About that concert...
Eeep. Over three weeks later, finally sitting down to write about the Muse concert. I do rather wish I'd done this sooner, but I had a guest at home immediately after, who maaay not have appreciated me spending a couple of hours typing ;D And, work has been heavily to moderately insane, so there hasn't been much opportunity to work on it there, either.
I also wanted to have my pics (what few were acceptable XD) done in conjunction with this entry, but I've got even less time to work on pictures than on LJ entries. XD;; Sigh. I want a return to pre-February sanity levels. :(
But at any rate... whatever thoughts I can pull together from that awesome night. XD
Hmm, I guess I'll start off by mentioning that apparently, this was the smallest venue on the tour, which is pretty awesome :) I think we were sitting maybe... 30 feet from stage? I dunno, I'm terrible at estimating stuff like that, but it's certainly the closest I've ever sat at a concert, and these seats were at "halfcourt", so to speak. (It's a basketball arena for a smaller university.) Of course, my pictures were still pretty bad, but at least I could take them? XD
The opening band was the Silversun Pickups. My only real exposure to them had been through Rock Band, and I liked the songs in there well enough, and I definitely could appreciate them as an opening band -- especially instead of someone else I might not like at all! -- but, not gonna be one of my favorites, s'just how it is. XD; The singer dude was fun, though. XD I like when the band actually chats a bit, it just feels more interactive, I guess. Some choice quotes:
(In response to the crowd being happy to be there) "We're probably the four happiest people, up here. Well, except the guy in the hat. [The keyboardist] He's fucking pissed."
[Talking about this being the second night of the tour] "Not YOUR second night. ... You don't remember last night? You were so wasted."
The bassist girl had this whole different vibe of awesome, wearing a slightly prim (for a rock concert?!) dress and rocking out regardless. XD I don't know that it's apparent in any of my pics, unfortunately. :|
They played maybe.. 5 songs? The only ones I knew were "Well Thought-Out Twinkles" and "Lazy Eye" (which, of course, they played last). Good stuff. The level of distortion on the guitar left my ears ringing pretty badly for a bit, but hey. XD
There was a bit of an intermission while the stage got set up for Muse... they had these three tower things (they were there even while SP was playing), and they were covered with fabric, but we could see people scurrying around inside. I imagine everyone (who didn't already know) was wondering what that was all about... XD
Turned out that the fabric covers were used as projector screens (the displays were interesting and bizarre throughout the show), and those towers... were also stages! :D The center portion of each column opened up, and there was the band, one person in each tower, 10-15 feet up in the air. Squee!
They opened up with "Uprising", of course. I think as the show began, it was finally sinking in that we were there and the band was RIGHT THERE and playing and whoa. XD The proximity to the stage really gives it a totally different feel.
Hmm, squeeing about each individual song sounds silly -- not to mention I couldn't remember all of that squee now if I tried -- but here's the breakdown of the setlist, with a little bit of squee:
Uprising
Resistance
New Born -- I was one of those crazy people screaming when this one started up XD
Map of the Problematique ♥ ♥
Supermassive Black Hole
Hysteria -- XD They started this one with the little guitar outro that goes after the song on the album, it was awesoommme
Guiding Light -- meh, one of my least favorites, but it IS on the newest album ;)
"Nishe" -- didn't know this had a title until later. It's an instrumental break, because the stage was being set up for... Piano!
United States of Eurasia -- pretty badass live. XD
Feeling Good -- I was taken by surprise! Awesome! XD
"Helsinki Jam" -- a bass/drums solo as the piano got put away.
Undisclosed Desires -- I wondered how they would do this one, since there's no lead guitar... well, Matt played a keytar. WHOO XD I cracked up. I actually recorded this as (poor) video, but in the end that was a bad choice... I think this was actually one of the weakest songs of the set, which kind of makes sense... it's a highly produced song, and doesn't work as well live, IMO.
Starlight ♥ ♥
Plug-In Baby -- I wish I had videoed this one, it was awesome XD
Time is Running Out -- heh, the projector screens showed a dude in a tank that was filling higher and higher with water. Creepy. oo
Unnatural Selection -- YEAH! I got my Southern rock guitar solo live!
Then came the lights-down and the wait for the encore, of course! ;)
Exogenesis Part I -- FUCK YEAH. Didn't expect any Exogenesis, but hey! It was pretty badass.
Stockholm Syndrome -- Wow!! Totally caught me by surprise. ♥
Knights of Cydonia -- LOL. I was wondering if they would play this. Yay!
And that, sadly, was that. :(
Now for some random and idle commentary:
* Heh, during one song, and I sadly forget which, they released these GIANT eyeball balloons -- I think they were probably 4-5 feet across -- filled with confetti.. dozens of 'em, and they were bounced around the front of the crowd (and occasionally onstage, to be kicked off by Matt or Chris). They finished whatever song it was, but continued to jam until all the balloons were popped, which was awesome. XD
* Matt is so tiny! XD But soooo charismatic. ♥ Where does that voice come from?
* It's always said about Muse that they're fantastic live. It's true, so very true. A lot of times I don't like live tracks as much as studio records, but they were bloody fantastic. vvalentine agrees. XD One of us said that their music just plays really well live, and it does. Except Undisclosed Desires, apparently. :(
* Songs I wished for: MK Ultra (which apparently they do play at some shows), and I Belong to You (my favorite! but I can understand why they didn't play it), from the newest album. There are any number of other songs from older albums I'd want to hear, but it was a fun setlist :)
I think that's about everything in my head that I needed to put down. I may pop back in to add anything I suddenly remember that I missed, but if I can't remember it now, that's probably it. XD
Sigh, and maybe this weekend, since there will be no BPAL to work on, I can actually take pictures! Imagine that!
