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| Muse, O2 Arena, London, UK |
London stop on the
Simulation Theory World Tour: it was my first
Muse show. It won't be my last.
At the
O2 Arena in London, out to the east of the city on the North Greenwich penninsula: the venue is a city to itself, with street food, restaurants, clubs, a garden, mountaineering (OK, not really mountaineering, but you can climb all the way over the dome) - even London's biggest cinema. You can travel to the O2 by tube, bus, river bus (boat), even by crossing the Thames on a cable car. Tube is the most fun
because then you see the signs by @allontheboard. (Leaving the venue is a little trickier, but if you're floating on air after a show like this, it doesn't matter how long it takes.)
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| Muse, O2 Arena, London |
The show opened with
Nothing But Thieves, who I have been
guilty of missing on several occasions when over the other side of the Atlantic. So very, very good! With a backdrop of the stunning artwork from their 2017 album,
Broken Machine, - a new album next year? to add to this and their self-named 2015 release,
Nothing But Thieves deserve to be huge. Huge. They filled the arena with their music. Lovely. If you haven't heard them yet... it's about time you did.
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| Muse, O2 Arena, London |
And then Muse... I knew to expect lights, lasers, spectacle and had found a spot at the sounddesk barrier, to better experience the whole show. It started pretty low-key... blue lights and a troupe of LED-costumed-trombone-players seemingly right in the centre of the arena crowd - the stage an elongated arm into the centre of the audience... Matt Bellamy with glasses lit up neon like Times Square (how does he see? let alone sing, or play?) and it just built from there, a crescendo of live video and animation on the huge screen, a near-perfect sound system, and a bloody great monster that from my perspective could have been video, could have been hologram, could have been real, might just have been the dream that everyone in the room was dreaming at the same time.
The music was pretty darn good too. Yes, I'm the queen of the understatement today.
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| Muse, O2 Arena, London |
It was my daughter's first
Muse show in the UK - by no means her first
Muse show, she's seen them in many countries so far - and indeed, her first concert in this country (we left the UK before any of my kids had the chance to experience big venue live music) and for her, the experience of being in the middle of singing, dancing, ecstatic fans, and seeing everyone in the galleries and boxes and nosebleeds standing up and too, was very very special. (There is nothing in the world quite like British music fans... nothing.)
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| Muse, O2 Arena, London |
Some of you get the chance to do this all over again,
tomorrow night in Birmingham. We very much wish we were there, too. Have a blast.
More
Muse tour dates here and
Nothing But Thieves here.
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| Muse, O2 Arena, London |
(Photos in this post are cellphone shots from the audience
and there are a few more here. Yes, I did spend part of the show wishing I had my pro cameras... can't help it with these amazing visuals... but sometimes you just have to go for, and with, the music. Wonderful evening!
That was some show. Thank you - you know who you are!)
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| Muse, O2 Arena, London |
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