Review: Muse – Madison Square Garden , NYC

I’ve never been a big Muse fan. Let me get that out of the way first.

Now, it’s not that I don’t like the band. I mean, when I hear a Muse song on the radio, I don’t change the station or experience a visceral reaction like when I hear an Eagles song and I just want to tear my hair out they annoy me so much!!!…. Ahem… pardon me. Even mentioning them seems to have that effect on me. Same goes for the football team of the same name (Go Giants!). Strange… I wonder what it is that I have against the national bird? Anyway, it’s just that I’ve never really been a big fan of the band. I’ve never felt compelled to go out and buy one of their cds or download some of their tracks from Amazon or iTunes. However, I sometimes feel I should be a fan. In theory, Muse is a band I should really like.

When you boil it down, they’re kind of like a mix of Radiohead, Black Sabbath, and Rush, with a little bit of Queen-like histrionics thrown in for good measure. Sure, there might be a little too much of the Smiths and the Cure in their sound for my tastes, but I was a big Smashing Pumpkins fan in my teens, so who am I to judge? Matt Bellamy is a great singer and a virtuoso caliber guitar player who stretches the sonic palette of the instrument (dude’s got a frickin’ KAOS pad permanently affixed to his guitar, dammit!), can shred up a storm when he needs to (or wants to) and still has the good taste to dial it back a notch when the pyrotechnics would be overkill. Bassist Christopher Wolstenholme brings both a great deal of chops and a tasteful musical sensibility to the table, and southpaw drummer Dominic Howard fills out the lineup with a furious hammer of the gods drumming style. Nevertheless, I guess my feelings towards Muse are similar to those I hold for the Verve. I get that I’m supposed to like them, but I just don’t. Whatever. There’s no accounting for taste.

So, if I’m not a big fan, why the hell did I go see a Muse concert? Well, a good friend of mine is a huge Muse fan, and basically it’s all his fault. Sure, it started innocently enough months ago with some back and forth ball busting between the two of us over some of our favorite bands. He took me to task for my fanboyish love of 90s Seattle bands, and I needled him about Muse. He threatened to get me a ticket to see them the next time they were in town. Luckily for me, when tickets went on sale and he tried to score some, he fell headfirst into a patented Ticketmaster clusterfuck and came up empty handed. So much for that, I thought. But as the date of the concert drew near, from out of the blue he sent me a vituperative text message that read as follows:

“You disgust me with your dislike of Muse”

Wow. Disgust. Damn, that’s exactly how I feel about the Eagles (both the band and the football team). Clearly, them’s fightin’ words, BRO! Then again, taking into consideration that he’s either witnessed firsthand or heard about plenty of stupid shit that I’ve done in my life, and it’s my dislike of Muse (really my non-liking of them… I never said I disliked Muse) that leads him to be disgusted with me, I kind of have to question his ethics and morals… but I digress. Surprisingly, this broadside didn’t launch a back and forth text message war between the two of us, because, almost as if on cue, another friend sent me a text that he had two extra tickets for Muse that he needed to get rid of. I told him I’d take them. What else could I do? It would have been seriously dick not to take them, and I figured why not give Muse a chance and see what they’d have to offer playing live in the “World’s Most Famous Arena”, otherwise known as the home of the ten-year train-wreck that is the Knicks… I mean, Madison Square Garden.

The Garden. We’ve all seen Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same (and if you haven’t, what the hell are you waiting for?). Say what you will about the hokey fantasy scenes (although Peter Grant playing a gangster isn’t too much of a departure from reality now, is it?), some 35 years later that film, dragon embroidered bellbottoms, double-necked Gibsons and all, still represents the epitome of rock n roll cool. And the concert scenes were filmed in the Garden (yeah, yeah, yeah… except for the shots recreated on a film studio soundstage… nitpickers). It suffices to say that there are a lot of ghosts in that place (and I’m not just talking about Knicks seasons under the tenure of general manager Isaiah Thomas), and any band playing there has enormous expectations they need to live up to.

Myself, I’ve seen some great shows at the Garden: Guns N’ Roses, U2, Oasis, Clapton, The ‘Oo, Pearl Jam… all legendary acts performing at the height of their popularity… Once again here, I have to state my surprise that a band like Muse is capable of selling out the Garden. It’s a pretty big place, and the only step up from it in the New York area is an open air venue like Giants Stadium, where Muse opened up for U2 this past summer. So I’m a little surprised that Muse has the drawing power to sell the place out. Then again, Kings of Leon sold out the Garden, and I’m surprised that they can pack any venue larger than their parents’ garage (*booo* *hissss*… yeah, I admit that that’s a totally gratuitous and uncalled for attack upon Kings of Leon which has no place in this review, but, come on… really? Kings of Leon? They’re what passes for the biggest rock band in America these days? Sheesh. We’re in trouble). Well, not only did Muse sell out the Garden, they put on a great show.

