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Trey · 10-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaz@NokiaMusic

Since this is my 100th post I've decided to make it a special one, so I'm going to post an old review of mine that never really saw the light of day.

Committed to DVD, it was a momentous occasion for the band and fans alike...and I was there to see it all!

All 100 quality posts! Congrats! The next celebration will be when you hit 666.

Stellar review of the Foo. A thoroughly enjoyable read from beginning to end. Why didn't the review ever see the light of day? Not on the Nokia site, or in a blog?

I'm totally jealous of your attendance at this...I mean just at Wembly in London is reason to be jealous enough, but this really was an event, and you're very lucky to have been apart of it. This is a story for your future grandchildren.

I really love the way they arrange their set list. When I saw them I believe it was also 2008, but here in the states obviously (CA). The show was very similar to the one you described (less the wow factor of Led Zeppelin). It even included the triangle solo. Most impressive. lol

Quote:

The band then begin to touch on the back-catalogue with Learn To Fly which receives overwhelming support as it is arguably the song that brought them into the mainstream. This is quickly counterbalanced with debut single This Is A Call instantly separating the fans from the faux fighters.

Truth, and extremely funny as well!

Quote:

Dave standing on a blue-lit runway performing the song solo acoustic and vocal, seemingly insignificant in juxtaposition with the hoarding masses, and as further blue lights shine down from the stadium the chorus sounds "and I wonder... when I sing along with you... if everything could ever feel this real forever" and it's undoubtedly the single most chilling and beautiful moment of the evening... set close.

*takes deep breath* I recall this moment. Even across the pond, it still had the exact same effect. Thank you for making me remember it.

Gaz@NokiaMusic · 11-23-2009

Thanks Trey, severely delayed reaction on my part but as you know I've been away... and so I'm going to have to ease myself back into a lot of conversations with apologies.

I assume that means you've seen the DVD?

Gaz@NokiaMusic · 11-23-2009

So once again I've blown a ridiculous amount of money just to suffer an horrific commute and to watch 3 boys play with their toys in a room with flashing lights... as well as making myself a willing victim to the extortionate price of arena venue beer...

Anyway!... It was worth it and it managed to set me up with a ticket for their Stadium return in September 2010 so without further adieu here's my Muse review.

Gaz@NokiaMusic · 11-23-2009

Photo courtesy of flickr user mandynau

Muse
O2 Arena London
12th November 2009

The first thing I have to say about seeing Muse live for the 4th time is that it was easily one of my top 2, the other being at Wembley Arena back in 2003 for the Absolution Tour. The reason for this is the absence of primary tour musician Morgan Nicholls, I’ve got nothing against the dude and I understand the necessity for him as well as “The Trumpet Man” Dan Newell on the Black Holes and Revelations Tour, it’s just that part of the biggest attraction I have to Muse is the size of the sound the band are capable of creating as a 3-piece alone!… and it’s this experience we’re treated to tonight, at least for this phase of The Resistance Tour.

Show time reveals 3 towers standing at approximately 50′ and clad in LED screens lit up to resemble sky-scrapers. As each band member appears on a platform in the centre of the individual tower columns they open their set with the first new-album-single Uprising… the odds of a bet placed on this paying dividends are low, but non the less Muse are out of the starting gate at a gallop.

When touring for a new album it’s always a good idea to smash out 2 new songs back-to-back, and they do just that by following up with semi-title track Resistance. I’m not sure if it was just me but I’m pretty sure they had to improvise a timing correction during the opening sustained guitar interpretation of the synth key intro but ultimately came out on the other side shining.

Of the ever dwindling track count from Origin Of Symmetry I was particularly pleased they hadn’t dropped New Born from the setlist. As it blitzed through at a higher BPM than those tragically slow versions during the Black Holes and Revelations Tour it was certainly the perfect excuse for the potentially life-threatening laser show assault it accompanied and was followed by a jam I’ve come to learn is known as Headup Riff, one of the several new interlude jams that Muse littered their set with tonight baring some similarity to the famed Osaka Jam from the previous tour.

As my favourite Black Holes and Revolutions track, Map Of The Problematique is a welcomed sound and sets off my awkward and often embarrassing-to-friends need to air drum, but is sadly vaporized by my childish need to predict the next song before my gig companions (big-up to my man Carl!) and I pick it again as Matt Bellamy intro’s Supermassive Black Hole with he same I’ve-never-known-what-it’s-called-theramin-guitar-pad-thingy effect just as he did for those I’m-sorry-for-you-if-you-didn’t-attend Wembley Stadium shows.

