Jump to content
Muse

Muse amazes in Arco Arena show

bunerz

By bunerz
in Muse In the Media

Recommended Posts

bunerz Escapee

bunerz

Posted
Posted

http://blogs.sacbee.com/ticket/archives/2010/09/muse-amazes-in.html

 

Muse put on the perfect rock show Tuesday night.

 

Grand yet tidy, the English band moved gracefully from crunchy to symphonic and demonstrated why, after huge success in Europe, it now sells out arenas in the United States.

 

That is, except Arco Arena, where Muse drew around 9,000 people. But think of it this way: That's 9,000 people who will tell their friends that next time around, they must catch Muse and the wonder that is guitarist and lead singer Matt Bellamy.

 

A slight man in red satin pants, Bellamy delivered riffs 1,000 times his size. Those riffs evoked Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. But they were also all Bellamy's, deep and earthy in tone, stratospheric in delivery.

 

The final frontier plays into Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" (aka the "Twilight" song), and "Starlight," two gorgeous pop songs from the 2006 album "Black Holes and Revelations" that sounded superb Tuesday night. But those songs only scratch the surface of what Muse - Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme, drummer Dominic Howard - can do. And what they did on their 2009 album "The Resistance."

 

Muse opened with the catchiest track from "Resistance," the beat-packed, anthemic "Uprising." But that song is a lark compared with "Exogenesis," a three-part symphony that appears on the same album.

 

Traveling with touring member Morgan Nicholls but no string section, Muse played only part of the symphony Tuesday night. But it was enough to show the band's musical breadth and great potential.

 

Even bolder was the sudden blast of operatic harmonies on "United States of Eurasia," a song that samples Chopin but is also so Queen-like that one expected Freddie Mercury to pop up on the three-dimensional video screens surrounding Muse.

 

Muse also sounds like ABBA and Depeche Mode at times. But who cares? Every band is influenced by what it hears. Muse, composed of guys in their early 30s, grew up surrounded by songs readily recognizable to most of us. Instead of plucking bits from obscure 1920s bluesmen, the way English bands of the 1960s and '70s did, Muse plucked bits of '70s and '80s radio hits.

 

Muse owns its influences, and a sound denser and more rocking than that of fellow 1980s-influenced bands, most of whom are too reliant on synth. Muse's organic rhythm section shakes the ground well and good enough to allow for flowery experimentation.

 

Bellamy, Wolstenstone and Howard also proved consummate showmen Tuesday night by focusing on music rather than on being showy. The video-screen imagery, which included shots of the band, computer code and repeated images of owl eyes, was vibrant without being distracting. The stage banter was limited and always gracious.

 

The band acknowledged an Arco Arena crowd that included Deftones' singer Chino Moreno by playing a snippet of Deftones' "My Own Summer (Shove It)."

 

It was a class move by a group willing to acknowledge all its influences -- from '70s groups to fellow gifted, experimental players on the current alt-rock scene -- on its way to superstardom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CarrieB Escapee

CarrieB

Posted
Posted
ABBA???, where is the ABBA influence? Granted, I don't have ABBA on rotate in my ipod, but I have heard a song or two. I don't hear any ABBA influence. I am seriously asking, does anyone else hear this?

 

Definite Abba in Unnatural Selection. I have to say I love it though. Who would have thought it, a really heavy song with Abba in it! :D

 

That's the only place though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hugenkiss Escapee

hugenkiss

Posted
Posted
Definite Abba in Unnatural Selection. I have to say I love it though. Who would have thought it, a really heavy song with Abba in it! :D

 

That's the only place though.

 

Interesting. I honestly don't hear it, but I guess I just don't know enough about ABBA to hear their influence. But I trust you if you say it's there :D I guess I'm just picturing Matt running across the stage singing "Dancing Queen" :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mjartrod Escapee

mjartrod

Posted
Posted
The band acknowledged an Arco Arena crowd that included Deftones' singer Chino Moreno by playing a snippet of Deftones' "My Own Summer (Shove It)."
wow, i hope someone got a vid.

 

deftones live in lisbon, a number of years ago after the release of 'white pony' is still one of the best gigs i have ever attended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CarrieB Escapee

CarrieB

Posted
Posted
Interesting. I honestly don't hear it, but I guess I just don't know enough about ABBA to hear their influence. But I trust you if you say it's there :D I guess I'm just picturing Matt running across the stage singing "Dancing Queen" :rolleyes:

 

Check out "Lay your love on me"

 

Abba : "Don't go wasting your emotion"

 

Muse: "Counterbalance this commotion"

 

It's not exact, but it's still blatant,I think, and such fun! :D I love it! Matt is the secret Abba fan! :happy: Well not that secret obviously or no one would know! :LOL:

 

PS I saw an interview once where Matt said Dancing Queen was his guilty pleasure, so you're not far off there! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Izzy Escapee

Izzy

Posted
Posted

Thank for posting.

 

" A slight man in red satin pants, Bellamy delivered riffs 1,000 times his size. Those riffs evoked Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. But they were also all Bellamy's, deep and earthy in tone, stratospheric in delivery"

 

:LOL::D:happy:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Poor Bison Escapee

Poor Bison

Posted
Posted
That's what you get for playing the same over-rehearsed show night after night.
Stop studying every fucking setlist then and imagine what its like for the people actually at the shows.

 

They get their monies worth: They pay to see perfection, a stunning production and musicianship and thats what they get.

 

I don't understand where this idea of "Muse need to play different songs in a different order every night, because it totally makes a difference for the people not at the shows!"

 

Also its so cool that The Deftones guy was part of the crowd! And that riff was fucking sick, whoever said they should replace Head Up with the Deftones riff was spot on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Discoprincess32 Escapee

Discoprincess32

Posted
Posted
Stop studying every fucking setlist then and imagine what its like for the people actually at the shows.

 

They get their monies worth: They pay to see perfection, a stunning production and musicianship and thats what they get.

 

I don't understand where this idea of "Muse need to play different songs in a different order every night, because it totally makes a difference for the people not at the shows!"

Also its so cool that The Deftones guy was part of the crowd! And that riff was fucking sick, whoever said they should replace Head Up with the Deftones riff was spot on.

 

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...