Review: Muse at the Oracle
Last night I took my honey out to see Muse with Silversun Pickups opening out at the large-scale venue known currently as the Oracle Arena in Oakland. It'd been a long time since I'd last attended a show there - Tool the night after driving back from Burning Man in 2006, to be precise. The show started at 8pm, and we had opted to take BART out (something we would come to regret on the way home, though thankfully not to the extent that we could have ended up regretting it).
Silversun Pickups started while we were in the club getting some drinks. Cheeseburgers, garlic fries, and two large Widmers - $54. I think. badbluebomber paid, and when I jokingly said "$60!" his reply was "Pretty close!"
We got to our seats - which were phenomenal - Section 115, Row 8 - giving us a vantage point at about 45 degrees to Stage Right/House Left. Close enough to see facial expressions when someone stood on that side of the stage (as we'd come to find Matt Bellamy seeming to prefer, yay for us).
Silversun Pickups played a fantastic set, having fun with the audience screaming contest that he sadly said "This is the last time I'll get to do this shpeal." They were sweet on the Muse company, and spoke quite highly on the "badass"-ness of their crew - the bassist (a very odd sort of quiet high-pitched shy girl) saying she might cry. Their wall of noise that ended their set was quite in character for the band. Of course they chose a hit single as the last song of their last set of the tour - I sang along, and danced in my seat.
Venturing out to find the merch table and use the restroom, we were misinformed by the ushers that there was only one merch table, when in fact there were at least two (as we found after the show). Not seeing anything all that appealing at the first table we came to (which would turn out to be the smaller one), we headed back to our seats. 10 minutes passed... and the first large beer hit the bladder. Do we risk the restroom again? We could miss the opening, which we knew by the 3 giant building-like pillars was going to be epic. 15 minutes... It's either now or miss a song, which I definitely didn't want to do. The chance of Muse playing something I would be happy missing was pretty slim. Eff it - we took the risk, and were rewarded by the light dropping only moments before we re-entered the arena. We got to our seats, and looked up to see lighted "silhouettes" of people walking in single-file on the "stairs" that were illuminated on the pillars. Once they'd filled, a slow domino-effect of tumbling began from the top, until everyone had fallen and the curtains were dropped to reveal Muse, in all their glory, standing atop 1/3 sections of the pillars with the top thirds hanging above their heads. The blocks displayed gigantic digital screen-images of the band and varied psychedelic space-themed images with the "silhouettes" still tumbling down in spread-eagle form. It was epic.
They opened with the first two songs from their latest album: "Uprising" and "Resistance," leading me to wonder if their intent was to do a straight-shot of the full album while staying perched in their locations atop the pillars. Microphones at stage level, and perfectly timed lowering of their pedestals would inform that this was not to be as they launched into their third song "New Born" from Origin of Symmetry. I was elated by this, as it was the very first song I'd ever heard by the band - oddly enough in a trance mix by Paul Oakenfold that I owned on vinyl circa 2001 (Yes, I still owned trance records in 2001, and it was on the Swordfish soundtrack, so bite me). Matt Bellamy wore a shiny silver suit with shoes that reminded me of disco balls, while Chris Wolstenholme donned a baby blue suit, and Dominic Howard stuck with more casual attire - totally understandable, as who wants to play the drums in a suit?
The rest of the show was spectacular, with Matt singing "Supermassive Black Hole" from our wing of the stage, on his knees, making all sorts of badass, rockstar faces. He swung to the other side for one of my other top 3 favorite Muse tracks: "Time Is Running Out," which was great as it gave Ben a chance to watch Chris' fingers on the bass and the satisfaction of knowing he plays it right when his band covers it. A gorgeous electric grand piano was wheeled out onto the stage, with a megaphone conspicuously set atop it - I should have known immediately that "Feelin Good" was coming up next, but was still surprised by it as I held my Digital Elph in video mode - such a nice song to capture live.
My only disappointment came when Matt chose not to play the Chopin piece that appears at the end of "United States of Eurasia" on the album, which as a budding young ballerina, was always my favorite classical piece. The thought of getting to see him play that live melted me, so I was a bit disheartened that it wasn't meant to be last night.
All told, the band played for 2 and a half hours, 17+ songs if you don't count interludes of their own music and easily recognizable classic rock homages, including a tip of the hat to Hendrix's "National Anthem." It was 180ish minutes of steady fist-pumping awesomeness, never once where I found myself with my ass in my seat. I was caught up in audience-solo choruses of "Time Is Running Out" and ""Plug In Baby" and rhythmic hand-clapping led by the lovely Mr. Bellamy (even mid guitar-riffing) to "Starlight." The final song of their set came with the release of a dozen giant eyeball balloons that bounced over the crowd, exploding in showers of confetti. Epic it definitely was - Muse as a band has come such a long way, and can definitely get an arena of this magnitude rocking with their multi-dimensional sound and visual effects. Incredible. Can't wait until the next time you guys come to town - I'll be sure to wear my new Muse hotpants for the event!
