Muse: Giant Floating Eyeballs that explode in confetti= Awesome

The husband and I had a date last night. We packed up the Peanut and dropped her off at her Auntie C's and headed out to see what would; by the end of the evening, become one of my all time top five live shows ever.


My husband introduced me to Muse and their relentless grinding melodies a few years ago. I can remember listening to them for the first time and really liking the combination of the heavy bass line, driving percussion and guitar riffs and the falsetto voice of lead singer Mathew Bellamy. Toss in some incredible lyrics and it's pretty excellent combination.


Since Muse tops my Husbands list of favourite bands when we heard they were coming to Vancouver we got tickets for ourselves and some friends as soon as pre-sales came out.


This was my first time seeing them live although I'd been told that they were an excellent band to see live; I didn't quite realize how excellent the show would be. They played a nice range from all their albums to roars of approval from the audience. The stage set was amazing, featuring the band on three elevated platforms that rose and descended throughout the show. Each platform was made up of lights that projected images of the band, the audience and other visuals throughout the show. In addition to this, there were some fantastic lights and lasers that were at times blinding. At one point during the show I thought specifically that the light show was very Pink Floyd (a comparison I learned afterwards is often used for their live shows)

In my opinion I think that the best live shows are the ones where the audience is engaged and the band plays beyond the pristine quality of a music recording. Watching the energy that is Bellamy during the show I was reminded of this. Even though we were in seats that can only be described as nosebleeds we could see and feel how much playing the music was as exciting and engaging for the band as it was for the audience. Listening to Resistance (one of the songs performed last night) on the radio today was almost a let down after seeing and feeling the performance last night. The show climaxed is a the dropping of giant balloon eyeballs filled with confetti that bounced down through out the end of the show.

The show was loud (The rhythm and percussion shook my pant legs and altered the rhythm of my heartbeats) and rocking and yet I somehow didn't end up with ringing ears afterwards which is a glowing recommendation to their sound crew. In short I loved it, so much so that saying that I loved it doesn't quite encompass how good it was.

Which band would you put in your all time top 5 list of best live show?