crazybobbles

The 13th show was definitely better than the 12th, even Matt notices that and tells the crowd just that. Things were a lot tighter and the choice of songs were definitely more geared towards the fans and pushing the momentum the right way. Most likely won’t be writing a full on review on this night but it’s still worth noting a few things. Read on and whatnot…

After some eye damaging strobe action at The Big Pink, I made sure that it wouldn’t happen tonight, this meant lounging about at Starbucks in the o2 around 7pm and having a super large strawberry and cream frapper dappercino. The weather was chilly but that rarely stopped me from drinking iced beverages (especially when it’s strawberry flavoured!). It seems like most people I knew who were going were opting to avoid the Big Pink too. The time they entered the venue was bang on after the support slow. So what was left was the eagerly wait to see Muse play another night.

Best thing about seeing the show more than once is that you can somewhat start exploring the rest of the stage and really soak in the things happening. Muse shows are always full on! You’re either staring at the band play, or watching the clips being played and how they accompany the music.

The first 4 tracks were pretty much the same as the previous night, opening with Uprising, Resistance, New Born and Map of the Problematique. However instead of moving onto fist pumping Guiding Light, which personally is one of those cooling down tracks that should happen somewhere midway, Muse continued the momentum by playing Supermassive Black Hole and… wait for it.. MK ULTRA.

The feedback from the audience was terrifying in a good way. MK ULTRA only started emerging near the end of the tour which made it quite a real treat hearing it live for the first or second time. It was weird being able to spot the song just by hearing the whammy octaverfied notes on the first notes of MK ULTRA, sometimes I feel like Muse love giving hints on what the next song is going to be just so they can hear the smug fans who’ve seen a lot of Muse gigs tell their fellow gigging neighbours that it’s Hysteria because of Interlude or United States of Eurasia because he’s up on a keyboard after playing Nishe. Ooh best put a photo here, too much text

That’s the Helsinki jam photo but whatever :p, after United States of Eurasia we were more than happy to see the lack of megaphone meaning they were skipping Feeling Good for something else. Turns out it was the old classic “jazzy” version of Cave. This was once again well received. Cave and MK ULTRA replacing Unintended and Feeling Good seemed like good choices and were definitely better songs to make the setlist flow a bit more. Though I was hoping Unintended to be there just so I could take more eerie shots of the entire venue waving their mobile phones in the air like they just don’t care.

Around this time we get Guiding Light which seemed more appropriate to wind down. This was prompty picked up with Helsinki Jam and then their latest single Undisclosed desires. Matt made sure he showed even MOAR more moves for Undisclosed Desires just so people knew he was intentionally doing it .

The first part of the show pretty much ended the same was the previous night, with the band playing Starlight, Plug In Baby, Time is Running and ending the first half with moshtastic Unnatural Selection. This time you could really see fans going at it, with loads of dedicated mosh circles forming for everyone to collide in bumper car style (for free! none of the £2.50 bollocks).

The encore was pretty much the same as the first night, sporting climax building Exogensis: Symphony Part I (Overture), riff berserking Stockholm Syndrome and horsey riding Knights of Cydonia. I did more air guitaring than horsey riding this time which was a shame. The mosh pits were definitely more violent looking than the night before, but in an inviting way (if that makes sense)! After the smokey climax of Knights the band says farewell to everyone and exits the stage with Dom having the last words as always.

Travel home was wiser, people still took their time to get out of the building but I made sure I legged it back home to enjoy some lovely relaxing time and not getting stranded till 4am on night buses. Good times.