Tag: Clay Theatre

Muse – HAARP @ Clay Theatre (04.01.08)


www.muse.mu
www.myspace.com/muse

A year ago, I started this blog with the expressed intent of gaining some industry street cred (I wasn’t writing for Performer yet). My very first post was for my favorite concert of all: Muse @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. I mentioned the killer performance, something about cake, and concluded with how much beer I drank that night…

Now, one year later, I’m blessed with another fine Muse performance, though in a slightly different venue via a significantly different medium. Clay Theatre, along with other theaters across the nation, presented an exclusive screening of HAARP, the new live Muse CD/DVD collection recorded at Wembley Stadium in London (June 16-17, 2007).


HAARP includes a selection of Muse favorites (yes, even “Feel Good,” because everyone LOVES that one), performed with an on-stage brutal tenacity that quickly dispelled any reservations that a “theatre” screening might prove disenchanting. In fact, there’s a crazy part of me that finds tonight’s HAARP screening preferential to my previous Muse experience. The video’s visual production explodes with vibrant color, and the sweeping effects from the superb camera work expertly enhanced the energy of a live Muse show.

“The best live band in the world,” some people say. While this is a matter of musical and experiential preferences, even naysayers can’t help but admit Muse is pretty damn good. Lights blared, pyrotechnics flared, and strange tight-wearing balloonfolk dropped confetti on a massive collective of (probably suffocating) fans… and that brought me to my final realization for the night, one to which I arrived unknowingly amidst the audio embrace, as the camera swung rapidly through the crowd:

British kids sure are pale.

One of my all-time favorite songs…