Now I’ve heard a lot of people saying they’re not to keen on Invincible, sure some moments in the track are a little cringe-worthy but I find it’s worth the Middle-Eight Bass into and including that epic finger-tapping solo… but they don’t play it tonight! Thankfully an immediate relative of the song comes in the form of highlight-of-the-evening-for-me-tune Guiding Light. A song that I have no doubt will be absolutely hated by far more people than is justifiable. Nobody makes songs like this anymore, they’re era-forgotten and they’re over-the top, but Muse had the audacity to make such a song and that’s one of the reasons I love them so damn much.

After Guiding Light’s display of love and affection they play Absolution’s Interlude which raises the excitement as it’s an obvious indication that Hysteria is imminent… and they don’t disappoint as the stage columns appear as skyscrapers again, only this time they’re crumbling down as Chris Wolstenholme tears through the song’s ridiculously obscene beast of a bass line.

Interestingly, they play the Unintended b-side Nishe, which brings a brief calm to the arena before playing our first new-album-sound-bite-track United States Of Eurasia with imagery of a fragmented atlas and a collage of passport photographs collected from fan submissions on Muse’s official website, followed by an extremely well received Feeling Good and Unintended as well as another new interlude, Helsinki Jam.

After some debate about the colour of Matt Bellamy’s trousers with my gig buddy Carl, I begin to lean toward his argument and settle on Pink as Matt moves up stage with a Keytar for the performance of current single Undisclosed Desires.

Starlight gets the 1-2-1-3 hand-claps going but gets me paranoid as usual that the less-than-coordinated may embarrassingly throw the band out of time, but all works out fine in the end and they follow with the probably-never-won’t-play-at-a-gig Plug In Baby, complete with giant confetti-filled balloons. Surprisingly it’s Time Is Running Out that makes the standing area pulsate more than any other track here tonight and It’s Unnatural Selection that triggers my bizarre hybrid air guitar and drumming again.

Encore… and Chris steps out in the Captain America suit I was expecting him to wear for United States of Eurasia. Tragically Dom Howard wasn’t in his Spidey suit and there’s been no hint that Matt may be sporting a Marvel costume any time soon, something I’d have paid good money to see during this performance of Exogenesis Part 1: Overture. As incredible as it was, this is where the 40 piece orchestra that did the recording would have made it an unforgettable experience, but I guess we’re going to have to wait and see if this will be the case at Wembley Stadium 2010.

Stockholm Syndrome rocks the house to it’s foundations and features another new interlude War Within A Breath Riff with Chris joining Dom on his drum riser as it’s raised and rotated for the duration of the jam.

After a brief blackout we see Chris lightly spot-lit as he blows a single monotonous note with an harmonica, conjuring up the intro to show closer Knights Of Cydonia. Once again, it’s probably just me but I think the intro may have been extended a few measures… or I got lost in space and time somewhere between here and the songs intergalactic western world.

Great show, sound and performance!… unfortunately no Citizen Erased, no Piano version of Cave like on so many of the other shows on this tour and most heartbreaking of all, no MK Ultra!… I guess I’m just going to have to watch them again!

Trey · 11-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaz@NokiaMusic

Thanks Trey, severely delayed reaction on my part but as you know I've been away... and so I'm going to have to ease myself back into a lot of conversations with apologies.

I assume that means you've seen the DVD?

No need to make apologies or "ease" your way back in here. This is home.

Have I seen the DVD...? No, I saw them live here in the states the same year...I said that, didn't I? *rereads* Yep, I did.

The set list and performance was similar to how you described it at Wembley. Except it wasn't at Wembley, and it lacked Zeppelin. lol

Excellent show review (as usually) on The Muse. I've never really got into them, and I actually tried by starting with the last album they released (The Resistance). I didn't like it.

Gaz@NokiaMusic · 11-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trey

Excellent show review (as usually) on The Muse. I've never really got into them, and I actually tried by starting with the last album they released (The Resistance). I didn't like it.

Well that was a silly thing to do!... You're far more of a purist than a bandwagon junkie, you'll need to understand the conceptual progression of the band to warm to those tracks... and so I refer you to this post http://www.muzicforums.com/rock/1604...tml#post137172 (Muse)

Trey · 11-26-2009

Thanks Gaz. I'll make some time, and do some listening from the back catalog, forward...so I can "warm." lol

finch89 · 12-11-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaz@NokiaMusic

Since this is my 100th post I've decided to make it a special one, so I'm going to post an old review of mine that never really saw the light of day.

