By Laura Dean
Muse shocked everybody when they announced that they’d be playing a series of UK gigs just a week before the gigs would take place. What was even more shocking was that such a big band were playing 6 intimate venues, including Manchester Academy 1, a venue with a capacity of 2600 that they last played 14 years ago. What wasn’t shocking at all was how quickly the tickets sold out, leaving many fans devastated.
Muse took to the small minimalistic stage (bit of a difference to the arena and stadium stages they’re used to) with ‘Psycho’, a new track that the crowd screamed along to. It was hard to believe the track had only been release a couple of weeks earlier as it didn’t feel like a new song at all. The band next burst in to ‘Bliss’, and their famous Hullaballoons were thrown in to the cheering crowd.
It was a guitar driven set list that had the crowd going all night, never showing any signs of calming down. ‘Plug in Baby’ saw the crowd not only sing along to the guitar riff, but also sit down on the floor before shooting up in unison nearly taking the roof off the Academy. ‘Starlight’ also saw the crowd work in unison, clapping along, it was truly wonderful to see such an enthusiastic crowd, it wouldn’t have mattered if we were in the Academy, or a Stadium. Other crowd favourites included ‘Time Is Running Out’ and ‘Hysteria’, though the crowd reacted with just as much joy at the lesser played songs such as B-Sides ‘Fury’ and ‘The Groove’.
Muse also played another track called ‘Reapers’ from the upcoming album ‘Drones’, due for release in the summer – the follow up to their 2012 album ‘The 2nd Law’. The band ended with the fantastic ‘Black Holes & Revelations’ anthem ‘Knights of Cydonia’, allowing the crowd to go wild for one last time before the band left the stage.
Muse are headlining Download Festival this summer, and if this show was anything to go by, then it’s bound to be magnificent.
