Madness called Muse

Saturday fourth of June was the most important date of year 2016 in my diary because Muse were coming to Prague! And why? Nowadays, I can honestly say that in my opinion, there is no better musical rock group in the whole world than Muse! Actually, I don´t really have a lot of favourite musical groups or singers at the moment. I love a lot of songs but it often happens to me that I just like one song but not the whole album. I was totally crazy about My Chemical Romance but they split up three years ago. Before, they were the best ones for me and hearing them alive at Rock for People was one of my best music experiences ever! Unfortunately, they do not play anymore. Concerning foreign musicians I also like these:

• Ed Sheeran
• Bastille
• John Newman
• One Republic
• Pink
• Imagine Dragons
• 30 seconds to Mars
• SUM 41
• Coldplay

Although the ones I totally admire are Muse.

Muse are a rock music band from the United Kingdom. This craziness started thanks to my friend Eliska at high school. I guess it was like 6 years ago. I heard her and Misa talking about some musical group and they were in love with them. At that time the word Muse was totally unknown to me. I could not believe that the girls were able to spend a lot of money just for seeing this band. I was wondering who is my favourite interpret then. That´s why I gave Muse a chance and I listened to the few songs from them but it was not nothing special for me. I don´t even know why but I just loaded their album into my mobile phone to listen new music.

I remember the exact moment when I started to like the first song. I was walking to the bus station to get to my high school in the morning. I was listening to the music and I heard a new song. It was Unintended from Muse. This song was particular because in comparison to another ones it was really slow. I was wondering from who was the song. I got to like it. After one week I could listen to it all over again because I fell in love with it. The name of the main singer of Muse is Matthew Bellamy. When he sings this song it is so romantic as it is full of emotion. Therefore, I started to listen to their whole album.

It did not take a long time and I fancy Muse a lot. I knew all the songs from their album. I spent a lot of time by watching their videos on YouTube from their concerts. I became crazy about them. One thing was that I enjoyed their music a lot and another thing was that I kind of liked that they were not so famous. When I said their name aloud people mostly had no idea who was it. Maybe it does not make any sense but I just liked the fact that Muse were all mine and I could share it just with Eliska or Misa. We talked about Muse many times a lot. In the meantime they released the new album – The 2nd Law and it changed everything. The second album was way different than from the other ones. In fact, we preferred the first one much more! Eliska even stopped listening to them for a while and I guess she did not even attend their concert which was yesterday. I was also confused. The style of their music changed a bit. They added more electrical songs and they took away rock songs. I found good songs in the second album anyway.

Later, Muse decided to come to Prague (2013)! We did not hesitate and we bought the tickets (also with Misa) for the concert. We were looking forward to this concert a lot. And after, unexpecting event happened. My friend Vaso liked participating in competitions. He already won a lot of them. Once, he just heard advertisement in the radio and he won tickets for Muse concert! He offered to me to come with him to VIP area. It was quite a hard decision for me. On the one side, I wanted to enjoy Muse with someone who utterly loves them and I wanted to be in a crowd near stage. On the other side, it was kind of miracle because at that time the tickets were super expensive for me. In addition, I wanted to see VIP area as well. In the end I decided to see concert with Vaso. It was amazing! Despite sitting quite far from the stage we enjoyed their light effects and music a lot. However, it was totally different experience to sit and watch Muse from far away than jumping and dancing with strangers in front of the platform. After this concert there was a small break before they announced a new album again - Drones.

I have to say I prefer Drones over The 2nd Law for sure. It came out in September and I immediately put all of these songs into my mobile phone and I again got to like some of them. Firstly, when I was listening some additional music to their songs I was confused because it did not make any sense to me. They included the main melody Drones, the speech of John Kennedy and so on in the album. It would be enough to hear just the songs. Never mind, I let all these songs in my phone. I liked few of them as I said, but, I have to admit that I can not compare any of them with songs from albums in the beginning of their career. I think Muse really changed their style and for me the best ones are surely their first songs. Although it does not mean I do not admire how they play at the moment. After this album they announced they were coming again to Prague!

I did not hesitate at all! I wanted to go to the concert for sure! Actually, the problem was that I do not really know anybody who loves them as I do. It is a shame. Suddenly, this problem was solved. The best thing happened 4th of December when I received the most amazing present for my birthday – tickets for Muse concert- which was supposed to be 4th of June 2016! I was so excited! I could not wait seeing them again! Every time when I remembered I got a ticket I felt so happy. Even better thing was that I received this present from David and he bought two tickets so we were supposed to go together! Five months can be really long time and sometimes it can be really short time. In my opinion, it went really fast. I did not even realize it and Saturday 4th of June was here.

Since morning I claimed that this day was the best day of my life to make it more important. I felt even happier when I realized that two years ago I got an original Muse t-shirt and this concert was perfect opportunity to use it. I already had it at Colours festival and it is white with colours. I like the fact that Muse is written on the bottom so that only observant people can see it.

