The Sheffield Scenester

On entering the standing area of the Arena we are confronted with three vast post apocalyptic tower blocks on stage, without doubt this was going to be an event of epic proportions.
Whilst knowing a fair amount of their musical output I had never seen Muse before and wasn’t prepared for the mayhem about to ensue, the house lights dropped, the towers lit up with images of human silhouettes mindlessly climbing stairs in unison – the sort of imagery you’d expect from a production of 1984. The opening bars to ‘Uprising’ began as the towers suddenly dropped their fronts to reveal band members Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard, one per tower. Instantly the crowd surged forward dragging anyone that got in their way, with complete disregard for personnel safety they were thrown about the front of stage to the driving beat of this and the following track ‘Resistance’, both instant classics from their latest album.

By the time these were finished I had made my way back to a more relaxed vantage point just in time to see the intro to ‘New Born’. Suddenly the Arena was drenched in a dazzling green laser display leaving any onlooker gobsmacked – this was better than New Years Eve and Bonfire Night rolled into one. Swiftly following this with classics such as ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ and ‘Hysteria’ all accompanied by a gradually more impressive lighting display while the three tower screens threw out multilayered images of the show in front of you.
At last it slowed down with their cover of ‘Feeling Good’ and a display of nature footage high up on the towers that rivalled anything David Attenborough has used, closely followed by a lighter swaying display to the chords of ‘Unintended’.
With relentless energy Matt and Co ploughed through their phenomenal back catalogue of infectious classics, with the crowd worked into a frenzy at the sound of ‘Plug In Baby’ – listening to 10,000 people sing-a-long was indeed an event in itself. This song had the added bonus of balloons, each the size of a Smart car, rolling over the crowd from the rear of the stadium – where they came from, no-one knows????? – slowly making their way to the stage to be ceremoniously deflated. The show culminated in a three song encore including the classically driven ‘Exogenesis Part One’ and the brilliant ‘Knights of Cydonia’.
With the on screen displays enhancing every song, platforms rising and falling into the stage, a rotating drum podium, lasers firing from all directions and a light display to rival Las Vegas on New Years Eve, this was a feast for the eyes as much as the ears. The music itself was not just an excuse to plug their latest album but more a statement of ‘this is what we do’ and do it brilliantly they did!!!!!!! Not one person in the audience was short-changed on spectacle, I never would of believed a concert could succeed on so many levels had I not witnessed it myself. To sum up I’ll be first in the queue for their next tour and advise you to do the same!!!!!

Words and Photos by Geoff and Gail Buckthorpe