Tag: Muse

Muse in concert, Dallas 10-12-09

Yesterday I had quite an adventure getting to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium to see Muse open for U2. So come along as I regale you with a tale of deception, heroism, and triumph.

Since I was going to the Dallas show and I live in and know people from Houston, I decided to go alone. It is hard to justify a 12+ hour trip (as I had to go out of my way to Nacogdoches and then headed back there after the concert) with a $100 ticket for 45 minutes worth of music to a non-obsessive Muse fan, so I’m really hoping for a real US tour next year so I can actually go with a few people.

To set the stage, I had the day off yesterday but decided I would work a full day today (Tuesday) which meant I had to be back in Nacogdoches to wake up at 7AM. As I was starting from Houston, I had to wake up at 8AM to shower and get ready and around 9AM I left to go get a haircut. Unbeknownst to me as the Sport Clips website said the place opened at 9, I arrived a full hour before they actually opened. Luckily on the door they had the correct hours, and thus I left to Walmart to pick up a few things that we needed before I left. At this point I returned home, waited a little bit, and then left for Sport Clips again at 10AM. Got out around 10:45 and then proceeded to go home to finish packing.

It was at this point that my wife asked if we could have Taco Bell for lunch, under the assumption that I had the time to stick around to eat lunch (I didn’t). So I did go get Taco Bell and ate with her, and finally left just after 12PM which was about 30 minutes after I wanted to leave. In retrospect I should have just dropped off Taco Bell for her to eat and gone ahead anyway, but that’s in the past now.

So first I need to drive to Nacogdoches to drop off everything since I have about $3000 worth of computer/electronic equipment, XBox and games, clothes, etc. that I travel with and I’m not leaving that in plain sight in the back seat of my car in an unguarded arena parking lot. This went relatively smoothly and I arrive just before 2:30. At this point I race to get everything inside, use the bathroom, take a 5 minute breather, and hit the road again. Now I need to drive up to Kilgore, TX where I hop on I-20 West towards Dallas. Since I don’t have the time I wanted by leaving late, I’m relegated to stopping at a McDonalds briefly for bathroom and some food somewhere along the highway. Things go smoothly until I hit Dallas.

And then I hit what can only be described as a test of willpower and patience from God himself in the form of massive Monday rush hour traffic, coupled with construction. At this point it is 5:30 and I see I only have about 20 miles to go, and Google Maps on my iPhone is showing that the drive should only take 30 minutes. That’s not going to happen, and in the middle of the traffic I actually have to stop to use a bathroom in a gas station – you know, the kind in the ‘run down’ area of the city where the clerk is behind bulletproof glass. So whilst I am literally pissing, I am figuratively shitting myself wondering if the hours I have driven will all go to waste if I am stuck in traffic while Muse is playing.

So finally the traffic opens up and I’m now about 15 miles from the stadium and it is just about 6PM. I realize the Devils game is about to start and switch from my iPhone to XM radio to listen to the start of the game, where I get to hear the refs blow bench minor call on the Capitals for too many men on the ice, only for the Caps to score afterwards within about 30 seconds. At this point I’m gunning it and just trying to get to the nearest parking lot so I can rush inside. I start to see those portable LED signs that are saying “CONCERT PARKING NEXT EXIT” so I take the first one. I figured it was pretty impossible to fuck this up since all I had to do was follow traffic and I got to a parking lot easily enough. By the time I’m getting out of my car, the Caps are already up 2-0 and the Devils are on the road (and I mean, come on, it’s the Capitals – the guys with Alex Ovechkin), so I’m going into the concert figuring the Devils are on the way to a loss with a Devils t-shirt on.

I just want to comment on the absurd prices of parking. If you look at this picture, I basically pulled into the lot on the right from where it was taken. That is a pretty good walk to the stadium, and I wound up paying $30! I know some people who often go to concerts/sporting events will probably laugh at my ignorance on the subject of parking prices, but that is fucking absurd whether it is the norm or not.

So anyway, now I need to walk to the stadium. By the time I got out of my car, it is just about 6:30PM. I throw on the Devils practice jersey I brought with me as it was a little cold. Within 100 feet of walking from my car I get boo’d by someone driving by. Fair enough, I’m not in Jersey.

Now, to get to the stadium, first I have to cross over wet grass that has puddles in it since I am rushing to get directly to the stadium without any detours, which soaks my shoes. As I wear Vibram Five Fingers, that means my entire shoe basically became wet instantly since they are a bit like water shoes that you would wear on a jetski or something similar. After that it is like a good half mile of walking in wet shoes, which stay wet pretty much the rest of the night until I get home.

