In order from "worst" (although no Muse gig I've been to has been truly terrible) to best: 8. The O2, 15th September 2019. While it was cool to see The Void performed (especially given it only ever had three live playings) and Nothing But Thieves were a great support act, I'd already seen them once already that year and I spent most of it wondering why I'd gone again given how similar the show was this time. I was also really far back in seats so the atmosphere wasn't particularly exciting. 7. London Stadium, 1st June 2019. The earlier of two 2019 shows, an awesome sunny day and I was happy to finally hear Bliss performed, but otherwise a fairly meh setlist with not as many rarities as previous shows I'd seen. 6. Reading Festival, 27th August 2017. Hearing Take a Bow in this was fantastic, only my third Muse gig, and the Back in Black with Brian Johnson was a great surprise, but overall this was heavily overshadowed by a gig earlier that year that I was still recovering from... 5. Alcatraz Milan, 26th October 2022. First and only non-UK gig so far, incredible to see them in such a small venue, and a short but great setlist - lots of new Will of the People songs, plus the likes of Assassin and New Born. I'd seen them twice earlier that year though and those other two gigs were even better... 4. Hammersmith Apollo, 9th May 2022. The utter joy of them being *finally* back after three years. A fantastic setlist with one of my all time dream songs Space Dementia finally being performed along with Citizen Erased, a mad rarity in the form of The Gallery and a small venue I was lucky to get tickets for. Shame I was up in the top seated bit though, if only I was on the standing floor downstairs... 3. Hammersmith Apollo, 10th May 2022. I'm on the standing floor downstairs!! A great gig the night before is made even better, especially when they add New Born in this time. Overjoyed that a band I'd loved for years and who I'd already seen live several times before can still storm it so much in 2022. 2. Emirates Stadium, 26th May 2013. My first Muse gig and what a one to start with! I was so new to them live I went in hoping they'd play Sunburn for the sole reason that it was quite sunny that day, so when they actually go and play that, followed by a surprise Butterflies & Hurricanes, I was in heaven. And what an opener Supremacy was with it always reminding me of the overwhelming feeling of actually seeing them live for the first time. A brilliant mix of old and (then) new, and had it not been for a certain gig four years later this would still be my #1 favourite... 1. Shepherd's Bush Empire, 19th August 2017. Still can't believe this was only my second Muse gig. So much has been written about this one but it really was one of the best gigs and nights of my life, and it being when I lived down the road from the venue was just perfect. One of their best shows ever, one of their best setlists ever, one of the best crowds ever. Even just hearing Muscle Museum today takes me back to screaming it at the top of my lungs with Matt and the gang that night

Haven’t posted here in a while, sad to see how quiet this place is now - the Reddit seems to be where it’s at these days. As a huge Origin fan that was absolute heaven for me tonight, I’d seen Bliss at London Stadium on its surprise 2019 appearance and lost my mind to CE at that Shepherd’s Bush show, but when Matt suddenly sat down at the piano during the encore, I was confused - all that’s left must be TIRO and Knights, right? What on earth could he be about to… …and that first note hits and I almost burst into tears. Space Dementia was the absolute #1 wish to see live for me, it was on my SBE top 10 and when I found out it was played at La Cigale I was devastated I’d missed it and thought I’d lost my last chance. Only its fourth play in fourteen years(!) and that ending was incredible, making me wonder why on earth it ever became a rarity and not mind the standard harmonica + Knights afterwards! Plus the mad appearance of The Gallery which felt like a fever dream, the new songs, overall just seeing them again for the first time in three years was enough but I wasn’t expecting it to be my third fave Muse gig so far! If they rotate the rarities tomorrow (maybe Dead Star and/or Butterflies?) then they are well and truly back to being perfect. Great to meet fellow Muse fans in the queue too and wear my 2013 purple tour t-shirt with pride. Looking forward to tomorrow and eventually the new album!

