Muse performed their show at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena in honour of the great Nelson Mandela who passed away earlier in the day.
President Nelson Mandela of South Africa was one of the world’s greatest humanitarians and politicians, known as the man who led South Africa out of apartheid.
Matt Bellamy of Muse took time out of the show to acknowledge the passing of Mandela and dedicate the song ‘Starlight’ to his memory.
The return of Muse to Australia sees the band performing in arenas, a long way from their first Australian tour in pubs including the Evelyn in Melbourne.
Australia has had the opportunity to watch Muse grow from their very first album ‘Showbiz’ after being signed to Mushroom by Michael Parisi back in 1999. They had their first ever hit record in Australia with Showbiz when it reached no. 29 on the ARIA chart and was certified Gold.
15 years later Muse are one of the world’s biggest bands and they proved that to a sold-out crowd at Rod Laver Arena on Friday night.
The Muse show today is massive. The lightshow, with the pyramid LED synchronised screens moving up and down during the performance, feature the very latest technology and looked like an alien spaceship landing. Strobes, lasers, smoke machines … all the rock show elements were there.
Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard, Chris Wolstenhome (and the nameless keyboard player hidden behind the drum kit) filled the arena with sound. Bellamy has learned how to work the audience with his Townsend twirls and Jagger prances but none of that would work if it wasn’t about the music. Muse simply have great songs.
Muse fit in between commercial Coldplay and avant-garde Radiohead. They are that band in the middle who appeal to both sides of that musical spectrum.
From the very start of the show featuring horror movie legend Vincent Price’s monologue from Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ we knew we were in for one of the great live shows on the planet.
The set drew heavily from the recent ‘The 2nd Law’ album and the processor ‘The Resistance’. All that was missing was a nod to that first album ‘Showbiz’ but they did resurrect the very early ‘Agitated’, performed on this tour for the first time in more than a decade.
Samples of AC/DC and Rage Against The Machine peppered the setlist with a stamp of rock gone by.
For today’s rock shows Muse are as good as it gets.
The setlist for Muse at Rod Laver Arena was:
Supremacy (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Supermassive Black Hole (from Black Holes and Revelations, 2006)
Panic Station (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Resistance (from The Resistance, 2009)
Interlude (from Absolution, 2003)
Hysteria (from Absolution, 2003)
Knights Of Cydonia (from Black Holes and Revelations, 2006)
Monty Jam (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Explorers (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Citizen Erased (from Origin of Symmetry, 2001)
Follow Me (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Undisclosed Desires (from The Resistance, 2009)
Animals (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Madness (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Time Is Running Out (from Absolution, 2003)
Plug In Baby (from Origin of Symmetry, 2001)
Stockholm Syndrome (from Absolution, 2003)
Agitated (early song first record 1996)
The 2nd Law: Unsustainable (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Uprising (from The Resistance, 2009)
Starlight (from Black Holes and Revelations, 2006)
Survival (from The 2nd Law, 2012)
Remaining Muse dates are:
December 7, Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena
December 10, Brisbane, Entertainment Centre
December 13, Sydney, Allphones Arena
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