Now, mind you I had tried to scan over my ticket to see if there were any indications of where I should go as I was exiting my car, but the text about where my seat was ran into the part where it said “J” and above that was printed “Entry.” In all fairness, I wouldn’t have even though there was a “J” entrance since it is a fucking stadium – how do you need 10 entrances that would require the naming convention of Gates A through J? Worse, walking to the stadium as directed by the cops put me at entrance “A”. I realize they are turning people away and “A” seems like most are headed for this side entrance that has gates B-F or something like that. So I walk over there, the woman scans my ticket and I walk in. I check the time, see it is just about 10 minutes until 7PM when the show starts, and run into a bathroom real fast before exiting and looking at the main concourse with about 5 minutes to go. Since I arrived late, I haven’t had the chance to buy any alcohol of any kind, which winds up being beneficial that I am 100% sober for the challenge that lays ahead.

I head over and see the stairs leading down through the rows, but they don’t reach the field. Thus begins my fun trip trying to figure out the stadium layout.

Now, this stadium is best described as a labyrinth. Indeed, halfway through my trek I came upon a minotaur and had to fight it off. The most shocking thing to me is that at ground level (the main concourse) that I entered on, you CANNOT walk around the stadium fully. There are guarded areas for what I assume are VIPs. I talked to no less than 5 staff members who tried to direct me where to go. Some hadn’t worked concerts before. I had to piece together information from most of them to figure out where to go. My route is as follows:

Upon reaching the stairs at first, I talk to an older gentleman who tells me he has no idea how to get to the field level. I then walk over to the next guy checking tickets at the top of the stairs, who then informs me I should have received a wristband when my ticket was scanned. Luckily, he has them and gives me one, then tells me I need to walk around the concourse and look for “the ramp” and if I get lost to ask any staff to point me towards “the ramp.”

I then head that general direction until I have to pass a checkpoint that guards the VIP area. The guy looks at my ticket, of which does not grant me access, and tells me I need to go around the corner and take an elevator up to the 4th level.

So I go around the corner and find the elevator with a long line in front of it. I ask the next staff member who is standing near the elevator where to go, she directs me back towards guy #2 where there is a large flight of stairs. Luckily, she mentioned the section number once I got on the 400 level of where I need to be around to be on the “correct” side of the arena to begin my descent back down. I head up the stairs to what I thought was the “400 level” which is where I need to get to, only to find it is VIP suites. I ask the guards blocking the suites who tell me to go back downstairs. I do this and wind up looking back at the elevator and the woman who told me to go up them in the first place – I don’t even bother asking again.

By this time it is just past 7PM and I am about to resign myself to watching the backs of Muse performing from one of the viewing decks that are in the middle of these staircases. So I decide to go up the stairs, and as tons of people are on the first desk, I keep walking up the stairs hoping to find an open spot. Luckily this leads me 1 floor higher than I previously went. When I get up there, I recognize a giant ramp! Success!

Now if I could paint a picture, I’m in a t-shirt with a hockey jersey over it, inside a building that has tens of thousands of people who are generating heat, and I am about a step away from a full out gallop through the arena at the pace I’m keeping trying to get around so that I don’t miss Muse, which is the only reason I even came. I’m sweating hard, I can feel the t-shirt is soaked, but even worse I realize my boxers are getting bunched up and are chafing my legs. For a brief moment I start to have flashbacks of my teenage years when I went to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jersey once – I went on the water rides with flannel boxers on (I have never worn flannel boxers again). Luckily this memory subsides, and at the end of the day it wasn’t so bad, but do remember that my legs are chafed halfway through just trying to get to my seat, and then I still have to get back to my car.

Apparently the stadium does not name the concourse levels by the 100s (thus my confusion when I thought I reached the 400 level and only got suites), as I then had to walk up about 4 more floors on this giant ramp to get to the upper concourse, or the “400 level.” Immediately I realize I am on the right track as I can walk around the stadium without a problem. Thanks to the elevator lady, I get to the correct section and see a massive staircase that I am practically leaping down. Luckily after the massive staircase takes me down a few levels (much quicker than a giant ramp, mind you), there are escalators to take me all the way back down to the main concourse. Great! At this point I see a giant sign for “FLOOR SEATING” once I get to the bottom and immediately run that way. Take a left, and on my left is a guard watching a staircase.

I flash my wrist band and run down the stairs. This is about 3-4 more levels, with no signs, and it gets tinier as I go down further. Finally there is simply a door at the bottom, I open it and a female guard turns and faces me.

At this point I look around and realize I’m in an interior tunnel used for backstage and crew type stuff.

I sigh and say “Great, this isn’t the field.”

To my delight, she responds “Well, yes it is the field level, hold on though.”

