Apocalypse Now!

Muse is a band that, in true Rock&Roll fashion, are either loathed or adored. Tonight the 5000+ capacity of the CIA in Cardiff is a proof that the balance has definitely shifted towards the adoring side and Muse has done everything in their power to deserve the type of love and mad devotion that you can feel crackling through the crowd tonight.

The back of the stage it’s covered by a thick, black drape and as we wait I am trying to figure out how Muse is going to visually paint their unique brand of flamboyant, grandiose electronica.

Once the drape is dropped and the audience is one, giant deafening scream of joy, then and only then Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme step on stage and they are impeccable, a positive contrast of black, white and furious determination.

Knights of Cydonia opens tonight’s set and, with its Wagnerian crescendo and hints to an almost Nietzschean superman, we can clearly see that this is not going to be an understated affair and thank God for that. Because Muse are not suited to understated, they are larger than life in a way that, if they were not so damn good they’d be a joke.

But Muse are good.

Muse are more than good, they are majestic.

The stage could easily be a set from Tron or for the more mainstream audience, Star Wars and, exactly like those sci-fi epics, Muse are able to tell a story that should be completely ludicrous and make it an utter masterpiece.

The mastery lies not only in Bellamy’s vocals (so refined and mature that it seems impossible that someone accused him once to be a poor man's Tom Yorke) and his love story with his guitar. The mastery is in the ability of Muse to glue every element together: the music, the visual, the lyrics and their huge stage presence and make it look natural. And that’s why they don’t need gimmicks or to whore themselves to the crowd. There is little to no banter and still you can feel and see the passion in every song, you can truly believe that, like Bellamy sings:

“Tonight we can truly say

Together we are invincible”

And they truly were.

The crowd was treated to an almost perfect selection (pity the lack of more tunes from the 1st album, but it’s really a minor flaw) of songs and the energy generated by songs like Plug in Baby and Time is running out (a song made impossibly huge by the impeccable and metronomic drumming of Dominic Howard) could easily provide electricity for a small country.

Starlight is gorgeous and delicate with a background of shooting stars across Matt’s Bellamy’s face, while Super massive Black Hole is as filthy as ever, and the audience follows the bass line in a way that it’s totally and wonderfully obscene.

There is an amazing amount of work behind this flawless show, there is preparation and there is a studied and rehearsed precision, but that, instead of being detrimental, only adds to the fact that Muse, regardless of the amazing background, grandiose light show and marching robots (you have to see it to believe it) are a band that makes beautiful, almost operatic music and that, throughout this mayhem of cultural and emotional debris, are still able to ignite and inspire.

The Apocalypse is now.

words by Laila

photography by Jay