London Brixton Academy 2019 (gig) On Friday, 4th October 2019, Muse played an intimate gig at the Brixton Academy in London, a venue they had played in exactly twenty years earlier as a support act. The gig was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the UK release of their debut studio album, Showbiz. Songs were played in roughly chronological order of release for the main set, starting with Showbiz era tracks and including each studio album, finishing with Simulation Theory. Three extra songs from earlier in their career were played after the encore. All fans who had attended a Muse gig earlier in the year were given a special pre-sale code, which decreased the price of tickets to £12.50 - the same as when Muse had last played at Brixton in May 2001, as part of the Origin of Symmetry tour. Setlist 1. Sunburn 2. Muscle Museum 3. Space Dementia 4. Citizen Erased 5. Micro Cuts 6. Futurism 7. Sing for Absolution 8. Falling Away With You (Live Debut) 9. Invincible (First time since 2008) 10. Glorious 11. United States of Eurasia (First time since 2016) 12. Exogenesis Part 3: Redemption (First time since 2013; second ever live playing) 13. Neutron Star Collision (First time since 2013) 14. Prelude + Survival (First time since 2014) 15. Defector (First time since 2016) 16. The Void (Live debut) 17. Get Up & Fight (Live debut) 18. Blockades (Live debut) + riff mania ---- 19. Shine (Live debut) 20. Eternally Missed 21. Showbiz Speech Bellamy (after Sunburn): "Yes London! Who's ready for some deep, DEEP cuts tonight?" Bellamy (before Space Dementia): "Thank you! This next one, we've played, like, three times in ten years? Haha. And not in London for, wow, a long, long time, Earls Court we think. So enjoy!" Bellamy (after Sing for Absolution): "Thank you very much! Still surprised about that one, haha. This next song we've never played live before. We never got it to sound right at the time, but we've given it another go, so if we fuck it up then, well, we tried. Let's see how we go, it's a good one" Bellamy (after Exogenesis): "Thank you! One day we might do the full version of that, what do you think? (huge crowd cheers) Ah, great, yeah, middle bit's a bastard, but yeah, maybe next time for that. (more cheers) Okay, been a while since we did this one. Sing along if you remember it, because I might forget bits" Bellamy: (after Shine) "Cheers! First time for that one too, we think. Couple of years ago, we did, er, a By Request show in Shepherd's Bush, played the top ten. This next one was number 11" Howard: (before Showbiz): "Thanks so much Brixton, it's been an amazing evening tonight, so many songs we've never done or not for so many years, and you guys have been incredible. We all know what you're here to see, it wins every poll we ever do, it came out twenty years ago today, hope you're ready to blow the roof off the Academy to this! Take it away Matt!" Bellamy (after Showbiz): "Thank you! Thank you very much, you guys are fucking amazing. Let's do this again next year! See you next time! Cheers!"

Fourth Muse gig after Emirates 2013, SBE 2017 (🧡) and Reading 2017, and this time I brought a friend along who only knew one Muse song before yesterday. Happily that song was Undisclosed Desires, so while it's not one of my faves her joy when they played it was really nice to watch! I remember last year I was thinking of booking London, Bristol, Manchester and maybe a European date too, but given the lack of setlist rotation that I've read I'll probably save my money. Even so, Bliss being performed was a huge moment for me - until yesterday it was the most-played Muse song I'd never seen live, and from my favourite album of theirs too! So now it's 'Resistance' (19th most played) that's next on the list, although I can give or take that one. As I wasn't aware of the Houston Jam I did briefly lose my shit when Futurism began, thinking they were just going to go completely nuts and play a ton of random rarities, but while it was only a snippet it was still nice to hear. As was New Born, which back at SBE I didn't appreciate as much as I hoped as I was too knackered after Showbiz, but here even a segment of it sounded absolutely immense and made up for my disappointment of missing it by a day at Emirates. Crowd was disappointing but I've only ever enjoyed a Muse crowd at SBE, and this was the second best out the four as there were at least a few megafans near me who sung along to every word. For most of the gig I was next to a group of people who stood completely utterly still for the entire show, with their only movement being for about 30 seconds during Starlight when one held up their phone and filmed for a bit, then they all glumly left during Stockholm Syndrome - no idea what they were expecting but they clearly didn't get it. Setlist was ok - no real surprises other than those already mentioned, but the mix of old and new was good even though it was my first Muse gig to sadly have no Showbiz-era songs. A fun evening and gave me a bit more love for the new album, as with T2L after Emirates and Drones after Reading. Hope they don't randomly add a crazy rarity at Bristol or Manchester as I'll feel gutted for not going

Given I've only been to three Muse gigs (Emirates 2013 and SBE/Reading this year) the amount of songs I've seen is pretty high - Sunburn, MM, Showbiz and Unintended from the first album alone! I suppose the two most common I've yet to see are Bliss and Resistance. Amazed also that I've missed Dead Inside despite two of those shows being in the Drones "era"...

...ok, as mentioned, SBE means I can't complain about anything they give us at Reading...but please, please play Take A Bow again on Sunday? That was in my original SBE top 10 before the likes of Glorious were added. It'll only be my third Muse gig and my first to feature Drones tracks, so trying to "collect" as many as possible!

