omg dead
WARNING: THIS REVIEW IS TL;DR. I DIDN'T WANT TO FORGET ANYTHING ABOUT MY CONCERT.
Complete with gifs and way too much flailing.
Not pictured: Matt's actual outfit. He wore bright turquoise pants.
So I invite one of my best friends - let’s call her A - because she’s never been to a ~legit concert and really wants to experience one. A month or so before the concert I lend her all of my Muse CDs to rip to her computer and become familiar with. She says that her favorite is the third one but she recognizes the most songs from the fifth one - I told her that Muse would play the most songs from that CD, so she listened to it most.
A and I head off to the Fort Worth Convention Center at about 1:15, getting there a little after two. Those who had been waiting numbered themselves by writing with Sharpie on their hands - A and I were #104 and 105. I actually thought that would be pretty bad, but it turns out that we were in a very good spot. And so we wait - for about 4 ½ hours in fact, until they let us in. To pass the time, we consume a whole package of Starburst and fold every wrapper into little origami shirts. We’re cool like that. Someone in line was giving out green beads with matches taped to them (for St. Patrick’s Day, which was the day of the concert), and I grabbed one on the way in. No danger of getting pinched here.
Cool story bro.
We were also sitting in line near some really annoying lady who smoked and drank and shouted a lot and thought she was cool and at one point dropped and broke a bottle of beer, which spilled everywhere. Not looking forward to that part of the concert lol.
Anyways, we’re finally let into the venue at about 6:00 or 6:30, idr. The venue was surprisingly small, but apparently that’s all Muse could get since the Mavericks are playing at the American Airlines Center this weekend. A and I are far enough forward in line that we get floor spots in the fourth row (!!!). I thought that we would have to stand around waiting for the concert, but due to some silent agreement everyone was sitting down. Thank God lol. I run and quickly buy a Muse jacket while we’re waiting. Silversun Pickups takes the stage promptly at seven. Full disclosure here: I was bored by Silversun Pickups. I had tried listening to their music a few weeks earlier and just got really, really bored with it. Although the lead singer is fun to watch live, I just don’t find their actual music all that interesting. Plus I only recognized a couple songs, so…
But yeah, he was a good frontman. He kept doing all this weird shit like dinosaur claws (which reminded me of Lady GaGa), moving his guitar back and forth to mess with the feedback and make different sounds, and going right up to the front of the stage to glare at the crowd creepily - which only made us cheer louder. So all in all it wasn’t that bad.
Random story: there was this one guy who started out sort of to my left and behind me during Silversun Pickups but managed to move to my left and in front of me during Muse. He was really, really tall and had long hair and a long beard and oh my fuck so annoying. He (and the rest of his companions, who were in front of my though fortunately much shorter) seemed to think that they needed to be raising their hands in the air the whoooooole time making those “rock out” hand symbols. Yeah, idek. Annoying.
So anyways, after Silversun Pickups came a 30-minute wait. My friend didn’t seem to realize that bands pull shit like this all the time - having the crowd wait for a long time while they set up - so she got pretty pissed. I was a bit tired of standing also, but whatever. MUSE WAS COMING UP.
At about 8:15 the room darkens and the three giant columns on stage light up. Holy. Fucking. Shit. The columns show three flights of stairs with people climbing up them. After the first person gets to the top, he begins to fall and then all of the little people are falling. I guess to show the chaos of an uprising or something? Because, predictably, Muse launch into Uprising after this. The screens that were over the columns fall, Muse are revealed to be on platforms cut into the columns, and they’re playing and everyone’s pumping their fists and holy shit holy shit holy shit. Matt is wearing his light up glasses, which he eventually throws into the crowd (lol). He also has some sort of light beam thing attached to his microphone (?) which he uses to send green lines of light into the crowd. Those green lines appear again (though much more abundantly) later during Undisclosed Desires.
They set into Resistance next, which is of course amazing. Idk, I don’t have much to say about it. But then. Oh my God. I hear the opening bars of New Born and I die and sflkdjf;kljfx;lkdjfsldkfjsdklf;jds. ;KLJSA;KLSFJDKL;F;DS. NEW BORN. My friend has no idea what this song is, but I’m dying of the awesome.