Immediately I whip out my ticket in my left hand and the wristband on my right and say I just need to get to the field. She points over at a tunnel and tells me to head down, and as I turn the corner I can see the field. At this point I’ve been power walking in wet Vibram Five Finger shoes for about half an hour as it is 7:25 by the time I finally get there. As I’m standing I notice a small amount of pain on the ball of my left foot and realize I managed to get a blister. This is really the only time my VFFs have failed me – I don’t workout or run in them and am stationary most of the day, so seriously doing some hardcore walking in these things is something my feet were not used to, especially being wet. Anyways, I’m sweating profusely as I just practically had a workout in what effectively is a sweatshirt in a stadium that feels like it is 90 degrees from all the people.

Then 5 minutes later, the lights go out, “Dance of the Knights” comes on over the loudspeaker, and Muse make their entrance.

Quite honestly, it was fucking awesome. I’ll be honest upfront and say I would have preferred a different setlist – it was the same one they had been doing for a few shows, and while I recognize that they were opening for U2 who has a different brand of fans, at least one out of either Knights of Cydonia, Stockholm Syndrome, or Plug In Baby would have been nice. Especially Knights – I know it is trite to say that, but the song is epic and begs to be played when they are performing live. Still, closing with Time Is Running Out wasn’t so bad.

The setlist:

1. Uprising (sounded great)
2. Map of the Problematique (was glad to hear this live – they rocked)
3. Supermassive Black Hole (I know the Twilight crowd loves it and most U2 fans would probably know it from their kids loving Twilight, but I can do without)
4. Interlude + Hysteria (love that I got to see this performed live)
5. Undisclosed Desires (good performance)
6. Unnatural Selection (I’m glad they threw it in, but at the end of the day I would have preferred Resistance or MK Ultra if they needed to do 3 from the new CD)
7. Starlight (a given – still rocked)
8. Time Is Running Out (was awesome)

I took a video during Undisclosed Desires with my iPhone. The quality is terrible for both sound and audio, but I’ll still show it off here:

There are also a bunch of photos (mostly crappy – again the iPhone) in a gallery here. Muse fucking rocked. All the time, effort, and money for those 8 songs were worth it. I wish it was a concert that Muse was headlining as the U2 crowd wasn’t nearly into it enough, but they are not the type to be jumping up and down like lunatics in the first place apparently. I imagine it would be hard for all the women in high heels who weren’t aware that clothing style has changed from the “1980s Madonna” look to really jump around anyway. You could tell Muse had to tone it down and not play some of their epic rock songs like the 3 I mentioned above for the crowd. However, by looking at the various tweets of U2 fans, it seems after most shows that Muse opened, the large majority are hearing Muse for the first time and loving it. That, combined with the new CD and another song going to the Twilight movies (a remix of “I Belong To You” will be in the new movie’s soundtrack) hopefully will help them explode here during their US tour. The VMA performance, the reviews, the interviews in Rolling Stone and other magazines, opening for U2, etc. all seem to suggest that the record company and media are really getting behind them to get them as big here in the US as they are in the rest of the world. I think that is great since they deserve it.

I have to say I was focused on Dom a lot. I don’t know if I’ve made mention before on my blog, but Muse’s music and Dom’s drumming in particular finally pushed me over the hurdle to really want to pursue learning to play drums as more than just a passing fancy. It is something I’ve always wanted to do since I was scared off it and over to saxophone by my 5th grade music teacher (I understand why he did it since all kids want to play the drums, it just turns out that I should have pursued it instead of saxophone I think). Not that I’m hoping to become a rock star, but I would like to just be able to drum along to all my favorite songs or maybe sit in with a few musicians just to jam from time to time as I love playing music, even on instruments I don’t care for as much (like playing sax for 7 years). I stood to the left side particularly to see him. Matt sounded great and played well, and Chris absolutely tore it up playing bass as usual.

So after TIRO, they walked off stage, I turned around and fought my way through a small crowd to get back to the tunnel. At this point I follow the crowd easily back up to the main concourse that you walk into from the outside, however now I am on the opposite end of the building from where I entered (and the side my car is parked at). I resign myself to walking out and simply walking around the building rather than dealing with walking up and down stairs again. As I walk out and begin to leave, the guard tells me that if I walk through I can’t come back in.

“That’s fine, I’m not going back.” I withhold comments about U2 simply because I’m too tired to deal with it. The chafed legs and blister are really starting to cause me some discomfort at this point. As I’m walking along the sidewalk, I overhear two girls walking behind me. The conversation goes something like this, though this is by no means word for word:

“That was awesome!”

“They played my favorite song! I wish they would have played a little longer though.”

“Haha we flew to Dallas for 45 minutes of music.”

“Yeah I wish they would have played Absolution though.”

