Muse/Passion Pit-- Bombast and Spectacle

Oct. 8, Ford Center, Oklahoma City

I discovered Muse with the release of their stellar 2003 album Absolution and have been tuned in ever since. While they pack stadiums in Europe, they’ve had a tough time gaining the same support here in the colonies—until recently when a few radio hits, an opening gig for U2 on the 360 tour, and inclusion on the Twilight soundtracks have upped their profile, leading to their current string of arena dates. I caught them with U2 down in Dallas, where my favorite song by either band was their Hysteria and determined I’d catch them next time they came through on their own. So it was that I found myself the Friday night of Oct. 8 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City listening to dance/pop/synth band Passion Pit (great, by the way) and waiting for Muse to take the stage.


Muse is a band that’s made its name on prog rock-leaning bombast and spectacle, and the live show more than lives into that. The stage is designed around three massive central pillars wrapped in LED screen material (see photo) with breaks in the middle of each. The show ripped to life with the unmistakable opening riff of Uprising from their most recent album. The trio was twenty feet above the stage in the spaces within the pillars, MatthProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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Bellamy on lead guitar and lead vocals, Christopher Wostenholme on bass, and Dominic Howard on drums. Bellamy’s voice sounded great throughout, although it’s showing the strain of his full bore style of singing. On the quieter, more delicate songs (granted there aren’t many) he was still having to push the vocals pretty hard. The LED pillars were alive throughout with images, occasionally of the singers but generally of random shapes and distorted photographs. Beyond this, the band made heavy use of lasers (awesome, acProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ally), and lots of smart lighting often with a strobe effect. Even when the songs weren’t my favorites, the show was never short of awe-inspiring.

As the show progressed, the bottom third of the pillars dropped down to level with the main stage, bringing the band with them. In this configuration, there were three pillars suspended approximately 30 feet up in the air. This allowed the threesome to move quite a bit more, but they still seemed significantly separated from the audience. This was my one complaint about the show. Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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hile some bands attemProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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to connect with their audience, this concert seemed much more like a classical music concert, with the fourth wall largely intact. In fairness, this seemed to be their intent, with the band and their significant backing instrumentalists coming out for a bow together in traditional fashion.

Show highlights included fantastic versions of Hysteria, Time Is Running Out, Supermassive Black Hole, Stockholm Syndrome, and Starlight. True fans are probably thinking that I’m primarily mentioning the hits in that list, which is true, but the reality is that a good chunk of Muse leaves me a little cold, and the concert, after awhile, feels something akin to working a jack hammer. It’s awesome but sometimes you just want a break. Muse doesn’t give one, with each song a sonic and visual assault that physically and visually beats you into submission. This might be why they chose to only play 17 songs (only 14 in the main set!). At not quite 1.5 hours, that’s a bit stingy from a band of this magnitude with 6 albums under their belts. Still, if they weren’t going to work in a few more of their slower songs, I’m not sure if I would have been up for too much more.

In the end, when they get into a song that hits their sweet spot of soaring vocals, prog rock grandeur, heavy beats, lots of synths, and enough strobes and lasers to sizzle your retinas, you’ll be ready join whatever revolution they’re so insistently selling. I dare you to hold still during Stockholm Syndrome, Hysteria, orStarlight. I’d like to see them lay off occasionally and add a few more songs to the show, but this is a must experience at least once for any concert fan.

*****About Passion Pit. They make the transition from a dude with a MacBook (Michael Angelakos) to a live show way better than I could have imagined. With five live musicians on the stage recreating the loops and blips that make the album work, it was more organic and warm than the original material, and Angelakos voice was, if anything, better. They knew their role and played about 8 songs, to an increasingly warm audience, in a blitzkrieg 35 minute set. They’re perfect for a venue of four or five thousand where people can move, dance, and twirl the glow sticks to the eruptions of joy these guys crank out. GREAT opening band.