Next is Supermassive Black Hole, which my friend does know. And of course it’s sexy and amazing. Then they play just a few bars of MK Ultra and then stop, then play those few bars again. But I only needed a few bars to know what song it was going to be and I’m screaming with everyone else and singing the lyrics and oh, it is glorious. One of their best live songs, I think.
Next they have a little interlude sort of thing, which - if I remember correctly - sounded sort of Irish…? Idk. But I think they had green lights and it was a St. Patrick’s Day sort of dealio. I remember it was with just Chris and Dom, but I can’t remember if that was the St. Patrick’s Day thing or if that was during another point in the concert. Anyways, then Chris comes forward right to the front and omfg he looks so awesome as he starts punching out the opening of Hysteria and this is one of my favorite concert songs and I’m dead. I almost can’t hear each individual note he’s playing over the noise, but I know the song so well that I can tell what’s going on. So that one is amazing.
According to the setlist that I looked at online to remind myself, they played Nishe next as a lead-in to United States of Eurasia, which, okay, I never remember what Nishe sounds like. Cool? But yeah, so they play USOE while on their platforms again and it is amazing. I used to find the beginning of that song a bit boring, but I’ve grown to love it and I loved it even more in concert. Matt’s on this cool little piano that has a clear lid that lights up to show each note he’s playing. It’s awesome.
Next - cue more flailing from me - they play Feeling Good, still on the piano, complete with megaphone. It. Is. Amazing. OMFG. Oh, and the whole time during this concert they’ve been showing stuff on the screens attached to the three columns, so yeah. Right now they’re showing bees and butterflies and flowers and that type of thing. Feeling Good a very uplifting song to sing along to (well, obviously).
Next Matt disappears and Chris joins Dom on the middle column for Helsinki Jam. Well, I didn’t know it was Helsinki Jam until I looked up the setlist after the concert to help with my review - I don’t really recognize any of their ~jams - but it was awesome. I loved that. The platform rotates as column slowly sinks back down so that Matt can join in again for Undisclosed Desires, my favorite song from the new album. Another song that’s amazing live (and really hot). There’s a lot of green lasers and purple lights and stuff. But it’s not a very flaily song, if that makes sense, and I had particular trouble in seeing over the arm of the tall guy next to me during this song for some reason. So I can’t summon up a lot of excitement for this while writing about it, although I was dying when I saw it live of course.
Next is Starlight, which according to my friend is her favorite song (unsurprising, since it’s one of their most popular songs in the US). Hardcore fans, say what you want about it, but it is really fun live, negl.
The clapping rhythm is surprisingly hard, though! One clap, then two, then one, then three. Well, hard to do and pay attention to the song at the same time, anyways. I just gave up clapping eventually.
Then they launch into Unnatural Selection, which. HOLY. FUCK. I knew this was going to be amazing live, but it surpassed my expectations. Especially the slow part with the epic guitar notes and the tryyyyy to ride out the stoooorm part. I just. I died. Als;djkfsldkjf;.fx I can’t even. Omg. Lol I’m not too good at describing this. That one loud guitar note that’s in the midst of the slow section of the song just rips through you.
Time is Running Out followed, and of course this song is always amazing live. Especially since it’s one of their big hits and everyone sings along. For this one, Chris stood on the left platform and Matt on the right one the whole time. Yeah, I don’t really have much to say for this one, just that I felt so part of the crowd the whole time. I got that a lot during the concert, but it was particularly during this one (along with a couple others).
Finally, it’s Plug In Baby. SHAKING AND CRYING OMG I LOVE THIS SONG SFM.
I’m jumping around shouting the lyrics to the song along with whoever else knew it (the singing from the crowd was quieter since it’s from an earlier album so less people know it). These giant white balloons that look like eyeballs appear in the crowd. They have red and white confetti inside (to look like the veins of an eye) that rain down on the crowd when they eventually pop. Creepy. But awesome. And then the stage darkens. The crowd begins chanting “MUSE,” wanting to hear more.
