Reviews: Muse The 02, Dublin
Muse played at The 02 Dublin. Photo: Getty Images
Monday November 09 2009
If the world were to end tomorrow, there is a very real danger many of us might mistakenly think we were attending a surprise Muse gig.
Certainly, the chart-topping prog rockers seem quite keen on channelling the Armageddon in their live shows: at The O2, there's enough gloom, doom and apocalyptic overkill to fill several volumes of Nostradamus. Even a cover of Nina Simone's 'I'm Feelin' Good' radiates dystopian menace.
None of this is meant as a criticism. Indeed, you suspect Muse and their fan base would take it as a compliment. Whether singing about time-travelling knights or voicing their belief that September 11 was an elaborate conspiracy theory, the Devon trio have never been shy about wearing their lack of subtlety on their sleeves. They are progressive rock's answer to a Roland Emmerich movie.
On the new album, 'The Resistance', for instance, there are songs about the dawning of a pan-Eurasian super-state, rampaging teddy bears and, spread over 25 minutes, a three-part symphonic cycle entitled, with a completely straight face, 'Exogenesis Parts I-III'. Not since Pink Floyd set a huge inflatable pig drifting over Battersea Power Station has a rock band taken po-faced excess to such delightfully batty heights.
Fortunately, Muse can also bash out a memorable tune, a knack that gives even their silliest rock opera an agreeable headbanger quality.
Plus, they've got a real eye for spectacle: the show opens with a futuristic light display straight out of 'Bladerunner', culminating in the threesome's appearance on a strobe-lit podium 20 feet in the air.
There they stay for three tracks before being (hydraulically) brought to earth -- a signal for frontman Matt Bellamy to dash to the lip of the stage and, on bended knees, deliver his best Hendrix impersonation. He doesn't go so far as to set fire to his guitar but then he doesn't need to. With so much sound, fury and sci-fi theatrics going on, this concert has more than enough pyrotechnics already.
- Ed Power
Irish Independent