I also wanted to have my pics (what few were acceptable XD) done in conjunction with this entry, but I've got even less time to work on pictures than on LJ entries. XD;; Sigh. I want a return to pre-February sanity levels. :(
But at any rate... whatever thoughts I can pull together from that awesome night. XD
Hmm, I guess I'll start off by mentioning that apparently, this was the smallest venue on the tour, which is pretty awesome :) I think we were sitting maybe... 30 feet from stage? I dunno, I'm terrible at estimating stuff like that, but it's certainly the closest I've ever sat at a concert, and these seats were at "halfcourt", so to speak. (It's a basketball arena for a smaller university.) Of course, my pictures were still pretty bad, but at least I could take them? XD
The opening band was the Silversun Pickups. My only real exposure to them had been through Rock Band, and I liked the songs in there well enough, and I definitely could appreciate them as an opening band -- especially instead of someone else I might not like at all! -- but, not gonna be one of my favorites, s'just how it is. XD; The singer dude was fun, though. XD I like when the band actually chats a bit, it just feels more interactive, I guess. Some choice quotes:
(In response to the crowd being happy to be there) "We're probably the four happiest people, up here. Well, except the guy in the hat. [The keyboardist] He's fucking pissed."
[Talking about this being the second night of the tour] "Not YOUR second night. ... You don't remember last night? You were so wasted."
The bassist girl had this whole different vibe of awesome, wearing a slightly prim (for a rock concert?!) dress and rocking out regardless. XD I don't know that it's apparent in any of my pics, unfortunately. :|
They played maybe.. 5 songs? The only ones I knew were "Well Thought-Out Twinkles" and "Lazy Eye" (which, of course, they played last). Good stuff. The level of distortion on the guitar left my ears ringing pretty badly for a bit, but hey. XD
There was a bit of an intermission while the stage got set up for Muse... they had these three tower things (they were there even while SP was playing), and they were covered with fabric, but we could see people scurrying around inside. I imagine everyone (who didn't already know) was wondering what that was all about... XD
Turned out that the fabric covers were used as projector screens (the displays were interesting and bizarre throughout the show), and those towers... were also stages! :D The center portion of each column opened up, and there was the band, one person in each tower, 10-15 feet up in the air. Squee!
They opened up with "Uprising", of course. I think as the show began, it was finally sinking in that we were there and the band was RIGHT THERE and playing and whoa. XD The proximity to the stage really gives it a totally different feel.
Hmm, squeeing about each individual song sounds silly -- not to mention I couldn't remember all of that squee now if I tried -- but here's the breakdown of the setlist, with a little bit of squee:
Uprising
Resistance
New Born -- I was one of those crazy people screaming when this one started up XD
Map of the Problematique ♥ ♥
Supermassive Black Hole
Hysteria -- XD They started this one with the little guitar outro that goes after the song on the album, it was awesoommme
Guiding Light -- meh, one of my least favorites, but it IS on the newest album ;)
"Nishe" -- didn't know this had a title until later. It's an instrumental break, because the stage was being set up for... Piano!
United States of Eurasia -- pretty badass live. XD
Feeling Good -- I was taken by surprise! Awesome! XD
"Helsinki Jam" -- a bass/drums solo as the piano got put away.
Undisclosed Desires -- I wondered how they would do this one, since there's no lead guitar... well, Matt played a keytar. WHOO XD I cracked up. I actually recorded this as (poor) video, but in the end that was a bad choice... I think this was actually one of the weakest songs of the set, which kind of makes sense... it's a highly produced song, and doesn't work as well live, IMO.
Starlight ♥ ♥
Plug-In Baby -- I wish I had videoed this one, it was awesome XD
Time is Running Out -- heh, the projector screens showed a dude in a tank that was filling higher and higher with water. Creepy. oo
Unnatural Selection -- YEAH! I got my Southern rock guitar solo live!
Then came the lights-down and the wait for the encore, of course! ;)
Exogenesis Part I -- FUCK YEAH. Didn't expect any Exogenesis, but hey! It was pretty badass.
Stockholm Syndrome -- Wow!! Totally caught me by surprise. ♥
Knights of Cydonia -- LOL. I was wondering if they would play this. Yay!
And that, sadly, was that. :(
Now for some random and idle commentary:
* Heh, during one song, and I sadly forget which, they released these GIANT eyeball balloons -- I think they were probably 4-5 feet across -- filled with confetti.. dozens of 'em, and they were bounced around the front of the crowd (and occasionally onstage, to be kicked off by Matt or Chris). They finished whatever song it was, but continued to jam until all the balloons were popped, which was awesome. XD
* Matt is so tiny! XD But soooo charismatic. ♥ Where does that voice come from?
* It's always said about Muse that they're fantastic live. It's true, so very true. A lot of times I don't like live tracks as much as studio records, but they were bloody fantastic. vvalentine agrees. XD One of us said that their music just plays really well live, and it does. Except Undisclosed Desires, apparently. :(
* Songs I wished for: MK Ultra (which apparently they do play at some shows), and I Belong to You (my favorite! but I can understand why they didn't play it), from the newest album. There are any number of other songs from older albums I'd want to hear, but it was a fun setlist :)
I think that's about everything in my head that I needed to put down. I may pop back in to add anything I suddenly remember that I missed, but if I can't remember it now, that's probably it. XD
Sigh, and maybe this weekend, since there will be no BPAL to work on, I can actually take pictures! Imagine that!