I'll be gutted if there's anything at Belfast that isn't at Reading - I couldn't afford both and Reading was way easier to get to. But after SBE I can't really complain about any Muse gig ever, so whatever. *Falling Away With You gets played*

Probably the same people who saw a member of the band arrive, only to say "Oh, it's just Chris" and walk off. To which someone replied "It's JUST Chris? Get the fuck out!!". They could have been saying it ironically though, lots of jokes about Dig Down in the queue and at the venue.

So that was only my second Muse gig ever and first in four years...luckily my third is only a week away! As much as I loved them at Emirates, there's a massive difference between seeing them far away in a huge arena surrounded by casuals who only know a couple of songs, to being almost at the front of the stage in a mad crowd of fans singing along to EVERY WORD. Not just my best Muse gig ever but up there with one of the best I've seen by any band, ever. Random thoughts/moments: * Pretty much destroyed my voice screaming to Muscle Museum, so was pleased it got played early on. Apologies to any around me I deafened but hearing that alone immediately made the £88 more than worth it. * The huge grin on Dom's face while playing Glorious! * Butterflies & Hurricanes summed up the Emirates Stadium/SBE difference perfectly. People around me standing around chatting at Emirates ignoring the song, versus several hundred screams of "BEEEEESSST!!!!! YOU'VE GOT TO BE THE BEEESSSST!!" at SBE...an easy winner! * Citizen was my 11th choice and it was slightly painful that it narrowly missed out on my top 10, as desperate as I was to hear it I wanted to prioritise rarer tracks. I've always wondered if it sounds as good live as on OOS...YES IT DOES. Damn at that ending!! * Goosebumps at that first "Controlling my feelings for so long..." * I'm guessing Hysteria acted as a substitute for FAWY and/or Eternally Missed, given how closely linked it is to both songs (previous album track/B-side). Wonder if they attempted to rehearse them or immediately decided they wouldn't work? Either way it still sounded great - they picked the right staples to include among the rarities, something like Starlight would have been fairly anticlimatic! * New Born was my 14th - missed it (and Dead Star) at Emirates by one day, so the first time I'd heard it live! After those million riffs (+Yes Please, in my top 10 but didn't expect for a second they'd actually do it!) I'd be happy even without an encore, but cus of spoilers I knew at least one more was coming... * LOL at Matt's passive aggressive intro to S4A, I got the feeling he's not a huge fan of it Amazing to hear - one of the first songs of theirs I ever heard, as already exhausted as I was by now. * Of all the non-rarities they play my fave Muse song of all time with Plug In Baby!! Was expecting to wait a week to hear it so fantastic to get it at SBE! * My attempt to sing along to Futurism ended in a hilarious croak, my voice was totally gone by then. As others have mentioned loved the intro, someone near me thought it was a new song! * A ton of people left when the harmonica started so I could finally get right to the front in time for Knights. Again, the "regular" tracks were picked perfectly, keeping the energy going and the mass jumping around during the second half was a perfect end to the evening. Thanks to all I met during my eleven hour queuing experience and looking forward to what they'll give us in seven days time!

About third row on the right - way closer than I thought I'd get for queue number 79!! An hour and a half to go!

The irony of those joining now having bright sunlight shining down on them, and those who've been here for hours stuck in a freezing cold alley...

79 in the queue at 10am this morning.

Passed SBE on the way home just now. Massive credit to those camping out, the wind is intense for this time of year. Muse already displayed on the front of the building. Will wait at home for the sun to rise, if I actually get any sleep...

Lol, when I saw that queue on the way to work this morning (I live about 10 mins from SBE) I assumed they had to be for the act playing tonight...can't believe they're there for Muse!! Will probably join the queue tomorrow morning. Need to see if I can find my Emirates 2013 t-shirt first...hope I'd be ok leaving for a few hours (once I've got my number) and returning later?

1. Take A Bow 2. Psycho 3. Sunburn 4. Butterflies & Hurricanes 5. New Born 6. Survival (Prelude intro) 7. Space Dementia 8. Citizen Erased 9. Micro Cuts 10. Unintended 11. Sing for Absolution 12. Madness 13. Follow Me 14. Stockholm Syndrome 15. The Globalist 16. Knights of Cydonia 17. Invincible (Soldier's Poem intro) 18. Muscle Museum 19. Plug in Baby 20. Exogenesis 1 21. Exogenesis 2 22. Exogenesis 3