If Muse really needed to prove its live credentials, the modern rock trio did it again effortlessly in Singapore.
MUSE isn’t just three blokes from Blighty engaged in interminable jams on stage in the vein of classic power trios like Cream or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Neither does it play with the brash exuberance of grunge legends Nirvana or metal-meisters Motorhead. But you’d be hard-pressed to argue against the band echoing the artiness and sophistication of Rush or The Police. Ultimately, though, Muse is the perfect amalgam of all of the above – an instinct which ably allows it to mesh the aggression of vintage Metallica with the melodicism of the Fab Four.
And it’s these ingredients that have secured the band in the hearts of music fans the world over. The Singapore Indoor Stadium was privy to this innate ability last week in the Big Night Out Singapore 2010 (a spin-off from Australia’s Big Day Out concert festival) show on a sweltering evening which saw Saosin and Rise Against as appetisers to the main course.
In fact, bassist Chris Wolstenholme admitted – during a brief chat before the show – that the band thrives on the concert stage. “Playing live is what it’s all about. It’s the true test of any band. With the technology you have now, you can take very average musicians into a studio and make them sound very good. But it’s obviously a different story when you gotta go on stage and play.”
He cited the changes in the record industry as a key factor to why live music has become bread and butter for the performing musician.
“And because of the way the record industry has gone, I think the quality of live music has improved, so bands are aware that in order to go out and make money, they have to be good live because they can’t sell 10 million records anymore. Live music is stronger now than it’s ever been before.”
As the band had deftly displayed during its Black Holes And Revelations tour in Kuala Lumpur in 2007 even, you truly get the feeling that you’re in the company of rock royalty during its concert. The band’s poise and command of the stage billows across in hypnotic waves, just like it did that night in Singapore during its current The Resistance world tour. As the lights dimmed, the multi-screen graphic displays depicted the silhouette of a troop of men marching up a flight of stairs. By then, the atmosphere in the stadium was simply electric and the audience’s anticipation represented by squeals and shrieks of delight.
Then the band unassumingly sauntered onto the stage with frontman Matthew Bellamy and Wolstenholme both decked in some of the most gaudy and negligible of stage duds – green pants and a pink jacket, respectively. Sure, they weren’t gonna be blowing the fashion police away in Paris or Milan but as always, Muse is substance over style. As the thunderous drum intro and throbbing bass line of Uprising hushed the audience’s racket, the stage erupted. This newly-minted rock anthem is destined to be a deathless classic, with its chest-thumping and fist-pumping fury. And when the words to the chorus came crashing through the screens, even the most incidental of fans were caught in a sing-along rapture. No egging was required as fists were instinctively raised when the audience engaged in an all-mighty headbanging frenzy.
The five odd minutes were a blissful blur and before the 11,000 strong audience caught its breath, the band knocked out another one of its catchiest singles to date – Supermassive Black Hole. The mix of strobe lights, fluorescent hues and Matrix-like graphics made for the perfect futuristic backdrop, as if summoning the Apocalypse. Its near-dancy groove (like the handclaps on Uprising) bears testimony to Muse’s intelligence of fusing commercialism with a hard-hitting edge, even if the tune seems to have evolved somewhat.
Obviously, Muse has grown intimately into its material, filling it out and fully inhabiting it with an enthusiasm that suggests that its just fallen passionately in love with all these songs once again. Nuggets of the past like Hysteria and Time Is Running Out (positively the most approved tune for the night) received similar treatment of minor updates but retained the punch and vigour of the original studio recordings.
Older songs now make way for newer ones and it’s no surprise that Muse opted to showcase more than half of the new album. Tame tunes Undisclosed Desires and the sprawling tour de force Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 shared setlist space with cranium-crunchers like MK Ultra and United States Of Eurasia, the latter enthusiastically exhibiting the band’s Queen leanings. Producing The Resistance by itself was a daunting task though, Wolstenholme concedes. “The biggest pressure is having to be critical of yourself and being critical of the other people in the band.”
It’s easier to take criticism from a producer than it is from a bandmate and that was something Muse had to learn along the way. “It’s hard to be critical of friends, and it’s hard to receive criticism from them as well. It’s easier to take it from a producer, whom you probably don’t know that well. But the advantages outweigh the negatives.” It’s this creative freedom that has allowed Muse to piece together a varied collection of songs on The Resistance.
There’s rarely a hint of monotony as the band is adept at shifting gears musically and dynamically at the drop of a hat. The pace dropped considerably when Bellamy tickled the ivories on Sunburn. When he walked off momentarily, Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard participated in what easily could’ve have sounded the death knell for the show – the obligatory solo spots. Instead, they turned up the wick with the decibel count as they pounded the audience with a pulsating serving of bass and drums on Helsinki Jam, a rehearsed impromptu jam steeped in purpose and imagination.
This being Muse, the performancewas a technical triumph, with each piece – breathtaking in its complexity – nailed with surgical precision. The gob-smacking visual treat — the laser light display — was mind-boggling. Throughout the show, Bellamy was like a technical wizard, coaxing some of the most otherworldly sounds from his highly unique guitar. Where Jimmy Page employed a bow, Eddie Van Halen a power drill, Bellamy relied on his electronic scratch pad mounted on his six-string. Synth soundscapes washed over with zapping bass lines from fellow sonic architect Wolstenholme.
As a singing team, Bellamy’s lilting yin is the perfect foil for Wolstenholme’s yang, a gentle, withdrawn backing vocal style. Muse is a band of varied influences, bringing depth and colour to a set in which the leaping rhythms and startling images of Stockholm Syndrome sat happily alongside a trippy Nishe.
Slightly over 80 minutes, and the roller-coaster ride was brought to a grinding halt with a blistering rendition of Unnatural Selection.
But the audience has learned that if the house lights don’t come on, an encore beckons. That didn’t stop chants for “more” though, and the band duly obliged. The first portion of Exogenesis passed with little fanfare but Plug In Baby nearly incited a riot of euphoria and when the opening strains of Knights Of Cydonia crept through the speakers, the crowd took a deep breath and sung the main vocal line whole-heartedly with Bellamy. It’s impossible not to notice how much power Muse generated from a concert stage. We may all have seen events that are loud and rude, shows that stir the imagination and are musically satisfying, but a Muse concert is as close as it gets to near-perfection.
As they say, reaching the top is tough, but staying there is even tougher.
