On Thursday I went to the 2nd show of Muse's concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Awesomeness squared. Muse is one of my very few favorite current bands, but also fave all-time band. This is my go-to music for writing. I love their sound - such an interesting mixture of classical, theatrical, rock and alt-rock, and the lead singer Matt Bellamy has a stunningly gorgeous, fluid voice.
I bought a new camera with a better zoom, so the pictures in this post are my own, but I was pretty far away from the stage. Even so, I must remember next time to take an aspirin before the concert, cause boy was that loud. I should have expected it though because I know their music, and they pretty much rocked it the entire time!
Some of the things that were awesome about seeing Muse live (my first time!) was:
- The energy of the crowd, especially when the really popular songs began.
- Those very interesting musical intros to some songs, that I wish I could buy - they were gorgeous!
- The pyramid and multimedia graphics were really cool - great visuals for each song.
- I also really liked their "roulette" to decide whether to play "Newborn" or "Stockholm Syndrome" (It landed on "Newborn" though I was hoping for the other song!)
- And then there were the graphics for "Isolated System" near the end of the show, that seemed very Hunger Games-ish. I think of the Hunger Games a lot when it comes to Muse though, I feel like their previous album "The Resistance" is pretty much a soundtrack for the whole series.
My favorite moment was "Knights of Cydonia" - one of my favorite songs anyways (it's a space opera western song - how can one not love it!). They had the screens show key words, and then the moment in the middle when the music cuts, and everyone is singing:
No one's gonna take me alive
Time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
Just gave me chills! Totally pumps you up! :D And the eerie wailing harmonica intro they created for the song was totally beautiful! I was so confused when it began though, because a harmonica is not what I was expecting from Muse. But I should have known better - they don't limit themselves.
(Edit: just found out the harmonica song is "Man With a Harmonica" from the film Once Upon A Time in the West and was composed by Ennio Morricone. I am now in love!)
(Edit: just found out the harmonica song is "Man With a Harmonica" from the film Once Upon A Time in the West and was composed by Ennio Morricone. I am now in love!)
Other songs that are my general favorites and I really loved hearing live were:
"Madness"
"Uprising"
"Isolated System"
"Map of the Problematique"
"Undisclosed Desires"
"Starlight" (always makes me think of Doctor Who!)
From the latest album I was really hoping to also hear "Explorers" which is so pensive and lovely, but I think they played that the night before. I also wished Matt interacted more with the audience, but they had moments where they wanted the audience to sing the lyrics, and he also went into the pit to touch hands with people so that was really cool. I wish I could have been in the pit! Totes awesome night, I hope to see Muse again in the future for the next album!