Silversun Pickups started while we were in the club getting some drinks. Cheeseburgers, garlic fries, and two large Widmers - $54. I think. badbluebomber paid, and when I jokingly said "$60!" his reply was "Pretty close!"
We got to our seats - which were phenomenal - Section 115, Row 8 - giving us a vantage point at about 45 degrees to Stage Right/House Left. Close enough to see facial expressions when someone stood on that side of the stage (as we'd come to find Matt Bellamy seeming to prefer, yay for us).
Silversun Pickups played a fantastic set, having fun with the audience screaming contest that he sadly said "This is the last time I'll get to do this shpeal." They were sweet on the Muse company, and spoke quite highly on the "badass"-ness of their crew - the bassist (a very odd sort of quiet high-pitched shy girl) saying she might cry. Their wall of noise that ended their set was quite in character for the band. Of course they chose a hit single as the last song of their last set of the tour - I sang along, and danced in my seat.
Venturing out to find the merch table and use the restroom, we were misinformed by the ushers that there was only one merch table, when in fact there were at least two (as we found after the show). Not seeing anything all that appealing at the first table we came to (which would turn out to be the smaller one), we headed back to our seats. 10 minutes passed... and the first large beer hit the bladder. Do we risk the restroom again? We could miss the opening, which we knew by the 3 giant building-like pillars was going to be epic. 15 minutes... It's either now or miss a song, which I definitely didn't want to do. The chance of Muse playing something I would be happy missing was pretty slim. Eff it - we took the risk, and were rewarded by the light dropping only moments before we re-entered the arena. We got to our seats, and looked up to see lighted "silhouettes" of people walking in single-file on the "stairs" that were illuminated on the pillars. Once they'd filled, a slow domino-effect of tumbling began from the top, until everyone had fallen and the curtains were dropped to reveal Muse, in all their glory, standing atop 1/3 sections of the pillars with the top thirds hanging above their heads. The blocks displayed gigantic digital screen-images of the band and varied psychedelic space-themed images with the "silhouettes" still tumbling down in spread-eagle form. It was epic.
They opened with the first two songs from their latest album: "Uprising" and "Resistance," leading me to wonder if their intent was to do a straight-shot of the full album while staying perched in their locations atop the pillars. Microphones at stage level, and perfectly timed lowering of their pedestals would inform that this was not to be as they launched into their third song "New Born" from Origin of Symmetry. I was elated by this, as it was the very first song I'd ever heard by the band - oddly enough in a trance mix by Paul Oakenfold that I owned on vinyl circa 2001 (Yes, I still owned trance records in 2001, and it was on the Swordfish soundtrack, so bite me). Matt Bellamy wore a shiny silver suit with shoes that reminded me of disco balls, while Chris Wolstenholme donned a baby blue suit, and Dominic Howard stuck with more casual attire - totally understandable, as who wants to play the drums in a suit?
The rest of the show was spectacular, with Matt singing "Supermassive Black Hole" from our wing of the stage, on his knees, making all sorts of badass, rockstar faces. He swung to the other side for one of my other top 3 favorite Muse tracks: "Time Is Running Out," which was great as it gave Ben a chance to watch Chris' fingers on the bass and the satisfaction of knowing he plays it right when his band covers it. A gorgeous electric grand piano was wheeled out onto the stage, with a megaphone conspicuously set atop it - I should have known immediately that "Feelin Good" was coming up next, but was still surprised by it as I held my Digital Elph in video mode - such a nice song to capture live.
My only disappointment came when Matt chose not to play the Chopin piece that appears at the end of "United States of Eurasia" on the album, which as a budding young ballerina, was always my favorite classical piece. The thought of getting to see him play that live melted me, so I was a bit disheartened that it wasn't meant to be last night.
All told, the band played for 2 and a half hours, 17+ songs if you don't count interludes of their own music and easily recognizable classic rock homages, including a tip of the hat to Hendrix's "National Anthem." It was 180ish minutes of steady fist-pumping awesomeness, never once where I found myself with my ass in my seat. I was caught up in audience-solo choruses of "Time Is Running Out" and ""Plug In Baby" and rhythmic hand-clapping led by the lovely Mr. Bellamy (even mid guitar-riffing) to "Starlight." The final song of their set came with the release of a dozen giant eyeball balloons that bounced over the crowd, exploding in showers of confetti. Epic it definitely was - Muse as a band has come such a long way, and can definitely get an arena of this magnitude rocking with their multi-dimensional sound and visual effects. Incredible. Can't wait until the next time you guys come to town - I'll be sure to wear my new Muse hotpants for the event!