MUSE AT WEMBLEY 2010 | livemusic.fm

Wembley Stadium at night (as day presumably, for I’m yet to be 'placed in the pillars' with Atum-Ra) pulses with and illuminates the sublime. To do this an injustice would be to scrape against the grain of beauty, cleaving and annihilating at its surface. The self-conscious beings, by this Earth’s definition (and our modern science’s) are destined to be ‘island universes’ with ever modulating perceptions of this beauty. It is the reason for one of Reed Ghazala’s band, whilst performing with the world’s first circuit bent instrument being clonked on the head with a Lutheran Hymnal. It is why Lou Reed is frequently prompted to scream, “If you don’t think this is music fuck off!” whilst performing Metal Machine. It’s why Stockhausen comes across as such a dick; he constantly feels the breath of confrontation from a plethora of pie-holes puncture his personal space.

Did muse work against the grain? Did they do anything to insult the evening? A resounded NO!  Did they split the midnight sun and layer upon the beauty with sustained brilliance? Not a lot. Certain choruses, interludes and covers did deliver but on the whole the act is awash with meaningless filmic orchestration. This is soft and appeasing but the evening belonged with the national stadium and the spectacle at large.

At one point they came out on some form of floating pod, it was so contrived it felt as though one was watching an ugly Take That. But lasers flew and canons shot out wonderful swirls of coloured paper that bellowed down like gossamer squids. An UFO glowed overhead and tens of thousands drew flame or torch and waved them like deep-sea sea anemones. The event was stunning, beautiful and a lot more fun than crying into a towel or being a cum-sponge for a German businessman.

Muse, as an act is an ode to the great rather than being it. They’re a covers band of the sound of angels. Muse will not go down as one of the great acts they’re Bowie’s Klaus Nomi, they’re Gary Glitter’s incarceration. Matt Bellamy has recently been polled by NME readers as one of the best lyricists of all time – he’s not.

Muse played the following at Wembley:

'Uprising'

'Supermassive Black Hole'

'New Born'

'Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)'

'Butterflies & Hurricanes'

'Guiding Light'

'Hysteria'

'United States Of Eurasia'

'I Belong To You (+Mon Cœur S'ouvre à Ta Voix)'

'Feeling Good'

'Undisclosed Desires'

'Resistance'

'Starlight'

'House Of The Rising Sun'

'Time Is Running Out'

'Unnatural Selection'

'Soldier's Poem'

'Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1: Overture'

'Stockholm Syndrome'

'Take A Bow'

'Plug In Baby'

'Knights of Cydonia'