So they appear back onstage, back on their columns, playing Exogenesis Part I. It’s nice, not really a crowd-pumping thing, but nice. I like Exogenesis :D then they launch into Stockholm Syndrome, which, holy fuck. Lots of Matt crouching onstage playing epic guitar solos. UNF. I love it.
And so that was the second fake concert finale. But! Then they come back again, after the stage had darkened yet again, and play Knights of Cydonia. Everyone’s jumping and singing about you and I must fight for our rights, you and I must fight to survive and I’m just jumping along with everyone else and dying of the awesome. Holy shit. Best. Concert. Ever. I can’t even describe the energy I felt. It made me forget standing up for 3 hours, I forgot about everything but the music and the people onstage and the people around me. Amazing. …Also, Matt was really hot during this song too, particularly near the end when he’s playing the guitar stuff at that part. Idk.
OH, and I have no photos because I decided to go without my camera for once and put 100% of my concentration into having fun at the concert. I wish I had pictures, but whatever - I enjoyed myself so much more this way!
Also, random note: my friend saw Chris smoking a pipe at one point when the stage was dark and was like “he must be smoking weed.” I was like “…lol.” Tbh, I didn't even notice the smell of drugs or... well, sweat or anything after awhile because I was so absorbed in the music. Lol, I'm glad that's something I forgot about.
Second random note: Matt does so many weird little jumps and twirls and everything. Like… I think this was during Plug in Baby (?)… he was just spinning around in circles across the stage, it was hilarious. And he’ll make these epically amusing faces when he’s just standing right up in the front there banging out riffs. Idk. I love this guy sfm <333
Third random note: his hair looks fluffier in person. I kept noticing that. I also kept noticing that he looks scrawnier in person, lmao.
Fourth random note: someone in the first row had a poster (or it may have been multiple posters, idr) that on one side said "Can I have the setlist please?" or something like that and on the other side said "Dead Star." Another sign said "Matt Bellamy, sexiest man" or something like that. lol guuurl they're not gonna see those.
Okay. So that’s my review. I can’t believe it’s over, I feel like I’m going into concert withdrawal or something ;_; it really was an amazing night. I just don’t know what to do with myself now, it was so good. I’m so grateful that I was able to go.
Also, I had floor tickets for the first time and survived! lol.
Complete with gifs and way too much flailing.
Not pictured: Matt's actual outfit. He wore bright turquoise pants.
So I invite one of my best friends - let’s call her A - because she’s never been to a ~legit concert and really wants to experience one. A month or so before the concert I lend her all of my Muse CDs to rip to her computer and become familiar with. She says that her favorite is the third one but she recognizes the most songs from the fifth one - I told her that Muse would play the most songs from that CD, so she listened to it most.
A and I head off to the Fort Worth Convention Center at about 1:15, getting there a little after two. Those who had been waiting numbered themselves by writing with Sharpie on their hands - A and I were #104 and 105. I actually thought that would be pretty bad, but it turns out that we were in a very good spot. And so we wait - for about 4 ½ hours in fact, until they let us in. To pass the time, we consume a whole package of Starburst and fold every wrapper into little origami shirts. We’re cool like that. Someone in line was giving out green beads with matches taped to them (for St. Patrick’s Day, which was the day of the concert), and I grabbed one on the way in. No danger of getting pinched here.
Cool story bro.
We were also sitting in line near some really annoying lady who smoked and drank and shouted a lot and thought she was cool and at one point dropped and broke a bottle of beer, which spilled everywhere. Not looking forward to that part of the concert lol.
Anyways, we’re finally let into the venue at about 6:00 or 6:30, idr. The venue was surprisingly small, but apparently that’s all Muse could get since the Mavericks are playing at the American Airlines Center this weekend. A and I are far enough forward in line that we get floor spots in the fourth row (!!!). I thought that we would have to stand around waiting for the concert, but due to some silent agreement everyone was sitting down. Thank God lol. I run and quickly buy a Muse jacket while we’re waiting. Silversun Pickups takes the stage promptly at seven. Full disclosure here: I was bored by Silversun Pickups. I had tried listening to their music a few weeks earlier and just got really, really bored with it. Although the lead singer is fun to watch live, I just don’t find their actual music all that interesting. Plus I only recognized a couple songs, so…
But yeah, he was a good frontman. He kept doing all this weird shit like dinosaur claws (which reminded me of Lady GaGa), moving his guitar back and forth to mess with the feedback and make different sounds, and going right up to the front of the stage to glare at the crowd creepily - which only made us cheer louder. So all in all it wasn’t that bad.
