Muse at Royal Albert Hall!! - 12/04/08 - supported by The Futureheads
Similar photo credits to Wembley Stadium's review, all photos linked here (except two which I've commented by) were taken by the wonderful Crazy Bob who is a Muse forum mod and creator/maintainer of Muse Wiki.
I was rather ecstatic when I found out I'd won two Muse choir seats through the TCT competition, after utterly failing to get tickets when they went on sale or later on through the Muse forums, and almost paying an extortionate amount of money (eBay etc.) for tickets which may even have been fake.
I asked Wai Meng if she was available to go with me and was very happy when she said yes! She suggested eating at Japan Centre just off Piccadilly Circus beforehand so we met there just before 3pm. I had a chicken/rice thing, can't remember what the sauce was but it was teryaki-ish and veeeery nice! Will be going back there to sample some more dishes I think! WM was wonderfully kind and paid for both of us, you didn't have to! :)
So it wasn't far from there to South Kensington and before we knew it we were at the Royal Albert Hall at ~4.30pm. The email I got said to pick up the tickets from 6pm, but we had a quick look inside to double-check where we were supposed to collect them from. While we were inside, we heard some music coming from the doors which we quickly recognised to be Megalomania... on the organ!! Much squeeing ensued, until someone nearby pointed out that they'd been playing that over and over again so it was likely a record on a loop. Hmm....
Well, since we had a lot of time to kill we thought we'd wander through Hyde Park (and past a rather imposing monument and gold statue of Prince Albert) but it was starting to rain quite hard and we only got so far (the thunder rumble was the decider really, hehe) before we had to turn back and shelter in the RAH. There was a pretty rainbow on the way back though and it actually finished on the pavement just down the road, that's the first time I've ever seen the end of a rainbow! We started consumption of my many packs of Mentos until 6pm came around and I finally got my grubby mitts on our tickets (after a slightly panicky moment where the lady had asked for the address on my licence but I didn't hear that she said 'licence' so was giving my current address... and they don't match), then waited at door 3 for the better part of an hour before they finally opened.
We picked up a programme and got some minstrels (the Mentos supply was running dangerously low by this point) and headed to our seats in the second row of the East choir. I was slightly disappointed that we weren't in the first row, but glad to see that the height distance between each of the choir rows was much greater than the usual seating areas. I guess that makes sense too as the choir would be standing up and you don't want them to be crowded together, the sound wouldn't be as good. The venue was so small compared to Muse's more recent haunts though that it was pretty exciting, and we had a fantastic view of the whole building and of the stage. I spotted Pip (who didn't!) and co. up in the circle adorned in glowsticks, who I'd met at the 21st November '06 Wembley Arena show. :D
At ~8pm two DJs came on stage (JK and Joel?) to introduce Roger Daltry, who gave a little spiel and in turn introduced The Futureheads. They were alright but I wasn't too impressed, not much change in sound or tempo between their songs. They were scottish though yay. We only recognised one song but there was a great moment when it reached a certain line in the song and we were both like "ohhhh".
At one point WM pointed out to me that there was something which looked very much like a microphone next to the organ seat, which further sparked the idea that they were going to play Megalomania. I was still unsure though because there was a big video screen which completely blocked off the view of the organ seat. Then Tom Kirk appeared up there to do some checks on the microphone and a camera (I think) by the seat. He was lovely enough to stop and have his photo taken and sign things for the small crowd of people who had gathered round, ah what a nice guy. :) I was tempted to go over and get a photo with him but he seemed hassled enough already hehe.
When the setlists were placed on stage, one of them was on the piano which was staring right at us. WM tried to zoom in with her camera so we could read it but it was still a little too blurry. Then one of the girls in the first row who'd been gone for a little while returned to her seat... WITH a fucking setlist!! I have no idea HOW she got it, she must know some of the people working there, but she let us have a look at it and sure enough, there was Megalomania as the first song of the encore!! ^_^ I didn't read the entire set but I did notice that they were opening with TaB and closing with KoC, which I was very happy about. :D
On the note of inflatable green dinosaurs, I spotted one over in the West choir briefly before its owner tucked it away under their seat and I didn't see it again (forgot to look out for it during the actual gig), and there was another one at the front of the arena which was waved around for a while but then seemed to spend most of the gig sitting in front of the barrier, which was a bit of a shame!