Committed to DVD, it was a momentous occasion for the band and fans alike... and I was there to see it all!

(copyrighted image to someone somewhere)

Foo Fighters
Wembley Stadium
London, 7th June 2008

"How can this band get this big?" Dave Grohl will later come to proclaim, well it's because the legions of Foo Fighter fans span from rockers to poppers, indie kids to punk rockers and every self respecting drummer in between, but for now it's a beautiful Saturday afternoon and foo fiends can be found in every pub 'n cranny in and around Wembley Stadium taking in the pure joy of the summer and the events yet to unfold.

Fast forward show time and anyone doubting the stadium's sound from earlier teething troubles during the support acts are reaffirmed as The Pretender sends the seemingly endless ocean of fans in the standing area into pulsating waves of sweaty summer skin.

No time is wasted as they segue directly into the anthemic Times Like These and it brings a well placed feeling of togetherness. No Way Back sets the rock back in motion and is followed up with the Emo targeted new album tune Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running).

The band then begin to touch on the back-catalogue with Learn To Fly which receives overwhelming support as it is arguably the song that brought them into the mainstream. This is quickly counterbalanced with debut single This Is A Call instantly separating the fans from the faux fighters.

Current single Long Road To Ruin is enjoyable but it's maturity is no contest to the comical tortured-teen-tune Breakout that follows, which in my opinion is more what the Foos are about.

Stacked Actors follows, it's a personal highlight and definitely the moment things begun to get a little crazy (well for me at least). Before the song end it breaks down to the obligatory Stadium Drum Solo, complete with revolving stage and the Taylor Hawkins trademark grimace. When the band return they break into strangely familiar old school thrash metal before bringing it back and finishing Stacked Actors.

The pace takes a change and it's only now after the frenzied first wave of attack that I notice the return of the Foos first two album and Nirvana tour guitarist Pat Smear. They're then joined by violinist Jessy Greene, keys and organ player Rami Jaffee and percussionist Drew Hester, whom Dave would later find himself having to playfully defend from the audience considering the band already have two world class drummers. This was laid to rest when Drew impressed the audience with a triangle solo.

Having now transformed into what can only be described as a complete dixie band they play the two-steppin' non album track Skin And Bones and a sweetly renditioned version of Big Me followed with Marigold, which I felt had to be particularly special for Dave Grohl since it's one of the first songs he ever wrote in Nirvana.

My Hero finally ushers in the the first of the few songs from The Colour And The Shape but is played acoustic with a piano accompaniment reminiscent of the Hill Street Blues Theme. More than a decade old now it still sounds as incredible as the first time our ears were ever privileged to it.

After a jam with the touring band, the Foos play the Taylor Hawkins vocal lead Cold Day In The Sun and new album tune Let It Die but it's when Everlong drops that things turn truly special. Dave standing on a blue-lit runway performing the song solo acoustic and vocal, seemingly insignificant in juxtaposition with the hoarding masses, and as further blue lights shine down from the stadium the chorus sounds "and I wonder... when I sing along with you... if everything could ever feel this real forever" and it's undoubtedly the single most chilling and beautiful moment of the evening... set close.

It's the home stretch now as they play a mind blowing performance of Monkey Wrench only for it to be completely outdone by that of an even better All My Life leaving us in utter suspense as to what could possibly top this now (it must be said that In Your Honor would have been well placed here) but it soon is as the rampant rumours making their rounds turn to fact.

Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett take a well deserved break as Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones join Taylor and Dave for two Led Zeppelin songs... and the crowd are euphoric. With Dave on drums (Bonus!) and Taylor taking vocals they play Rock n' Roll which Taylor completely nails, capturing Plant's mannerisms to the letter, Dave returns to vocals for Ramble On and too seems possessed by Robert Plant and by the end appears teary-eyed as he claims this moment the best of his life.

Led Zeppelin have left the stage and it's in the air now, there's only time for one last song and as the opening line of Best Of You rings through the air we all feel a little smug for picking the obvious.

As the band make their exit we watch the firework display in awe through the open stadium ceiling, as if it were a gigantic interstellar window to another world.

I went to this gig, privileged to share what dave called the best night of his life, certainly was mine

Gaz@NokiaMusic · 12-14-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by finch89

I went to this gig, privileged to share what dave called the best night of his life, certainly was mine

Excellent!... It's always good to find someone in a forum who went to the same gig... Live in London?