Random story: there was this one guy who started out sort of to my left and behind me during Silversun Pickups but managed to move to my left and in front of me during Muse. He was really, really tall and had long hair and a long beard and oh my fuck so annoying. He (and the rest of his companions, who were in front of my though fortunately much shorter) seemed to think that they needed to be raising their hands in the air the whoooooole time making those “rock out” hand symbols. Yeah, idek. Annoying.
So anyways, after Silversun Pickups came a 30-minute wait. My friend didn’t seem to realize that bands pull shit like this all the time - having the crowd wait for a long time while they set up - so she got pretty pissed. I was a bit tired of standing also, but whatever. MUSE WAS COMING UP.
At about 8:15 the room darkens and the three giant columns on stage light up. Holy. Fucking. Shit. The columns show three flights of stairs with people climbing up them. After the first person gets to the top, he begins to fall and then all of the little people are falling. I guess to show the chaos of an uprising or something? Because, predictably, Muse launch into Uprising after this. The screens that were over the columns fall, Muse are revealed to be on platforms cut into the columns, and they’re playing and everyone’s pumping their fists and holy shit holy shit holy shit. Matt is wearing his light up glasses, which he eventually throws into the crowd (lol). He also has some sort of light beam thing attached to his microphone (?) which he uses to send green lines of light into the crowd. Those green lines appear again (though much more abundantly) later during Undisclosed Desires.
They set into Resistance next, which is of course amazing. Idk, I don’t have much to say about it. But then. Oh my God. I hear the opening bars of New Born and I die and sflkdjf;kljfx;lkdjfsldkfjsdklf;jds. ;KLJSA;KLSFJDKL;F;DS. NEW BORN. My friend has no idea what this song is, but I’m dying of the awesome.
Next is Supermassive Black Hole, which my friend does know. And of course it’s sexy and amazing. Then they play just a few bars of MK Ultra and then stop, then play those few bars again. But I only needed a few bars to know what song it was going to be and I’m screaming with everyone else and singing the lyrics and oh, it is glorious. One of their best live songs, I think.
Next they have a little interlude sort of thing, which - if I remember correctly - sounded sort of Irish…? Idk. But I think they had green lights and it was a St. Patrick’s Day sort of dealio. I remember it was with just Chris and Dom, but I can’t remember if that was the St. Patrick’s Day thing or if that was during another point in the concert. Anyways, then Chris comes forward right to the front and omfg he looks so awesome as he starts punching out the opening of Hysteria and this is one of my favorite concert songs and I’m dead. I almost can’t hear each individual note he’s playing over the noise, but I know the song so well that I can tell what’s going on. So that one is amazing.
According to the setlist that I looked at online to remind myself, they played Nishe next as a lead-in to United States of Eurasia, which, okay, I never remember what Nishe sounds like. Cool? But yeah, so they play USOE while on their platforms again and it is amazing. I used to find the beginning of that song a bit boring, but I’ve grown to love it and I loved it even more in concert. Matt’s on this cool little piano that has a clear lid that lights up to show each note he’s playing. It’s awesome.
Next - cue more flailing from me - they play Feeling Good, still on the piano, complete with megaphone. It. Is. Amazing. OMFG. Oh, and the whole time during this concert they’ve been showing stuff on the screens attached to the three columns, so yeah. Right now they’re showing bees and butterflies and flowers and that type of thing. Feeling Good a very uplifting song to sing along to (well, obviously).
Next Matt disappears and Chris joins Dom on the middle column for Helsinki Jam. Well, I didn’t know it was Helsinki Jam until I looked up the setlist after the concert to help with my review - I don’t really recognize any of their ~jams - but it was awesome. I loved that. The platform rotates as column slowly sinks back down so that Matt can join in again for Undisclosed Desires, my favorite song from the new album. Another song that’s amazing live (and really hot). There’s a lot of green lasers and purple lights and stuff. But it’s not a very flaily song, if that makes sense, and I had particular trouble in seeing over the arm of the tall guy next to me during this song for some reason. So I can’t summon up a lot of excitement for this while writing about it, although I was dying when I saw it live of course.