9pm finally rolled around and the two random DJs came back on stage to introduce a promotional TCT video, after which Roger Daltry appeared again with two guys (TCT patients) who'd been in the video. They all spoke a bit and then Roger introduced Muse! ^_^ Lots and lots of squeeing and screams! Chris was wearing a black shirt and trousers with a funky tie, Dom was wearing a black shirt and his trademark bright green jeans, and Matt was in a black short-sleeved shirt (with white trimming hehe) and black jeans/trousers... and bright green socks to match Dom's trousers!!! Oh how we laughed. :D It was so adorable though!
Thankfully whoever was in the two seats in front of us didn't turn up, so we had a completely unobstructed view of the stage, it was magnificent. It's true that the band were facing away from us for a lot of the gig, but Matt turned around to face us and do things in our direction fairly often and the rest of the time we had the most glorious view of Matt's arse. *grin* Also, when they started playing I realised that the big screen had raised up into the roof, although I didn't see it happen, and it left the organ seat perfectly on display so it all made sense. :D
The setlist:
- Take A Bow
- Map of the Problematique
- Supermassive Black Hole
- New Born + New Outro
- Butterflies and Hurricanes
- Fury
- Feeling Good
- Invincible (Slow)
- Hysteria
- Starlight
- Bliss (Extended)
- Whole Lotta Love + Bombtrack + Heartbreaker + Voodoo Chile + Time is Running Out
- Stockholm Syndrome + Riffs
---
- Megalomania (Organ)
- Osaka Jam + Plug In Baby
- Close Encounters + Knights of Cydonia
Numerous highlights of the gig!
- A fantastic riff at the end of Map Of The Problematique in which he faced us in the East choir and did some strange move where he'd crouched down and had the head of his guitar in his crotch while the neck was pointing directly at us... that made me blush a little bit in shock, haha, it was highly erotic! Video here courtesy of Pip.
- A weird but funny finger-waggly thing Matt did just before the New Born riff, I'm not quite sure what he was pointing at!
- Fury!! Fucking Fury!! I've been waiting so long to hear Fury live and it was well worth the wait! I thought of Maysie heehee (who I unfortunately didn't get to see :() 'cause it's her favourite Muse song!
- After the megaphone verse of Feeling Good, Matt usually places it to one side but for some reason this time he threw it INTO the piano, haha. It almost looked like a momentary panic where he wasn't sure what to do with it so he just chucked it forwards, I'm sure it wasn't but it was much funnier imagining it that way!
- Invincible actually got me a little teary, that's a first. I think perhaps because it was the first moment of the Muse gig where the pace slowed down a bit and I really had a chance to take it all in. That song has really grown on me so much though considering I didn't like it at all at first!
- Bliss woohoooo!! I cannot BELIEVE they didn't play it both nights at Wembley Stadium, how could they NOT play it? It was somewhat difficult for me to accept that they could even contemplate taking it off their setlists, but ever since it didn't make an appearance at the first Wembley night it's felt like Bliss might become something of a rarity in future sets. So I was over the moon when they played it!! It really felt like their best performance of it yet, or maybe I was just enjoying it all the more because of the aforementioned! Anyway, we had bliss balloons yay, and one of them ended up seemingly perfectly positioned behind Matt so that he could dramatically burst it with the last chord of the song. :D
I'm afraid I can't remember whose photo this is, but it's absolutely fantastic shot of the venue and the balloons. It's someone on the Muse boards so if you know who it is then let me know and I'll give proper credit, or take it down if you'd prefer!
- There was an almighty amount of riffage during the gig, seemed like a lot more than usual, which was awesome. There were numerous ones in a row before Time Is Running Out, and at one point Matt just seemed to completely stop and chat to Dom for a bit! I thought maybe they were deciding which riff to play next, but apparently Dom broke a drumstick hehe... I completely missed it. :) One of the riffs (can't remember when it was) I recognised from Guitar Hero II but couldn't place it... I looked up the GHII soundtrack afterwards to find out what it was and of course, what else could it be but the one and only Hangar 18, baby!! It's the riff that's repeated several times throughout the second half of the song, the one that the song ends on. How awesome is that!!