Yes, that’s right, despite the snarkiness with which I started this review, I was impressed with the band’s performance. I was also impressed with the entire spectacle of the event. Taking a cue from the theatrical and over the top stage shows that U2 has been famous for since the 90s and as seen in the video for “Resistance”, the band members began the performance perched atop these large raised platforms that had video projected onto them while overhead loomed even larger video screens. It was quite a sight, and made for a tremendous audio-visual experience. The platforms would eventually descend, and the band performed a substantial part of its set on the floor of the stage, but at other times during the show the platforms, with band members on top of them, would again be raised. It was a pretty cool visual.

Usually, seeing a show at the Garden from the back of the stage is a pretty shitty deal. The view of the band is obstructed by equipment and the stage backdrop, any video component of the stage show is facing the wrong way, and you’re left staring at band’s backsides for two hours. But the stage was setup in an almost in the round fashion complete with a rotating drum riser, and the band moved around freely across the whole stage, even occasionally paying attention to the unfortunate wretches seated behind the stage. Big win for all.

Oh yeah, did I mention lasers? There were green frickin’ lasers shooting out from the stage throughout the set. Very cool in a Pink Floyd laser light show at the Hayden Planetarium kind of way, though my cheekier side was left wondering if there were going to be any ill-tempered sharks appearing at some point during the set.

After an introductory speech delivered by Matt Pinfield in which he called Muse “the next biggest band in the world,” the band opened their set with a one two punch from their latest record, 2009’s The Resistance, playing current radio hits “Uprising” and the title track. This was a great opening salvo, and the crowd was revved up from the get go. Now, maybe it’s just me, but does anyone else hear Blondie’s “Call Me” in the main hook of “Uprising”? I mean if George Harrison got sued for “My Sweet Lord”… hey, maybe Debbie Harry can get a little more nip and tuck happening for her… I’m just saying, is all.

From a musical standpoint these guys were spot on. Aside from the singles which are played on the radio, I’m not very familiar with the band’s material, but I often found myself tapping my friend on the shoulder and asking him what the name of the last song played was. That’s a good sign.

For instance, I’m pretty sure this was the first time I’d ever heard “Supermassive Black Hole” and I was won over. It’s a great song, the kind of heavy/funky number that shows off the band at its best. Sometimes I feel there’s a little too much of that indulgent Thom Yorke affectation circa Kid A/Amnesiac in Bellamy’s songwriting and vocal delivery. Here, however, the band lays down one hell of a funky groove and Bellamy’s pop sensibilities really shine through in a tightly written number. Bellamy’s gift for crafting a polished hook was also prominently on display in “Hysteria,” which featured the Garden crowd en masse singing along to the song’s anthemic chorus.

“Plugin Baby,” another song with which I was unfamiliar, featured giant beachballs in the form of eyeballs dropping down on to the crowd. Although the song is kind of nondescript, the crowd interaction with the floating eyeballs certainly made it one of the highlights of the night. Definitely a fun moment.

Another cool moment in the set was the band’s cover of the old showtune standard “Feelin’ Good.” I’m not really sure I can adequately explain why, but their version of this song is just so damned creepy and yet when the tune explodes on the choruses, there’s something very cathartic about it. The arrangement and Bellamy’s vocal delivery complement each other perfectly and go a long way to conveying both the creepiness and the catharsis inherent in their take on the tune.

One of my favorite, and also one of the more fun, moments of the performance was a jam the rhythm section put on. It was heavy, funky and all sorts of good. These cats can play, and my only complaints are that the jam was far too short and that I wish they played more stuff that sounded like this. The tease of a super duper heavy version of Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” was a nice touch as well and had me grinning from ear to ear.

The absolute highlights of the set, for me at least, were the two songs with which I actually am familiar: “Time Is Running Out” and “Knights of Cydonia.” Sure I might be a bit biased, since they are the only ones I actually know, but, any way you slice it, these are two great songs. The former is an absolute pop gem and is the song that put Muse on the map as far as I’m concerned. It was a rousing performance of an anthemic number that once again turned into a crowd sing along. This really is one hell of a song, and the performance of it left nothing to be desired. While the latter tune wouldn’t necessarily seem out of place in an Enio Morricone score for a Sergio Leone spaghetti western, this song again shows off the band at its best, and I couldn’t think of a better way for them to end their show.

All in all, it was a damned good show and definitely worth the price of admission (not so sure the $10 beers were worth it, though). So am I now a Muse fan? Sorry, but no. They put on a great show and they do some interesting things musically, but I just don’t get it. I kind of feel like if I were 17 I would love this band, but, alas, in my old age, as I now am, I fear I can barely handle anything more edgy than some Ritz crackers, a glass of warm milk and the sweet sounds of Neil Sedaka emanating from the hi-fi. Anyone see where I left my Metamucil?

Muse at Madison Square Garden, NYC 03.05.10

Nick Fokas