Next is Starlight, which according to my friend is her favorite song (unsurprising, since it’s one of their most popular songs in the US). Hardcore fans, say what you want about it, but it is really fun live, negl.
The clapping rhythm is surprisingly hard, though! One clap, then two, then one, then three. Well, hard to do and pay attention to the song at the same time, anyways. I just gave up clapping eventually.
Then they launch into Unnatural Selection, which. HOLY. FUCK. I knew this was going to be amazing live, but it surpassed my expectations. Especially the slow part with the epic guitar notes and the tryyyyy to ride out the stoooorm part. I just. I died. Als;djkfsldkjf;.fx I can’t even. Omg. Lol I’m not too good at describing this. That one loud guitar note that’s in the midst of the slow section of the song just rips through you.
Time is Running Out followed, and of course this song is always amazing live. Especially since it’s one of their big hits and everyone sings along. For this one, Chris stood on the left platform and Matt on the right one the whole time. Yeah, I don’t really have much to say for this one, just that I felt so part of the crowd the whole time. I got that a lot during the concert, but it was particularly during this one (along with a couple others).
Finally, it’s Plug In Baby. SHAKING AND CRYING OMG I LOVE THIS SONG SFM.
I’m jumping around shouting the lyrics to the song along with whoever else knew it (the singing from the crowd was quieter since it’s from an earlier album so less people know it). These giant white balloons that look like eyeballs appear in the crowd. They have red and white confetti inside (to look like the veins of an eye) that rain down on the crowd when they eventually pop. Creepy. But awesome. And then the stage darkens. The crowd begins chanting “MUSE,” wanting to hear more.
So they appear back onstage, back on their columns, playing Exogenesis Part I. It’s nice, not really a crowd-pumping thing, but nice. I like Exogenesis :D then they launch into Stockholm Syndrome, which, holy fuck. Lots of Matt crouching onstage playing epic guitar solos. UNF. I love it.
And so that was the second fake concert finale. But! Then they come back again, after the stage had darkened yet again, and play Knights of Cydonia. Everyone’s jumping and singing about you and I must fight for our rights, you and I must fight to survive and I’m just jumping along with everyone else and dying of the awesome. Holy shit. Best. Concert. Ever. I can’t even describe the energy I felt. It made me forget standing up for 3 hours, I forgot about everything but the music and the people onstage and the people around me. Amazing. …Also, Matt was really hot during this song too, particularly near the end when he’s playing the guitar stuff at that part. Idk.
OH, and I have no photos because I decided to go without my camera for once and put 100% of my concentration into having fun at the concert. I wish I had pictures, but whatever - I enjoyed myself so much more this way!
Also, random note: my friend saw Chris smoking a pipe at one point when the stage was dark and was like “he must be smoking weed.” I was like “…lol.” Tbh, I didn't even notice the smell of drugs or... well, sweat or anything after awhile because I was so absorbed in the music. Lol, I'm glad that's something I forgot about.
Second random note: Matt does so many weird little jumps and twirls and everything. Like… I think this was during Plug in Baby (?)… he was just spinning around in circles across the stage, it was hilarious. And he’ll make these epically amusing faces when he’s just standing right up in the front there banging out riffs. Idk. I love this guy sfm <333
Third random note: his hair looks fluffier in person. I kept noticing that. I also kept noticing that he looks scrawnier in person, lmao.
Fourth random note: someone in the first row had a poster (or it may have been multiple posters, idr) that on one side said "Can I have the setlist please?" or something like that and on the other side said "Dead Star." Another sign said "Matt Bellamy, sexiest man" or something like that. lol guuurl they're not gonna see those.
Okay. So that’s my review. I can’t believe it’s over, I feel like I’m going into concert withdrawal or something ;_; it really was an amazing night. I just don’t know what to do with myself now, it was so good. I’m so grateful that I was able to go.
Also, I had floor tickets for the first time and survived! lol.