- At the end of Stockholm Syndrome (the last song of the main set), Matt was just sort of rolling around on the floor with his guitar, it made me laugh so hard that I actually cried.
Similarly with this photo, I can't remember whose it is but if you know then please tell me. It's too fantastic not too share with you all!
- Megalomania. This was the big one. Most of us up in the choir seats already knew what was coming and a lot of them had moved up against the stairs where Matt would be coming out. We could tell he was on his way when people on the stairs started shouting and screaming, hehe. When he made his way to the organ seat and started playing a bit of improv on the organ the crowd was already going crazy, but when the first notes of Megalomania sounded... lord almighty, I have never heard a crowd scream like that before, the ENTIRE auditorium just going nuts as the noise from the big fuck-off organ filled the room with such an incredible sound. It was truly such a rare and special moment in Muse history, and according to MuseWiki it was the first performance of Megalomania for 6 years.
Great video of it here, it really shows how huge the organ is!!
- They did the Close Encounters riff before Knights as a nod to Wembley Stadium, yay. Also, I noticed that Knights had no trumpet... shocking! After Knights, Matt and Chris both gave us a wave as they walked off stage, yay! Dom was heading off the other side of the stage and was just about to walk into what looked like an exit when we see an anonymous hand pop out of it and vigorously pointed him to an exit further along the side of the stage. XD I laughed so hard, poor Dom!
- Also, I might just have to include this photo as one of my highlights, how incredible is it?!
I can't put into words how lucky I was to have been able to go to the gig, it was so intense and arguably the best one I've seen them play yet.
If I could sum up the gig in one word: fucking epic. Ok so that's two.
I'd just like to say that TCT did a wonderful job in putting their cause across to everyone. I felt really good about donating all the money I could find fumbling around in my pocket (which wasn't all that much, admittedly, a few pounds) to the collectors outside the hall at the end of the gig. With every single other charity I've donated to, I've felt like I was backed into a corner and guilt-tripped endlessly until I finally gave in. I'm sure it helped that TCT were making it possible for us to see Muse again, but they really came across as a great charity and I would consider doing fund-raising for them in the future!
I was rather ecstatic when I found out I'd won two Muse choir seats through the TCT competition, after utterly failing to get tickets when they went on sale or later on through the Muse forums, and almost paying an extortionate amount of money (eBay etc.) for tickets which may even have been fake.
I asked Wai Meng if she was available to go with me and was very happy when she said yes! She suggested eating at Japan Centre just off Piccadilly Circus beforehand so we met there just before 3pm. I had a chicken/rice thing, can't remember what the sauce was but it was teryaki-ish and veeeery nice! Will be going back there to sample some more dishes I think! WM was wonderfully kind and paid for both of us, you didn't have to! :)
So it wasn't far from there to South Kensington and before we knew it we were at the Royal Albert Hall at ~4.30pm. The email I got said to pick up the tickets from 6pm, but we had a quick look inside to double-check where we were supposed to collect them from. While we were inside, we heard some music coming from the doors which we quickly recognised to be Megalomania... on the organ!! Much squeeing ensued, until someone nearby pointed out that they'd been playing that over and over again so it was likely a record on a loop. Hmm....
Well, since we had a lot of time to kill we thought we'd wander through Hyde Park (and past a rather imposing monument and gold statue of Prince Albert) but it was starting to rain quite hard and we only got so far (the thunder rumble was the decider really, hehe) before we had to turn back and shelter in the RAH. There was a pretty rainbow on the way back though and it actually finished on the pavement just down the road, that's the first time I've ever seen the end of a rainbow! We started consumption of my many packs of Mentos until 6pm came around and I finally got my grubby mitts on our tickets (after a slightly panicky moment where the lady had asked for the address on my licence but I didn't hear that she said 'licence' so was giving my current address... and they don't match), then waited at door 3 for the better part of an hour before they finally opened.
