A-Muse-D by the Visuals
I go to a fair amount of gigs and concerts and I see a lot of acts, both good and bad, who can’t or don’t turn their music into a show. For the most part that’s a perfectly fine thing; some music simply doesn’t lend itself to showmanship. Some acts, however, play around with the visual and make the show as much a part of the music as the music is a part of the show. At the moment, in this respect, there is no act finer than Muse.
Don’t get me wrong, of course, Muse are more than capable of playing their music well with nothing more flashy than a handful of coloured lights and a video screen, as perfectly demonstrated at Glastonbury this summer. When left to their own devices, however, things are inclined to get a lot more impressive. They came to Wembley Stadium in 2007 on the Black Holes and Revelations tour and owned the place as well as any football team ever could. Yesterday, they did it again…but better.
You can see the stage set pre-show, flanked as ever by the large white balls. The whole thing appeared to jut out over the audience like a borg-like spaceship but also seemed like a huge optical illusion. You can see the two small video screens which at first glance don’t seem all that impressive, or indeed sufficient. When they took to the stage, however:
you can see that the majority of the grey panels in the top of the stage set are screens in their own right. Not only that but:
they could also be projected upon and, as such, could be made to appear as if the panels were opening and closing, blowing confetti and, indeed, pretty much anything.
Of course it wouldn’t be Muse at Wembley without acrobatics and this came in the first encore, set to Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 (Overture) when a large UFO came out from behind the stage and an acrobat dangled from it, turning and twirling to the music:
And finally came the balls - large balloons filled with confetti released into the audience…this time they were in the guise of eyeballs:
So there you have it. The music is amazing and the show is stunning and THAT is why Muse are STILL the best live act in the world.