I came to Prague really early to ensure that we would be on time. In fact, I forced David to go there two hours before warm-up band – Jack Garrat was supposed to play. The concert took place at the biggest arena in Prague – O2 arena. Fistly, we had kebab not to be hungry. After, we had a beer and we went to the toilet. Toilets were my biggest concern. We were supposed to wait from 6 pm until 8 pm for the beginning of the concert and Muse were supposed to play until 11 pm, which meant 5 hours without going to the bathroom and without drinking (water). It can seem impossible but I properly prepared myself for this and I did not drink much after 2 pm (haha). When we had a beer we just shared it and right after we went to the toilet and after wait to the line.

I already knew before coming there that Muse were going to have a rotating platform in the middle of arena. When we got there at 6. 30 pm there were not so many people so we got close to the stage enough. To be honest I regret not going there earlier because we could have been even closer if we had come just 30 minutes earlier. Nevertheless, I could not complain as it was me who wanted to have a kebab first. We got our place and we were supposed to wait one hour and half until warm-up band came. I suggested sitting on the ground to survive. Waiting was not such horrible as we spoke about many things – such as my accommodation in Amsterdam, my horrible state exams, evaluating if stand places were better than sitting places and so on.

In the meantime I noticed all people who surrounded us. They were funny. There was one couple complaining all the time. When I told them that Muse were going to started after warm-up band they got super angry. I started to be impatient. It was already 8 pm and Jack was not coming. Of course he came late - around 8. 15 pm. I did not like his music much. In fact, it was the longest hour ever. I already knew that the expected moment was coming but it still did not come. The singer was not bad but it was kind of mess listen to him. I think they had some problems with acoustics. He was playing the piano, singing and playing the drums at the same time. Besides his music, rotating stage was not working at that time so I could not even see him properly. Finally he left.

Everybody was waiting. They already announced something like: “Please turn off your flash, Muse want you to have the best experience. Please do it. ” It seemed to me that nobody did it. We were waiting. And waiting. Complaining couple was awful. They were just saying that they never experienced warm-up band at any concert and they wanted immediately Muse. We were making fun of them. After we were waiting. And waiting. It was already 9. 30 pm (30 minutes late). Suddenly, the dark came. We all knew they were coming…

Muse enjoyed the dramatic beginning of the concert. We could hear the melody from their newest album called Drones. Besides this music, we could see real drones! The atmosphere was like in the church. With this melody drones were flying slowly in the arena with lights. But this calm music did not stay there for a long time because Matt Bellamy distracted it with his guitar underneath the platform with the first song Psycho. Chris followed him with his guitar full of light and drummer Dominic appeared in the middle of the stage. The performance just started!

I appreciated that they tried to bring the story of their album with them and tried to show us as much as it was possible – with effects, music, lights, expression and so on. I went many times to the light festival (in Amsterdam or Prague) and I have to admit that there is no doubt that this concert was the way better than whole light festival! Lights were everywhere and they were perfectly synchronized with the music. On the top of it, during certain songs, there was a big screen to project the lights and we saw many videos and images. The stage was awesome! It was so big and they were changing it many times so we saw Chris and Bellamy often – even from 5 metres! I was so happy we chose our place to be so close to them!

The first big surprise for me was Plug in Baby! I did not expect them to play songs from the album Origin of Symmetry at all! I saw enthusiasm everywhere! With the first second of the song people started to cheerfully jump and dance! I was amazed that they chose their most famous songs despite they were from older albums such us Starlight, Uprising, Hysteria, Supermassive Black Hole, Feeling Good, Plug in Baby, Time Is Running Out or Knights of Cydonia.

All these songs brought them fame few years ago and I insist on playing them during every concert! I was not even disappointed that they did not play my top song – Unintended. I already got used to the fact that they do not play it on concerts anymore, probably, because they do not consider it as the important one. Anyway, it stays in my heart (the most romantic song ever)!

From their newest album they chose Psycho, Reapers, Dead Inside, The Handler, JFK, Mercy or The Globalist. I adored the special light effect during the song The Handler. Matthew was standing right in front of us with his guitar and on the screen there was a big hand with strings to control Matthew.

They naturally did not forget Madness. Another effect I admired were big white balloons. When you listen to the Starlight live to the accompaniment of astonishing performance and at the same time there is a big white rising balloon full of papers you just feel happy. There are no words to describe my feelings when they burst the balloons and it looked like snowing and we were full of papers haha.

Later, they even let these papers out everywhere. People went crazy. I saw many of them to put these papers shaped like a figure into their bags. I did not do it. I am normal. I just kept one as a memory. I borrowed some pictures from the internet to demonstrate the atmosphere since my pictures are not in a good quality:

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I would like to mention the song The Globalist as it started as a romantic melody, in the middle of the song we heard total rock mess and in the end Matthew again ended up playing the piano slowly. They also did not forget to include a speech of John Kennedy as it is in the album.

I would be totally happy just with all these songs they chose but every step Muse did seemed to me really thoughtful with an important meaning. Even though their main message was: technology have control over us, their technological improvements and effects added a big value and they were integral to whole experience. This is no review but my opinion about an incredible concert I experienced just yesterday.

I am not saying Muse are perfect. I can even say that I did not like one their album much. I can also admit that they can sometimes seem too confident. Nevertheless, Muse demonstrated an unforgettable show with everything I could even imagine. I will remember this experience long time because it was totally stunning! Thank you for the best birthday gift ever!

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