We picked up a programme and got some minstrels (the Mentos supply was running dangerously low by this point) and headed to our seats in the second row of the East choir. I was slightly disappointed that we weren't in the first row, but glad to see that the height distance between each of the choir rows was much greater than the usual seating areas. I guess that makes sense too as the choir would be standing up and you don't want them to be crowded together, the sound wouldn't be as good. The venue was so small compared to Muse's more recent haunts though that it was pretty exciting, and we had a fantastic view of the whole building and of the stage. I spotted Pip (who didn't!) and co. up in the circle adorned in glowsticks, who I'd met at the 21st November '06 Wembley Arena show. :D
At ~8pm two DJs came on stage (JK and Joel?) to introduce Roger Daltry, who gave a little spiel and in turn introduced The Futureheads. They were alright but I wasn't too impressed, not much change in sound or tempo between their songs. They were scottish though yay. We only recognised one song but there was a great moment when it reached a certain line in the song and we were both like "ohhhh".
At one point WM pointed out to me that there was something which looked very much like a microphone next to the organ seat, which further sparked the idea that they were going to play Megalomania. I was still unsure though because there was a big video screen which completely blocked off the view of the organ seat. Then Tom Kirk appeared up there to do some checks on the microphone and a camera (I think) by the seat. He was lovely enough to stop and have his photo taken and sign things for the small crowd of people who had gathered round, ah what a nice guy. :) I was tempted to go over and get a photo with him but he seemed hassled enough already hehe.
When the setlists were placed on stage, one of them was on the piano which was staring right at us. WM tried to zoom in with her camera so we could read it but it was still a little too blurry. Then one of the girls in the first row who'd been gone for a little while returned to her seat... WITH a fucking setlist!! I have no idea HOW she got it, she must know some of the people working there, but she let us have a look at it and sure enough, there was Megalomania as the first song of the encore!! ^_^ I didn't read the entire set but I did notice that they were opening with TaB and closing with KoC, which I was very happy about. :D
On the note of inflatable green dinosaurs, I spotted one over in the West choir briefly before its owner tucked it away under their seat and I didn't see it again (forgot to look out for it during the actual gig), and there was another one at the front of the arena which was waved around for a while but then seemed to spend most of the gig sitting in front of the barrier, which was a bit of a shame!
9pm finally rolled around and the two random DJs came back on stage to introduce a promotional TCT video, after which Roger Daltry appeared again with two guys (TCT patients) who'd been in the video. They all spoke a bit and then Roger introduced Muse! ^_^ Lots and lots of squeeing and screams! Chris was wearing a black shirt and trousers with a funky tie, Dom was wearing a black shirt and his trademark bright green jeans, and Matt was in a black short-sleeved shirt (with white trimming hehe) and black jeans/trousers... and bright green socks to match Dom's trousers!!! Oh how we laughed. :D It was so adorable though!
Thankfully whoever was in the two seats in front of us didn't turn up, so we had a completely unobstructed view of the stage, it was magnificent. It's true that the band were facing away from us for a lot of the gig, but Matt turned around to face us and do things in our direction fairly often and the rest of the time we had the most glorious view of Matt's arse. *grin* Also, when they started playing I realised that the big screen had raised up into the roof, although I didn't see it happen, and it left the organ seat perfectly on display so it all made sense. :D
The setlist:
- Take A Bow
- Map of the Problematique
- Supermassive Black Hole
- New Born + New Outro
- Butterflies and Hurricanes
- Fury
- Feeling Good
- Invincible (Slow)
- Hysteria
- Starlight
- Bliss (Extended)
- Whole Lotta Love + Bombtrack + Heartbreaker + Voodoo Chile + Time is Running Out
- Stockholm Syndrome + Riffs
---
- Megalomania (Organ)
- Osaka Jam + Plug In Baby
- Close Encounters + Knights of Cydonia
Numerous highlights of the gig!
- A fantastic riff at the end of Map Of The Problematique in which he faced us in the East choir and did some strange move where he'd crouched down and had the head of his guitar in his crotch while the neck was pointing directly at us... that made me blush a little bit in shock, haha, it was highly erotic! Video here courtesy of Pip.
- A weird but funny finger-waggly thing Matt did just before the New Born riff, I'm not quite sure what he was pointing at!
