Glastonbury 2010: Saturday - Muse
Another special guest on the Pyramid Stage, and a rock masterclass
In the run-up to Glastonbury, the big question was which of the two stadium giant headliners would triumph: U2 or Muse, the old guard or the new. One bad back later, we briefly got both at the same time.
If there's ever a band to watch on a pyramid-shaped stage built on leylines, it's the conspiracy theory-obsessed, alien-loving Muse. The threesome - last here in 2004 - swagger on to the stage like returning heroes, bassist Chris Wolstenholme nonchalantly puffing on a pipe between tracks and frontman Matt Bellamy pulling Freddie Mercury poses before he even plays a note.
The opening tracks set a standard the Teignmouth rockers struggle to uphold for the rest of the first hour, the thunderous Uprising, Supermassive Black Hole and New Born hitting like a triple whammy of heavy artillery. The onslaught becomes more real in United States Of Eurasia, when images of guns and tanks accompanied bombastic lyrics about "wars that can't be won".
But, in spite of the bombast, the band don't pull out all the theatrical stops. At the beginning of the month, they sent a giant spaceship over the crowd at Germany's Rock Am Ring festival. For us? Not a sausage. Not even a firework, bar the ones lit by firebugs in the crowd.
Without the bells and whistles, the band's musicianship has to dazzle, and dazzle it does. A man so musical he turns a tune-up into House Of The Rising Sun, Bellamy is the gadget-loving James Bond of prog, a futuristic effects pad attached to his guitar and a neon-glowing keytar in the wings for Undisclosed Desires. He even plays both ends of a double-necked guitar simultaneously in The Resistance -something usually prohibited by dint of having less than three arms.
The main set culminates in a savage Stockholm Syndrome, but there is a secret weapon save for the encore: The Edge, live on stage, performs Where The Streets Have No Name like a brilliant vision of U2 in a parallel universe. Even Bellamy points at him in disbelief.
Despite their guest's star power, the last hurrah still belongs to Muse - Knights Of Cydonia has the fingers of Guitar Hero-playing audience members twitching through muscle memory, while plumes of smoke fill the stage. This is Muse au naturale, a two-hour masterclass from a band who play to mega-crowds like it's their birthright. But next time chaps, do bring the spaceship. DS
View a gallery of the gig here
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11:16 AM | 27/06/2010
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User Comments
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nice review! (better than kerrang's...) I think one of the reasons the spaceship got left out was because it tended to block the streaming signal (like it did at Rock AM), but I could be wrong. Cheers!
Posted by justine at 4:37 AM | 28/06/2010 | Report Abuse
Brilliant review.
Posted by Nadia Jenna at 4:26 AM | 29/06/2010 | Report Abuse
great review although the missing ufo i expected after taking my place in the crowd as the tall flags could have been a danger to the little green man dropping from it :)
Posted by Calvin at 2:33 PM | 29/06/2010 | Report Abuse
great review although the missing ufo i expected after taking my place in the crowd as the tall flags could have been a danger to the little green man dropping from it :)
Posted by Calvin at 2:34 PM | 29/06/2010 | Report Abuse
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