Hysteria

I'm helped out here by my dear friend Skip who has already done a superior job of describing it. I'll add some more thoughts at the end. But for now, here is what happened Saturday night.

(So, let me come to the stage set.

On entering the arena the stage was quickly located by the 3 tall skyscrapers looming above us. They were grey and black and near-silhouettes. During the breath-holding anticipation of the main act, the usual blokeys were lifted in their slings to the rafters. I stood, the atmosphere thickening, my breathing bottoming out, searching for the big screens that would save my neck.

At around 9pm, the lights faded. The cheers burgeoned and the breathing stopped.

One by one, and sometimes two by two, lights came on at the windows of the skyscrapers. Finally all were lit. There was a female commentary as the lights became white silhouettes of people climbing stairs, and then descending, all in lines. I wasn’t really listening to what was being said, only to hear her say “kill number 7” repeatedly. It jogged some sort of memory (Orwell’s 1984?) as one silhouette was shot and fell, knocking all those below him to the floor.

Then the folds of linen covering the towers slowly lowered to reveal reds. And I craned to see the stage as Uprising burst forth. And then, seconds later, with a half-laugh, I saw them. The towers had split horizontally, and there, on platforms in the gaps, were Matt, Dom, and Chris. The upper parts of the towers were now camera screens projecting each man’s image in black and red. And I no longer cared about the tall bloke just ahead of me.

Chris wore black.

Dom wore black.

Matt wore shiny sunglasses and electric blue trousers.

Matt threw his glasses into the crowd.

Uprising slipped neatly and familiarly into Resistance, and then the platforms lowered. I was mildly unsettled as I stretched to see, but not surprised. After all, there’s sliding and strutting and posturing to be done. Can’t do that on a plinth 20 feet in the air.

I don’t know the exact setlist, other than it was glorious. There was no Citizen Erased, but there was New Born, and, to my delight, after a short-but-somehow-long meeting of the band around the drums, MKUltra. Dom said, post-discussion, “Okay, now we can play the song. We’ve not done it before, and it’s a bit tricky, so….anyway….”

To me, faultless.

They played Hysteria, Mappo Problemo, Plug In Baby, Supermassive Blackhole, Starlight….oh, and so many more. Sadly none from Showbiz, happily, all but 3 from The Resistance.

During the show they went up and down on the platforms, Matt at the grand piano for Feeling Good (and yes, he hit that note again), they stood at the end of gantries over the crowd, and swapped sides once. The lighting was amazing, and dominating the reds and greens and yellows and whites and flashes of silver was the electric blue.

They finished with Unnatural Selection which was about as an immaculate performance as could ever be heard.

Frustratingly too soon, for me, they left the stage, only to return, again 20 feet up, playing Exogenesis Part 1. They came down to earth for Stockholm Syndrome and a loud and jolly Knights of Cydonia.

Even more frustratingly too soon, they had gone and the lights were up.)

I'd been spoiled by seeing Muse from the front row of smallish venues. And this time, through stubbornness and with a bit of luck, I ended up in the front row again. With my brother George by my side. My 3-time Muse companion now. This time, intimacy was replaced by a delirious garden of larger than life dreams. The stage set the same as Skip described, the set list just slightly changed. Matt wore a silver suit instead of the electric blue trousers. When he came to play in front of us, we could see his trousers had holes at the knees where Matt slid on the stage. Chris had a suit on too. A light blue shinyish ensemble. It might have been satin. He looked really good. Dom was in black, smiling as always. He and Chris had a rollicking jam session on the rotating drum platform. And I tried to absorb every minute. Towards the end, the big balloons filled with confetti floated down from the ceiling, and were batted around by the crowd popping to release the red and white strips which drifted down on us like a joy filled rain. They played their hearts out, and like Skip said, were gone too soon. But they left us an experience like no other to take with us back to our everyday.