Living Live | Music, Video and Events

I was lucky enough to catch Muse live at their homecoming gigs at the weekend. A sell out crowd of 10,000 people on both Friday and Saturday set the stage for Muse to unleash their new album “The Resistance”

On the whole it was a good night. Being local their was lots of familiar faces around, but as a whole the crowd was disappointing. They were not the usual type of crowd you would expect at for Muse, but perhaps the sort of crowd they have thrust upon themselves over the last few albums. There was little passion or eagerness around which lead to a pretty laid back feel for what is not a laid back band.

Muse were on good form. The event production was great. It’s the third time I have seen Muse live, and it was probably the least engage I have seen them perform. Muse are relentlessly flawless live, but in my opinion they have been getting worse ever since Absolution, both in live performances and in writing new music. It just goes to show how amazing they were to begin with that they are still one of Britain’s best bands. But they have lost their drive, their angst and it feels like they have lost the passion which is part of what made them become one of  the true greats of British music.

Black Holes and Revelations for me was disappointing, as it started Muse on their way to becoming a pop group instead of the unique rocking indie band we had come to love. Unfortunately the good old days of Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry are all but gone as their new album “The Resistance” continues their push into the mainstream with poppy, and in some cases R&B sounds. The production is more like a Madonna album than a rock album, and for the most part it feels overproduced and soulless. It’s not a bad album, far from it. But this is a new Muse, which lacks their fiery soulful origins that made them so great. It may well be one of their best selling records, but it ain’t got nothing on Origin Of Symmetry or Showbiz.

On a whole, disappointing from Matt Bellamy, who is probably individually a contender for best British vocalist, guitarist and pianist of all time. (oh and songwriter)

After a fairly disappointing Reading festival this year, Despite an electric performance by and ever excellent Radiohead, and a surprise performance by Them Crooked Vultures, there is some exciting news about.

Them Crooked Vultures have announced a US and UK tour, including a gig at Plymouth Pavilions on the 10th December. I for one am gutted as I will be in the united states of Canada at the time. There is also a tasty sneak peek of the track Scumbag Blues Below.

In other exciting news electro genius’ LCD SoundSystem are working on a new album and are billing it as the “album of the decade”, only 5 month late. The album is likely to be released some time next year.

“I’m opening a book on how long it will take after this record’s release for people to be saying ‘If this was released five months ago, it would have been the album of the decade. I’m working on a song called ‘Why Do You Hate Music?’. Everyone seems to hate music right now, even people who make music. I’m doing what I set out to do on ‘Sound Of Silver‘, which is take more chances.” Claims front-man James Murphy.

Sounds good to me. Sound of Silver is one of my all-time favourite albums, its a flawless piece of work with a really unique sound. Definitely one for the collection.