There are very few bands that put as much effort into the visual presentation of their shows as Muse. The veteran rockers have made a name selling out arenas and wowing fans. Walking in and seeing the 360 degree stage in the middle of the Bell Centre, you got a feeling this was going to get stepped up a notch.
X-Ambassadors had the honours of opening the evening’s festivities. Their sound was very cookie-cutter radio rock. They were very much a budget version of Imagine Dragons.
As the main event drew near, lit up weather balloon looking drones began hovering over the crowd. Lines of military police with exaggeratedly bright night vision goggles started pouring and surrounding the stage, setting up for the theme of the Drones tour/album, government and military control.
Despite all the visual stimulation, the band walked out on stage and made sure stimulating your ears was still first and foremost. They kicked the show off with raucous “Psycho” followed immediately by the album’s lead single, “Dead Inside”. There wasn’t a single person in their seat.
Drones is a return to straight rock and blazing riffs for Muse, so they followed the one two punch by one of the more rifftastic songs in their catalog, “Hysteria”. They ended the tune with an outro to Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker”.
The visual onslaught picked back up as a bomber flew circles around the crowd. Sheer screens hung over the ramps on the side of the stage and around the circular centre. Projections displayed images of androids and propaganda. During the intro to “The Handler”, a face with with glowing eyes appeared on the jumbotron, then a projection of hands operating strings appeared to either side, the strings seemingly attached to Matt Bellamy and Christopher Wostenholme, puppeteering their actions.
When I see a band like U2 use a 360 degree stage, it usually seems contrived, like a giant ego ploy from the musicians who need to be the centre of attention. But despite the setup, the band almost seemed retreated, happy to let the visuals and music be the centre of attention.
As they stuck to their harder numbers, they did close out the main set with with Bellamy at a piano for “The Globalist”. The screens were filled with images of a society in decay. A city lit only by dying light, ablaze and crumbling.
The encore kicked off with “Mercy” as it rained cutout puppets on the crowd. The whole evening closed out perfectly with “Knights of Cydonia”, where the whole crowd chanted in unison, “no one’s gonna take us alive, you and I must fight for our rights.”
Muse lay a mighty claim to the best arena rock show out there, at least until Tool decides to re-enter the fray.
Review – Richard Brunette
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