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This was something that had to happen. Not that MUSE had never played before in Greece, but it was about time a supergroup of our times (judging from their sales, their endless touring and the top festivals they have headlined the past few years) to come and perform on the peak of its career. MUSE started their mini European tour from Athens and their choice proved to be 100% correct.
After the Tool concert, this was the second consecutive one with the price of the ticket kept low on the early presale (25 euros is more than reasonable for names like these and this should be appreciated) so around 8-9 thousand people came a Thursday afternoon in Terra Vibe to enjoy what would be a fabulous concert.
All the necessary ingredients were there: great weather, enough people to make noise and not too many to make us feel packed, a huge stage show that gave the gigantic stage of Terra Vibe a real reason of existence exploiting every inch of it and a band that seriously kicks asses. For those who have some reserves that MUSE has nothing to do with metal, well… you just had to be there to see and listen for yourselves.
MUSE are just three people: Dominic Howard on drums, Chris Wolstenholme on bass and Matthew Bellamy, a guy that can shred his guitar, sing in a respectable number of octaves and play the piano at the same time. Impressed? His guitar hero is Tom Morello from R.A.T.M. Are you feeling more familiar now? In any case and if you let yourself more open to electronic and pop or not so hard rock oriented songs, Muse is the right choice. The band is progressing since its first steps and what they presented to us was an overview of their career. Having huge colourful screens, pipes that were giving out smoke and some huge balloons that were released in the middle of their set on the crowd, they supported their music in the best possible way. Bellamy owned the place going around with his guitar(s), sitting instantly when needed on his classical piano and adjusting (himself and his pedals) to the diversity of their songs like a chameleon. For the sake of history the complete setlist is this:
Sergey Prokofiev
- Dance Of The Knights (intro)
01. Knights Of Cydonia
02. Map Of The Problematique
03. Hysteria
04. Supermassive Black Hole
05. Butterflies And Hurricane
06. Sing For Absolution
07. Feeling Good
08. Apocalypse Please
09. Invincible
10. Starlight
11. Time Is Running Out
12. New Born
13. Soldier's Poem
14. Unintended
15. Plug In Baby
16. Take A Bow
17. Stockholm Syndrome
The last song, which was the encore, has been covered live by Dream Theater once, a token of the respect MUSE receive by metal bands.
As you can see they played all their hits (except Showbiz and Muscle Museum) leaving none disappointed. Their performance was sometimes harder, other times more electronic, but the outcome was constantly even better than the cd in terms of improvisation and quality of playing. The crowd acknowledged that and cheered in every change and every chorus especially as Mat was speaking all the time, sometimes in Greek. In between the songs the band was jamming making us believe that they can produce serious music in a coffee break. Among the riffs they played was Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love, so you see the case was not just happy pop stuff that wouldn't be of our interest.
This concert can be counted as one of the most successful ones of the last decade in all respects: organisation, performance, attendance, everything! Made on perfect timing, it was a universal conspiracy in favour of our enjoyment. Lucky are the ones that were present and ignorant are those who close their eyes in this phenomenal band of the 00's.
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