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2019.06.08 - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK


forevermusic

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25 minutes ago, Jobby said:

Ahhh, see that was a thing with the little group I was with, none of us had a pen and we were never sure where to get numbers when people asked :chuckle: I think I did see one girl occasionally pop through with one though and I did get a number eventually but I never caught whereabouts in the queues she came from. Was it you??

NO :LOL:

 

she was in the row next to us, a little in the middle. We then moved to the right hand bag queue once they had put those up. 

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I try to see them on every tour and have done since the start... This was my first time seeing them with my son who has become a massive fan of theirs so I was feeling a bit old when he was asking if I remember when their first album came out as if it was 60 years ago and not "just" 20.

We were standing and given his age we didn't go right down the front, but were off to the right of the B stage. The sound mix was really good to us although occasionally Matt's vocals seemed to drop off. But for the vast majority of the time it was clear and crisp. I quite liked The Etihad, had a bit of a bowl feeling about it and wasn't as cavernous feeling as some other stadiums I've been in.

I know they'd said they couldn't go "bigger" with the stage setting and I loved what they did this time with the stage and the whole show as a spectacle - having the themes from Simulation Theory running through the whole thing was great and worked so well.

Personally, I liked hearing so much of the new album and the songs sit alongside their older stuff really well. I don't find it jarring like you do with some bands who mix old and new stuff. The main thing is their new stuff is really good, so they're way off being one of those heritage bands just touring a greatest hits setlist. There's time for that in another 20 years time!

I feel really lucky to see shows like that as that's what they are - shows. Not just gigs. There's some great bands out there who put on a great gig with very little theatre around it which is fine, but its a very different sort of experience. Its not necessarily better, its just different. Few bands have the money, luxury and imagination to put on a great show like Muse do in a place of that size.

Anyway, main thing was my son absolutely loved it. Every time I looked over he was grinning from ear to ear. They played all his favourite tracks, including Uprising, which I remember him bopping along to in his child seat in the back of the car - now that made me feel old!

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On 6/9/2019 at 11:43 AM, MuseboyDave said:

2) Sound levels and mix.  My god, what a horlicks from about the 3-6 song in. I assume it was a simple mistake, but the bass was literally trouser shaking and overwhelming the rest of the music, with the vocals and even drums getting lost behind the almost painful bass distortion. This didn't get 'fixed' until later, as the base was reduced and the sound went low in general, causing the atmosphere to drop accordingly

I had this problem in Bristol (standing left side, near the tent). It was horrific for some of the earlier songs in the set, seemed to clear up later on. 

Manchester was fine for me (1st level seated area, in-line with the end of the b-stage)

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Finally found the time to write down a couple of words about this gig. That was a good one, really enjoyed myself. Quite a bit of that was down to the crowd (always an important part for me). We stood Matt's side closely behind the golden circle and near the B-stage (almost exact location highlighted during Pressure by a purple smoke thingy :happy:). Mosh pit from Pressure onwards, singing, jumping, great stuff. Part of my group sat Level 1 and they said crowd was good there as well, people standing from the first tone.

Setlist was, as expected, not the best, but obviously great that Bliss came back around. My highlight of the night, I just love that song. As mentioned, the band also seemed to be really into it, and that's always awesome. For instance the ending to the Bliss outro: After running back to the main stage Matt extended the (almost) final note for like half a minute keeping Dom and Chris and everyone waiting like ......(insert pause here)...... and there it is :awesome:! That felt special.

Ever since the start of the tour I was quite fond of the ST-song-choice, excluding 2 out of 3 of the songs I really don't like (SH and GUAF; with DD being played in my preferred version). TC can be better (see Paris pro-shot; but when does dropping the guitar ever make anything better?). BITM with Tom Morello was obviously :facemelt:. Was hoping smt like that would happen, but almost gave up hope after it didn't at the other UK gigs, so was really surprised and utterly happy when it did! Medley was awesome, but like others I'd rather they play 2-3 songs in full and rotate them. Good fun nevertheless, as was the jam. And Murph was awesome.

Stage and show was good. Didn't notice the dancers all too much when being focused on the band (and being in standing). I did like the lighted poles during Algorithm and the people running down the screen during BITM (didn't watch too much of the show beforehand and didn't know about that, looked fancy). I also didn't know about the call-and-response Close Encounters between Matt and the stage. That was cool!

And how about Tom Morello! Hands down the (second) best support I've ever had (beaten only by Biffy, supporting Muse at the Waldbühne for almost an hour). What a guy!

Main negative for me (apart from the obvious setlist could have been better, stop dropping the guitar Matt...) was me losing most of my voice pretty much at the beginning of the gig thanks to being strained the days before and during Tom's set. I love to sing along and when I can't it really takes something away from the experience. But yea, great fun apart from that, both the gig and the trip all together :happy:.

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