vaugelychilly

Holy zombie zepplin! What a show. Went to see Muse last night and by sweet merciful jesus were they fantastic. The stage set was something I'd never seen before and dear god was it mind boggling. The music was utterly perfect and I had myself pride of place in the dead smack center of the pit.
I think I strained my voice chords, sweated out a stone in weight and pulled both my calf muscles, but it was worth it!
Was completely let down by people who were supposed to be going so I decided to head up on my own, fuck it I wanted to see em. So, late, I drove up to Dublin, got caught in road works long enough to trap me rush hour traffic and ended up spending 4hours and 45 minutes driving when it should have taken me two and a half hours.
So I basically arrived at the hotel, checked in, threw my stuff in my room (literaly) and legged it to the venue.
Downed a beer after getting in and then headed to the floor.

It was my mission to make this a fantastic night. Luckily I met me a nice girly type who was also abandoned by her friends and we struck up a good comradery while using our elbows to keep up front and center to the stage. It's always quite handy to be over 6ft 2, especially if the people around you are short undernurished teenagers and the like

The support act came on, which everyone was wondering about. Mainly because they'd never confirmed what act it would be. For ages it looked like My Chemical Romance because they were supporting Muse in the UK, but thank the merciful lord it wasn't them.
Though perhaps they would have put on a good show. Instead we got 'The Noisettes'.
Yes they were as shit as their name suggests. They had a big rock sound, though with a ska-type bassist and a lead singer who was as I described her 'like Tina Turner on acid trying to take off Skunk Anansie'.
They subjected us to several songs, all indistinguishable from the last and dragged the proceedings out.

Now Muse always take forever to get on stage, mainly due to the setting up of the stage..and *shrug* perhaps Matt Bellamys hair gel setting time. So it was a terrible, mind numbing, agonising wait...crushed all the while by idiots who think they are Moses and can part the Red Sea to get to the front.

So finally they emerge and fuck do they give us a show. The very start is 'Take a Bow' and quite slow. Matt appears and sings away, Chris arrives with his base....and I'm just thinking two things..."Fucking hell I could jump up and punch Matt in the nuts from here", and "wait....umm....where the fuck is the drum kit?!".

Then the song builds up quicker and this giant...thing...on the left of the stage...I can only discribe as Darth Vadars chamber crossed with that thing from Tron actually starts opening up like in Star Wars and low and behold there's Dom and his drum kit. It was fucking amazing.
Just about everything on the stage had some sort of screen on it so it was like a giant Winamp visualiser

They then just freaked the hell out and gave us Hysteria, Plug In Baby and Stockholm Syndrome and New Born in close proximity. I don't think my feet touched the ground for about 20 minutes there. I think everyone was about to collapse at that stage so they slowed it down and played 'Forced In' with some really really reallllly cool fire effect on that drum capsule thing. I had my phone out and was videoing it, well I thought I was. I had hit the record button but hit it again like half a second after and this subsequently resulted in some massive head slapping later when perusing the footage.

There was no real chance to take any pics, we were banging along at a hectic pace.

They released the giant ballons filled with confetti early on, which is always great fun. Then played a ton from their older albums.

The highlight of the night was the two last songs, starting with Supermassive Black Hole with some amazing visuals on the back screens and dancing robots, which I think everyone just went utterly mental for. A giant fight pit opened up right next to me and everyone was just beating the shit out of each other haha. Never seen that at a Muse gig (well it started during Stockholm Syndrome for a short while, but just went on and on for Supermassive). Then they finished up with Knights of Cydonia and everyone bopped along just waiting for the riff to kick in.
Dear jesus when it did it was beyond any other gig I'd been to. Bout 6,000 people in front of the stage headbaning and jumping in perfect time.

Anyway, so after a standing screaming clapping swearing ovation we all vacated the premisis, the girl I met eventually located her friends and we were heading out when I spotted a girl I knew from college. Went over to chat and it turned out she was working for the promoters and gave me an invite to the after party.
Being overjoyed at this I accepted and me and all my new bestest buddies headed towards town. I had decided to stop off in the hotel on the way and have a shower or at least liberally spray myself with deoderant. So security was insane outside the hotel, odd I thought. Taking out my key card I got me and my handful of new friends in the door and towards the bar. And who the hell should be there?!? Looking happy but knackered?
Matt 'I fucking dont believe it' Bellamy.
Got chatting, he's actually quite..umm..I wouldn't say shy but reserved perhaps. Snapped some pics and one of the guys girlfriends rang him to ask how they'd got on.
She apparently hates Muse and specifically Matt, so Matt clearly had to talk to her Was funny as hell.
Got a snap with him on my phone to the cry of "Everyone say 'STALKERS!".



I would like to point out that I had sweated all my hair gel out before that picture

Anyway, hahahahah it was a big fuck you to the guys who flaked on me. I reminded them as I was leaving that I have a habit of such things. Getting lucky, talking and blagging my way into funny situations, usually involving something with the term 'V.I.P.' before it.

I of course had to send them the pics at 2am just to rub it in.

Had a strange sleep in my (surpisingly but welcomely) large hotel room, I dreamt about a talking Kinder Beuno that had a penchant for cheese. That I blame on an ill advised 3am Burger King (shudder).
Needless to say the 5hours of driving , straight into walking, the three hours of rocking and the general shanningans, brief cheese riddled sleep and the immediate drive home just now my back is acting up worse than an ADD kid on crack.
But. It. Was. Worth. Every. Second.