Readers and music fans
often ask why Charlotte doesn’t get certain tours or certain bands. Tuesday
night’s phenomenal concert by British arena rock trio Muse is a good example. The
entire upper tier balcony was blacked out, although the lower bowl was packed.
While I don’t know if those upper seats were ever for sale (certainly they would've been made available had the lower half sold out), it means that
thousands missed one of the best rock shows of the year. Muse tickets don’t
seem to be selling that well in larger markets either though. Tickets for tonight’s
show at Atlanta’s similar size Gwinnett Center, where I saw them play
opening night of their 2010 US tour for a sold out crowd, are still available,
for instance.
Opening act Cage the
Elephant (pictured below) was well paired with Muse. Like Muse early on, the Kentucky-based band
doesn’t have a distinct identity which allows it to expand and grow. It riffed on Pixies-style surf guitar on one
track, raved through punky abandon the next, and hit on varied genres and
inspirations - Brit pop, White Stripes, Southern rock, dark psychedelia, and fidgety garage punk.
Vocalist Matthew Schultz told
the crowd it was a special night. His brother, guitarist Brad Schultz, was not
with the band but home welcoming his new baby while bassist Daniel Tichenor’s
brother Joe handled Brad’s guitar duties.
Cage the Elephant, who
sold out Amos’ not long ago, could possibly steal a headliner’s thunder
opening for a lesser band than Muse. The crowd was obviously familiar with tracks
like “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” and “Shake Me Down,” but Schultz, who
strutted like Mick Jagger, worked hard to win them over. During its final song
Schultz dove into the audience, his microphone chord trailing behind him from
the stage where a tech hurriedly fished him more line. He crawled across throngs
of bodies in the general admission section before pulling himself to his feet
where he teetered on hands and shoulders as the music paused for a few moments. He basked in the crowd (see above) before falling backward into their arms as the song kicked back in.
Muse hit the stage
with all the grandeur and bombast you’d expect from a band whose songs sound
like the score to the apocalypse. The stage turned red, smoke shot in tall
puffs from the floor, and a cage of screens lowered as the operatic dubstep nod
“The 2nd Law: Unsustainable” served as Muse’s dramatic entrance
music. The trio with additional touring keyboardist Morgan Nicholls appeared on
stage as the block of screens rose before the group kicked into the equally futuristic “Supremacy.”
Although Muse’s latest
album, “The 2nd Law” plays somewhat like a sci-fi rock opera with orchestral strings and operatic backing vocals, the show didn’t play
out like theater. It was very much a rock show with spectacular lights and
production that kept the crowd engaged throughout.
Angled screens, which
looked like half a small football stadium, encircled the band while graphics, words,
lights, and footage danced below, above, and around the group. Vocalist
Matthew Bellamy (pumping his first in top photo) channeled Freddie Mercury on the funky Queen-like “Panic
Station,” but his falsetto and guitar work often echoed Prince and Eddie Van
Halen. He later conjured Hendrix wailing on “The Star Spangled Banner" at the tip of the stage. Muse
certainly doesn’t go for mediocrity. The artists it channels through its
massive, global anthems are only the biggest in history. And the huge production
is a match for the music’s size and scope.
New songs from “The 2nd
Law” were met with as much excitement as older ones like “Stockholm Syndrome”
and “Super Massive Blackhole” (from 2003 and 2006, respectively). The
psychedelic Western “Knights of Cydonia” brought the house down (it was the
encore when I saw Muse before) mid-way through the 20-song set. Muse’s
evolution through 2003’s “Time is Running Out” (a massive sing-along played
late in the set) to 2009’s futuristic “The Resistance” to 2012’s electronic “Follow
Me” and methodically trippy “Madness” (another big sing-along) is apparent. Its
tracks have gradually become bigger, grander, more complicated, more electronic, and more theatrical.
That apocalyptic feel
peaked as a film of people running down the beach from blocky, triangle forms that jutted from the collapsing ground - seemingly the digital world cannibalizes the human one - introduced “Uprising.” As the crowd jumped, fists raised
singing “They will not control us/We will be victorious” I felt like it was more than just a song. It was like the local crowd was swept up in the spirit, singing in response to the turnout or to politicians in Raleigh - we won’t go back, we’ll turn out for good music, we’ll
show the rest of the country we’re not decades behind!
Instead of pretending
to leave the stage, Bellamy called his bandmates to the stage before the crowd could break into chants of “encore.”
As the first notes of “Starlight” hit the African-American man behind me lit
into an ear-piercing scream that would’ve been at home at a Justin Bieber
concert. In retrospect I guess the show warranted such uninhibited praise. Muse
definitely is in the running for best contemporary live rock band.
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