When Muse announced their Stadium Tour at the back end of last year, I started to get excited about seeing a rumoured 'awesome live act'. I haven't attended that many large gigs in the past due to cost, so for me to make an exception for the Old Trafford leg of the tour meant that I really wanted the 'Muse experience'. The BBC produced and broadcast a documentary about their homecoming gig in Devon around the time that their latest album 'The Resistance' had been released. From this you could see what would be in-store on the 4th of September and had really whetted the appetite.
It had been a long time since I had been to any gig, mainly due to Mrs. S giving birth to our baby daughter. As you can imagine, I was looking forward to the afternoon and evening out of live music. I wasn't entirely keen on the idea of sitting in traffic going to and from Old Trafford, as well as being stood on your feet for five or six hours. Add into the mix of being cramped and other concert related activities which the paying public partake in and you know why I was being apprehensive. These weren't big enough drawbacks to put me and my mate off though.
We made the executive decision to park at Manchester Piccadilly and get the Tram to Old Trafford, in the hope that this would beat the traffic and save on costs. Some websites were quoting parking as being £15 per car! That's expensive, even for an event of this magnitude in my opinion. This proved to be an inspired decision, even though it was absolutely packed on the Tram.
We managed to get into the ground just after 16:50, just as Pulled Apart By Horses, the support act were on stage. Most of their set was spent doing important things like checking out the official merchandise and getting a drink. From what I heard their material was OK, if a little heavy. I guess with a little more listening I would probably like their music. They are on the list of bands to listen to again.
Having got into position just before the end of their set, we then enjoyed excellent sets from Band of Skulls and Editors. Both successfully warmed the crowd up, in particular Tom of Editors with his unconventional movement whilst providing the vocals. Their set included the favourites such as Bones, Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, Bullets (my favourite of their live tracks), The Racing Rats before finishing on Papillon. Now I do like Papillon but I must say that I was disappointed with this as a live track. They used a backing track at the beginning which was identical to the album version which to me seemed like they were cheating. Chris the keyboard player could have easily played this content as he wasn't playing the guitar at the time. This was however, the only fault I could see in the show.
Towards the end of Editors set, it started to get busy in the area we were in. The space that we originally had was becoming alot less. By the time the lights went down for Muse to come on stage it was pretty tight. At this point I was worrying whether I would have a sore back the following day or not. Also, my feet were really aching by being stood in the same position for the previous three hours. Then Matt, Dom and Chris entered the stage and began with Uprising. All of a sudden we were thrown forward by the surge of the crowd wanting to get close to the action. I wasn't worrying about my feet anymore! A soaking of a paper cup full of what I wouldn't like to think about followed. I was in full on gig mode now, just going with the flow of the crowd.
Matt was wearing a Silver Suit, Chris a Black and White striped one and Dom was in what can only be described as a diving suit with reflective panels on it. This was the backdrop of an unbelievable stage show using tonnes of lights. There was a catwalk in the centre which led to a podium. This would become more relevant later. Each of the panels on the sides facing the crowd (behind the mounted speakers) lit up and at times provided a screen. With these and the riffs between certain tracks the influence of Queen was there for all to see, something which shone through on listening to their latest album The Resistance.
They played a mixture of material from all of their albums, all of which were very polished performances. The highlight for me were Undisclosed Desires which was played on the earlier mentioned podium. At the start of the track, it manoeuvred out and upwards on hydraulics. Once in position it then started to rotate. This to me one of the most extravagant 'in-crowd' performances I had seen. I thought to myself that it would be a weird feeling, playing whilst your stage rotated. It must have taken some practice to keep their concentration whilst being up there!Shortly after this, the more famous live tracks started coming out, beginning with Starlight and Time is Running Out. Unnatural Selection was played before the boys went off stage. It was only 21:30, only an hour and a quarter into the performance. This turned out to the first of two encores with Exogenesis: Symphony Part I (Overture), Stockholm Syndrome and a couple of riffs making up this one before they went off again.
When they returned a third time, Matt was wearing a suit made of multi-coloured LED Lights and glasses which lit up aswell. He made his way to the podium and the band launched into Take A Bow. The podium again came up and outwards but didn't revolve this time. This was the prelude for the final two tracks which proved to be a brilliant finale, Plug In Baby and Knights of Cydonia.
Making our way out, both of us grateful that we were moving and that our feet felt better for it, we discussed the highlights, which no doubt for us were Undisclosed Desires and the two tracks played in the final encore. A good evening was had by all. Not even the thirst, the cramped tram ride back into Manchester and the closure of part of the M62 on the way home could dampen our mood. It was truly a spectacular gig (how I described it on Twitter).
If you are lucky enough to have tickets for the Wembley gigs this weekend coming up, you are in for one hell of a show!
(The first image used was taken by myself, the second ones have been taken from crowd shots that were uploaded to the Official Muse site by the concert attendees)
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