- Fury!! Fucking Fury!! I've been waiting so long to hear Fury live and it was well worth the wait! I thought of Maysie heehee (who I unfortunately didn't get to see :() 'cause it's her favourite Muse song!
- After the megaphone verse of Feeling Good, Matt usually places it to one side but for some reason this time he threw it INTO the piano, haha. It almost looked like a momentary panic where he wasn't sure what to do with it so he just chucked it forwards, I'm sure it wasn't but it was much funnier imagining it that way!
- Invincible actually got me a little teary, that's a first. I think perhaps because it was the first moment of the Muse gig where the pace slowed down a bit and I really had a chance to take it all in. That song has really grown on me so much though considering I didn't like it at all at first!
- Bliss woohoooo!! I cannot BELIEVE they didn't play it both nights at Wembley Stadium, how could they NOT play it? It was somewhat difficult for me to accept that they could even contemplate taking it off their setlists, but ever since it didn't make an appearance at the first Wembley night it's felt like Bliss might become something of a rarity in future sets. So I was over the moon when they played it!! It really felt like their best performance of it yet, or maybe I was just enjoying it all the more because of the aforementioned! Anyway, we had bliss balloons yay, and one of them ended up seemingly perfectly positioned behind Matt so that he could dramatically burst it with the last chord of the song. :D
I'm afraid I can't remember whose photo this is, but it's absolutely fantastic shot of the venue and the balloons. It's someone on the Muse boards so if you know who it is then let me know and I'll give proper credit, or take it down if you'd prefer!
- There was an almighty amount of riffage during the gig, seemed like a lot more than usual, which was awesome. There were numerous ones in a row before Time Is Running Out, and at one point Matt just seemed to completely stop and chat to Dom for a bit! I thought maybe they were deciding which riff to play next, but apparently Dom broke a drumstick hehe... I completely missed it. :) One of the riffs (can't remember when it was) I recognised from Guitar Hero II but couldn't place it... I looked up the GHII soundtrack afterwards to find out what it was and of course, what else could it be but the one and only Hangar 18, baby!! It's the riff that's repeated several times throughout the second half of the song, the one that the song ends on. How awesome is that!!
- At the end of Stockholm Syndrome (the last song of the main set), Matt was just sort of rolling around on the floor with his guitar, it made me laugh so hard that I actually cried.
Similarly with this photo, I can't remember whose it is but if you know then please tell me. It's too fantastic not too share with you all!
- Megalomania. This was the big one. Most of us up in the choir seats already knew what was coming and a lot of them had moved up against the stairs where Matt would be coming out. We could tell he was on his way when people on the stairs started shouting and screaming, hehe. When he made his way to the organ seat and started playing a bit of improv on the organ the crowd was already going crazy, but when the first notes of Megalomania sounded... lord almighty, I have never heard a crowd scream like that before, the ENTIRE auditorium just going nuts as the noise from the big fuck-off organ filled the room with such an incredible sound. It was truly such a rare and special moment in Muse history, and according to MuseWiki it was the first performance of Megalomania for 6 years.
Great video of it here, it really shows how huge the organ is!!
- They did the Close Encounters riff before Knights as a nod to Wembley Stadium, yay. Also, I noticed that Knights had no trumpet... shocking! After Knights, Matt and Chris both gave us a wave as they walked off stage, yay! Dom was heading off the other side of the stage and was just about to walk into what looked like an exit when we see an anonymous hand pop out of it and vigorously pointed him to an exit further along the side of the stage. XD I laughed so hard, poor Dom!
- Also, I might just have to include this photo as one of my highlights, how incredible is it?!
I can't put into words how lucky I was to have been able to go to the gig, it was so intense and arguably the best one I've seen them play yet.
If I could sum up the gig in one word: fucking epic. Ok so that's two.
I'd just like to say that TCT did a wonderful job in putting their cause across to everyone. I felt really good about donating all the money I could find fumbling around in my pocket (which wasn't all that much, admittedly, a few pounds) to the collectors outside the hall at the end of the gig. With every single other charity I've donated to, I've felt like I was backed into a corner and guilt-tripped endlessly until I finally gave in. I'm sure it helped that TCT were making it possible for us to see Muse again, but they really came across as a great charity and I would consider doing fund-raising for them in the future!