Muse as a Muse
I'm in San Diego for a couple of days. I flew down last night to catch the Muse concert with messypeaches (note how well we do that whole former-lovers-can-remain-good-friends thing). It's really unusual for me to see the same band twice in the span of six months, especially to fly 450-some-odd miles to see a band play, (though I did it for Brad Paisley a year ago, when I saw him at the Stagecoach Festival in Coachella, and then again when he played Mountain View, but in that case I traveled to the festival where he was one of many performers, then saw him when he played near home). Anyway, it's weird and decadent, but Muse is one of my muses. I do a lot of writing to Muse's music (that really sounds redundant), and when I saw them live in Oakland in April, it was enough to convince me to do it again, even if I had to travel to the tip of California.
We had slightly better seats this time, technically: all the way at the back of the nosebleed in a big arena, but almost center stage. In April our seats were also in the nosebleed, not quite so high, and way off to the side. Turns out there's a problem with being center stage, though. Muse's light show consists of an unending parade of bright white and colored lights and lasers aimed out from center stage into the audience. About halfway through the concert I remembered that at the April show I'd felt sorry for the people sitting in center-stage at the back, because it looked like they'd have lights in their eyes. Yeah, I was right about that.
It's probably thematic for Muse, since a lot of their music has to do with resistance to external control, facing down "The Man", forging self-destiny, etc. The whole "lights in your eyes" thing sort of has that oppressive authority figure feel to it, which the music counters. But mostly it was annoying. I ended up listening to the music with my eyes closed for about half the songs, because the strobes and lasers were giving me a headache.
When I wasn't being blinded, though, I had a great view of the stage. Matthew Bellamy (lead singer) was wearing a shiny Mylar suit. Yes. Really. The guy is widely known to be a big conspiracy theorist who believes in aliens and secret government coverups, and here he was, wearing the rock-star equivalent of a tinfoil hat. He can sing like a mofo, though. That guy has some serious opera going on, and in fact in the middle of their song I Belong to You, he sings part of a Saint-Saëns aria from Samson and Delilah, that was the second aria I ever learned. As I was packing to move house, I found the sheet music.
Here's Muse's version. The French bit that starts at about 2:15 is the Saint-Saëns aria. (And before you ask, I liked Muse long before the Twilight: New Moon movie - which I have never seen - used their music.)
It was, in any event, an awesome concert, despite the blinding light show, and totally worth the effort and cost of travel.
Today I went to the Wild Animal Park with the man for whom I was named (Momo had classes today) which was really great. He was my dad's best friend in college, and is an astronomer and retired professor at UCSD, and we had a really nice visit. Tomorrow and Saturday Momo's playing hooky with me, so we'll see what else San Diego has to offer.
We had slightly better seats this time, technically: all the way at the back of the nosebleed in a big arena, but almost center stage. In April our seats were also in the nosebleed, not quite so high, and way off to the side. Turns out there's a problem with being center stage, though. Muse's light show consists of an unending parade of bright white and colored lights and lasers aimed out from center stage into the audience. About halfway through the concert I remembered that at the April show I'd felt sorry for the people sitting in center-stage at the back, because it looked like they'd have lights in their eyes. Yeah, I was right about that.
It's probably thematic for Muse, since a lot of their music has to do with resistance to external control, facing down "The Man", forging self-destiny, etc. The whole "lights in your eyes" thing sort of has that oppressive authority figure feel to it, which the music counters. But mostly it was annoying. I ended up listening to the music with my eyes closed for about half the songs, because the strobes and lasers were giving me a headache.
When I wasn't being blinded, though, I had a great view of the stage. Matthew Bellamy (lead singer) was wearing a shiny Mylar suit. Yes. Really. The guy is widely known to be a big conspiracy theorist who believes in aliens and secret government coverups, and here he was, wearing the rock-star equivalent of a tinfoil hat. He can sing like a mofo, though. That guy has some serious opera going on, and in fact in the middle of their song I Belong to You, he sings part of a Saint-Saëns aria from Samson and Delilah, that was the second aria I ever learned. As I was packing to move house, I found the sheet music.
Click to viewHere's Muse's version. The French bit that starts at about 2:15 is the Saint-Saëns aria. (And before you ask, I liked Muse long before the Twilight: New Moon movie - which I have never seen - used their music.)
It was, in any event, an awesome concert, despite the blinding light show, and totally worth the effort and cost of travel.
Today I went to the Wild Animal Park with the man for whom I was named (Momo had classes today) which was really great. He was my dad's best friend in college, and is an astronomer and retired professor at UCSD, and we had a really nice visit. Tomorrow and Saturday Momo's playing hooky with me, so we'll see what else San Diego has to offer.