crowd that even linger to the car park queue.

It seems a little picky to consider the negatives when the overall result is a definite win for the band but this is perhaps more down to the fanaticism of the fans rather than the performance being notable.

Large stadium venues are always very demanding of bands and while Matt Bellamy does his best to dominate the front stage, his band mates take a rather more downbeat approach to the performance.

Dom Howard, perhaps inspired by the lack of attention paid to so many drummers, sits in the centre of a giant LED ice cream cone; while Chris Wolstenholme seems to spend most of the gig with his eyes shut lost in his own world.

In an attempt to give those at the back of the hall something to watch there are some half-dozen video cameras on the stage, above the stage and in the pit. The video mixer seems to vary between trying to document the gig and induce nausea in the crowd with rapidly changing camera angles, zooms and video effects.

Muse in concert

I guess it’s the TV generation. What started as a technology designed to let people at the back of the hall see the stage has turned into widescreen entertainment in its own right.

Muse’s music can be fairly described as formulaic, but that’s not to say it’s not done well. So many tracks seem to start with a vocal or instrumental section that’s quite relaxed and in some cases almost prog sounding; then flicks over to a much harsher, rockier sound. Recorded this maintains some kind of clarity and the instruments compliment each other without conflict, but at times live this seemed to be more like a devastating aural assault – a blunt stick designed to beat the eardrums into submission without any real precision.

So, when all’s said and done it works as a concert experience but is one of contrasts – heavy guitars; Elton John piano moments; petal-filled balloons; CO2 jets to round it all off – but if you want to enjoy Muse for their music – listen to it recorded where it’s much superior.