Last Spring I found
myself at the Meadowlands just outside of New York City watching the curtain go
up on Muse’s amazing rock show and contemplating (musing over?) the path that
had led me there.
The concert-buddy standing
next to me was a friend I would never have met were it not for the internet
making the world a smaller place and drawing together people of similar
interests. To say nothing of the people
in my life who care for me enough to encourage me to try new things and meet
new people. Having joined the online fan
club of a somewhat obscure European band I’d become hopelessly addicted to, I
quickly discovered that they had a number of pretty awesome people who were
fellow fans like myself. Some of them were
local to where I lived.
So last year I went
from being one of those people who would never dream of meeting up with folks
they’d met online to someone who was intensely grateful for having done so. This is something I would still in general
advise people to do with extreme caution, but under the right circumstances it
can open up a world of wonderful new experiences.
Having discovered a
shared passion for music and a number of other common interests I hadn’t even
been expecting, I suddenly found myself with a fun and enthusiastic concert-going
companion once again. Ted’s aversion to
crowded spaces makes him a poor choice for concerts and most of my friends (and
me too, if I’m being honest) had years ago been dissuaded by the skyrocketing
cost of live shows. After all, long gone
are the days of seeing Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Poison at the Spectrum for
twenty bucks a show.
I had almost,
almost let myself forget how much I adored live concerts: the energy, the
interaction of performers and listeners, the magic of sound and light and
lyricism coming together to vibrate inside my chest and make my heart beat in a
rhythm shared with a whole sea of people brought together only by the unifying
fact of being all in love with the same thing.
An expensive pastime, but to me – totally magical, and totally worth it.
The night of the
Muse show was one of those cool and yet intensely humid spring evenings, simultaneously
flattening and frizzing my freshly dyed hair and combining with some lingering winter
bronchitis to leave my body unsure of whether to shiver or sweat. In general, it was opting for both. I had a touch of fever that night too, a fact
which I hid from everyone to keep them from discouraging me from going to my
show. Unable to find a concert t-shirt
that fit correctly over both my size 18 shoulders and size 24 hips, I had done
my usual and opted for a men’s XXXL. It
fit me, as they generally do, like an extremely large, shapeless dress made
from t-shirt material that sloughed off my shoulders and left the hemline
lingering around mid-thigh. I looked and
felt somewhat ridiculous.
I was also
ridiculously happy.
Muse played every
song I knew and loved, which for me is nearly every song they have. A generous helping from their exquisite new
album as well as every song that had made me love them in the first place. Despite never being a song I had favored
before, the live number I enjoyed and remember the most vividly was Follow Me, because the way the laser
display interacted with the music on that particular song wove an incredible
effect within the stadium that I found both enthralling and hypnotic. Now, whenever I hear that song, I’m right
back there again beside my friend watching the lights play with the music over
the heads of thousands of people.
The nice thing
about being halfway up the side of the stadium is that it’s the perfect
viewpoint to see the full interaction of the light show like an electrified
carpet spread out in front of you. The
tech that Muse employs in their show is pretty amazing. They have a ziggurat made from high
definition projection screens that can fold down to cover the stage area and
then lift and invert to hover above the performers.
The crowd was good,
but more low key than I expected of being so near New York. We were only four days out from the bombings
in Boston so that may have been keeping everyone’s energy level on the low
side. For me personally, I couldn’t yell
the way I usually do because each time I tried I set off a fairly explosive
coughing fit.
Despite being an
English band, Muse played us a beautiful rendition of our Star Spangled Banner. I have
no idea if it’s a normal part of their concert lineup or was a specific show of
support since we, as a country, were still hurting at the time.
Muse is a band
that’s big enough to pack a stadium but their fans are chilled enough that the
lead singer can wander through the rows down on the floor and say hello to
people up close and personal without fear of pandemonium breaking out.
My sole complaint
about the performance was the guitar that got stabbed through the front of a
bass drum in an uninhibited fit of rock n’ roll enthusiasm. I have such love and respect for the skill
that goes into the creation of musical instruments that I can never appreciate
seeing them carelessly destroyed regardless of my level of concert high.
I absolutely
recommend seeing Muse live if you ever have the opportunity to do so. They are impeccable experts at their craft,
masterful artists and highly skilled entertainers. They reminded me once again that a stadium
filled with fans, lights, and sound so rich and full that I can feel it within
me is one of my favorite, most happy places to be.
Note: The video I
linked is footage of the actual show I attended, but it's overlaid with audio from the album version of the song.
Unfortunately live audio recorded at concerts always comes out garbled. They did a nice job synching the audio and
video though, so it's still pretty mind-blowing.
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