Muse: Wembley Stadium 17th June 2007
Support: Shy Child, Biffy Clyro and My Chemical Romance

Setlist
Knights of Cydonia
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
Map of the Problematique
Forced In
Sing For Absolution
Butterflies & Hurricanes
Hoodoo
Apocalypse Please
Feeling Good
Sunburn
Invincible
Time Is Running Out
New Born

Encore
Soldier's Poem
Unintended
Blackout
Bliss

Encore 2
Starlight
Plug In Baby
Stockholm Syndrome
Take A Bow

One of the most highly anticipated shows of the year and for fully justified reasons. Until it was rudely snapped up by George Michael, this was going to be the first official show at the new Wembley Stadium and with Muse; an act famed for their amazing live and stage performances. The Sunday show that I went to seems to be the better of the two mainly for the more appealing warm up bands, Shy Child, an act from New York that have flavours of Muse but a US twist, Biffy “Mon the Biff” Clyro, an already established underground act that has recently shot up in fame with their critically acclaimed new record ‘Puzzle’ and My Chemical Romance, who took Muse as their warm-up act for their last U.S. tour and are the cherry on top of the sweet cake for me.
With Zane Lowe mixing tunes between sets the crowd is kept in gear and prepared for the feast of musical talent on display. The fans of each act respectively enjoy their night, even if they don’t all appreciate all the bands on stage, for it’s the mighty Muse that has drawn us all to this hallowed Wembley archway.

As the daylight bows out so does the band step in out of a large centre piece in the middle of the mosh pit and out of a cloud of smoke and confetti, to be cheered as they walk down the runway to the stage kicking of to the gut punching ‘Knights of Cydonia’. There is little to describe the grand scale of Muse’s stage presence and the dream light lights and screen show, perhaps the first word that comes to mind is ‘whoa’. The music and the evening seemed to disappear to quickly for my likening as I just wanted to hear more and more; as the day faded into the night we were blessed with a mix of old standards such as ‘Sing for Absolution’ and ‘Time is running out’ new loves such as ‘Invincible' and one of my favorites’, the delicately and masterful cover version of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’.
The mapped out display and light show boasted the crowds already high levels of emotion and kept them hooked for not just one but two encores.

Overall I knew before I arrived that the show was going to be amazing and wonderful based on their history as live performers, but the real question was the whole event worth the hype, and to a certain extent it was. The warm up acts and DJ before Muse were thought about and successful (well, for the Sunday show anyway, but I’m not 100% sure about the choices made for the Saturday show as they seemed to be oddly different rather than different in a good way), the security and general stadium team were very organized and watchful of the audience and Muse more than delivered on their part. The only thing that would have shot this show into the next level would have been if it was in a smaller venue, intimate feel with the grand stage action, but then again it wouldn’t have been the stand out show it was, if it wasn’t for the added knowledge of it, originally intending to be the first rock show in the new stadium.
Curses to George Michael for being so sneaky. Muse will always be an act that has to be seen live to truly understand them but where they can go from here is all that can be left to asked. What do you or can you do next that tops Wembley Stadium?


Review by Laura Heath


<- Back