Muse’s latest album Simulation Theory hits ‘80s references,
both visual and musical, pretty hard. The tour hits on those references even
harder. The show was so technically sophisticated that it wasn’t as much a
nostalgic look back at the ‘80s from today, but a look back at that decade from
years in the future, when technology really becomes otherworldly.
Visually, the show
looked like an ‘80s cartoon lunchbox mixed with Stranger Things and Tron.
Musically, it was passionate and rebellious. It was all lasers, neon, guitars
and synths to hell and back. Opening with “Algorithm,” Matt Bellamy appeared
wearing sunglasses shining hot pink lights. For “Pressure,” backup dancers
continued the sartorial theme, wearing outfits that lit up with constantly
shifting displays and colors like electronic highway billboards, playing (or
pretending to play) trombone. The dancers were fun, showing up again spraying
smoke on the crowd for “Propaganda” and surrounding Bellamy like a virus for
“Thought Contagion.”
The show was
inventive with its technology, altering live video of Muse performing with
filters that were trippy and disorienting. For “Madness,” Bellamy wore
sunglasses that spelled out key words of the song’s lyrics. There were multiple
montages of futuristic metal skeletons and other apocalyptic images, but the
show did have a sense of humor. As a spaceship-like lighting rig cast a glow
down on stage, the band played a few notes on guitar from the music to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Bellamy “talked” to the audience by making his guitar squawk these voice-like
sounds.
The show was loud and
driving, but I could have used a little more piano. For the one relatively
quiet moment, Muse gathered at the front of the catwalk to perform “Dig Down”
while the dancers, dressed in Gospel-singer choir stoles, floated in the
background. There were columns of light shooting up to the ceiling, which gave
the stage a neat effect of being dug down into the earth.
The highlight was my
favorite Muse song, “Take a Bow.” The song is a blistering indictment of our
political leaders, as relevant now as it was in 2006. As Bellamy started
singing, he was addressing the song to a metallic skull (“Alas, poor Yorick”)
that he held in his hand. On the video screen, the skull burst into flame,
which gave me chills. The song’s rage spiraled up and up and its power grew and
grew, and it was one of those disorienting moments in a concert where
afterwards, you wonder, “What did I just watch?”
The more metal
section of the show was a medley of “Stockholm Syndrome,” “Assassin,” “Reapers,”
“The Handler” and “New Born.” For this, a giant inflatable skeleton wearing a
virtual reality helmet emerged from the stage and clawed at the band, its jaw
flapping hungrily. After all the video-based effects, it was shocking to see
something so tangible on stage. It was also gloriously, completely ridiculous,
like something from an Iron Maiden show.
Then Muse played the
driving “Knights of Cydonia.” Everyone screamed “No one’s gonna take me
aliiiiiive,” the dancers threw black and white beach balls into the crowd to bat
around, and we all went home amused.
