I’ve been thinking today in work about what to write about in another entry. It’d be nice to get a bit more activity with shorter posts rather than my stupidly long posts at times, and I was given some lovely advice from Pat W in the comments the other day which I do appreciate and took to heart quite well, so thanks Pat! Back to this entry, tonight I just wanted to share a few live videos of Muse that are up their with my favourites and do a bit less writing, videos that I do absolutely adore. Hopefully you guys can get a bit more of an experience into why the band are considered one of the best live acts arguably in the world right now! So go ahead, read on, and enjoy…
Hysteria – BRIT Awards 2004 
The BRITs are generally a quite mainstream affair with lots of pop, rap, r n’b etc type of music that I’m personally not too accustomed too. No doubt everyone’s entitled to their opinion but they don’t usually produce a show with anything much to my tastes. Nevertheless, when I heard Muse were opening the show, my jaw dropped – something I was not expecting! But that’s certainly no bad thing, as I welcome Muse in any kind of form. And as you can see for yourself, the performance speaks for itself in terms of sheer power, brilliance and every wonderful adjective in the dictionary…
Stockholm Syndrome – Earls Court 2004 
Again, in 2004 this was performed at two incredible gigs over 2 nights in London Earls Court. It’s all about the raw power even more so in this more so than the Hysteria one aforementioned, and you get all this release of excitement, frustration, anger of the song and everything thrown into this brilliant, brilliant setlist closer. Just want to point out a special mention to the final chorus and the amount of emotion thrown into the lyrics ‘This is the last time I’ll abandon you’, I’m sure you’ll understand when you hear it. This, for me, is just the perfect Stockholm Syndrome. Period.
Fury – Royal Albert Hall 2007 
I’m sure I’ve mentioned Fury many a time to friends, on Twitter and on this blog but I simply cannot get enough of the song. Fury isn’t on any Muse albums asides from the Japanese release of Absolution – it is simply a B-side. Yet in 2007 it began popping up in Muse’s live setlists around the world completely out of nowhere to much surprise and glee, as it is quite simply an incredible song. here specifically, watch the concentration in Matt as he strikes out the chorus on the guitar, and that menacing bassline. Something incredibly addictive about this performance. Brilliant brilliant brilliant!
Butterflies and Hurricanes – Wembley 2006
This was the setting for arguably Muse’s biggest gig of their career – the first band to play at the new Wembley Stadium. It was a hell of a gig – 2 nights of playing to 80,000 people in the biggest stadium in England? Yeah, I’d say that’s quite something… and this performance for me was the best of the evening. The entire thing is a pleasure to watch on the HAARP DVD they released of it but there’s just something about this rendition of B&H. Maybe it’s the short, sharp guitar that rides it along, or that incredible riff in the centre that takes full attention, perhaps Matt’s piano tinkling just jungles along inside my mind. Whatever the reason is, I simply love this.
Citizen Erased – Le Zenith 2001
We’re going into the darker, more insanically twisted days of Muse now, in the ‘shroom era of Origin of Symmetry, where tracked were recorded from bender sessions and everything was just a whirlwind experience of distorted guitars, progtastic excellence and an almost rebellious breakaway from the dark introduction of their debut album Showbiz. The thing I love about Citizen Erased is how it’s such a loud, in-your-face song and yet at the same time, the last few minutes are the sweetest, softest moments of Muse’s career and the contrast of styles in such a song sends chills up my spine every time. I bed of you to watch the video and enjoy every second for what is deserved, and excuse the vast amount of camera angles used!
Ruled by Secrecy – Earls Court 2004
Again we find ourselves in Earls Court as seen earlier with Stockholm Syndrome, and I promised myself to only choose one song from those gigs but I simply can’t. Ruled By Secrecy isn’t a setlist sitter – it isn’t almost guaranteed a spot on every Muse setlist like Stockholm Syndrome is. The thing is with Ruled by Secrecy in this performance is how well it synchronises with it’s video and presentation, everything builds up so well and you’ve got this beautiful song, the band synchronised, the song synchronised, and everything just placed together in a wonderful package. Plus once that piano kicks in…
Bliss – Fuji 2002 
The gig in question here is the Fuji Rock festival, obviously in 2002, one for me that is unfairly ignored by many Muse fans especially when a pro-shot of the entire set is on Youtube to enjoy. Nevertheless, Bliss is in general one of my favourite live songs in any form – it has that excellent, excellent riff that accompanies the song and Muse do a hell of a job making it sounds so fresh every single time I hear it. Even better is that the song is ‘extended’ with the riff being repeated and given variation at the end of the song, which you’ll see to the side in the video. Such a fantastic performance of one of their earliest best gigs personally seeing as it’s back in ye olde year of 2002. Although they had 2 albums out by then… but still! Watch it, engross yourself into it, love it!
There’s so much more I could go into but I’ll leave it there. Songs like Knights of Cydonia at the V Festival in 2008, being preceded by Chris playing The Man with a Harmonica, or , stuff like Bliss being combined with the balloons and Matt’s tinkling introduction to New Born, Muse’s earlier stuff in France and small UK locations, even stuff like their early performances of Bliss that sound absolutely awful but have such a history about them, little stuff like that I definitely recommend checking out. If you yourself have any memorable gigs of the band or performances, please comment and remind me! Hopefully you’ve experienced them a bit more of the band with this though if you’ve ever wondered why their live reputation is so good.
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