(Note: “Sing For Absolution” is a great song, but I don’t see how they could shoehorn Absolution into an 8-song set when they had to leave out about 10 songs I would have preferred to hear before that one. It’s just not a song you sell to a stadium full of U2 fans to get them into your music, but I have to say that I at least understand since I would have preferred Glorious, which is an extra track on the Japanese release of Black Holes and Revelations, to half of the songs they played. Every diehard fan has to have their non-popular favorite song) :)

This was comforting if for no other reason than someone went to similar lengths (though I imagine a plane ride was generally easier to deal with compared to the drive and walking) just to see Muse open. I’m crazy, just not the only one :)

What was super nice of the people who designed this stadium is that there aren’t even walkways all around the stadium on the OUTSIDE that are not blocked off. On opposite ends of the stadium, they block off an ‘interior’ in front of the doors for people to hang out, eat some food (they have standing tables), and have the merchandise tents setup. Speaking of the merch tents, I wish I knew they’d be closed or emptied during the show after Muse came on or I would have tried to stop for a shirt beforehand. No real loss here though since it wasn’t a real Muse show and I still have my ticket as far as mementos go.

Anyway, so now I have to walk across more grass and a parking lot until I finally reach the street that runs in front of the stadium. This is the same street that will take me back to the parking lot I’m on, so now it is just a matter of getting back to the car which would have been fine if not for my legs and foot.

I bet you thought my fantastic journey would end with an easy car ride home. Nay, that is not the case.

I relax in the car for about 10 minutes trying to psych myself up for this ride. I put Muse on (I had listened to them all day on the drive to Dallas of course, and all the way back, so for about 10 1/2 of the 12 1/2 hours total this trip took I have listened to Muse either from my iPhone or at the concert), get settled in my seat, and begin the drive home. At this point I’m pretty tired and it is about 8:45-9PM by the time I’m getting to the highway and really starting to drive. I’m so tired and exhausted that I can barely deal with focusing on doing anything but driving straight, and keep checking my GPS on my phone every so often to make sure I didn’t miss a sign since I’m not even paying attention to them. Ironically, I checked with just 1 exit before the one I was supposed to turn at to get onto a small highway that leads to the main one I need to get to that takes me straight back to Nacogdoches and my apartment. Yet I am so tired that a thought pops into my head to change to another Muse song (I don’t even remember what one) and I miss the exit. Luckily, I can take the next exit, however this has me driving through the town center of Kilgore to get back to the highway rather than taking the side-highway shortcut and avoiding all the lights. As I’m trying to navigate, tired, and look at my phone, on wet roads since it has been raining and miserable all day across the entire state of Texas (at least the Eastern half), I nearly skid through 2 red lights and basically look like I’m a drunk driver. Luckily there were no cops around, and the only thought running through my mind is the necessity to get back to the ‘highway’ part.

This leads to a new challenge as it is now about 11PM. It is still raining a bit, my window is fogging and as the air in my car only blows out of the front vents since the switch is broken, I am alternating between blasting cold air to defog and turning it off so I don’t freeze. Worse, visibility is about 100 feet in front of me with my brights on unless I see a rare light turned on outside someone’s house or my headlights are reflecting off a road sign. Since leaving Dallas, aside from seeing signs for fast food or gas stations along the highway and travelling through the sprawling metropolis of Kilgore, TX, the only light on the road is headlights. Naturally as I’m tired, I decide the best course of action is to do 80-90MPH and take my chances that no cops will be around and no deer or other woodland creatures will be stupid enough to run in front of me so that I can get home faster.

This works as the only cop I encounter is one I pass doing 10MPH over the speed limit going the other way through Henderson (I was doing 50 in a 40 around their loop). The two other cars around me are doing the same speed though and the cop just goes on by.

Once I get through Henderson, however, visibility gets even worse to the point that I basically need to leave my brights on to see more than 30 feet in front of me. Being a safe driver, I take it down to 70MPH. It is so dark and hard to see at some points that I’m not even sure where I am on a road that I travel every day to work.

Finally, at just past midnight I roll into Nacogdoches. Thus far I’ve had 3 soft tacos and 2 McDonalds cheeseburgers for sustenance all day since waking up at 8AM, and I have basically no food that is easily prepared (or much food at all for that matter) at my apartment. So, I head into town and go to Whataburger which is just about the only place open (although I did notice Papa John’s was open across the street as I sat in the drive-thru, but I’d rather drink bleach – at least I know what the funky chemical taste is in my mouth if I’m drinking bleach).

Since I’m clearly too tired to even think at this point, I see advertisements for their limited-time buffalo chicken sandwich. It wound up not being too bad (I finished it, but when you have barely eaten all day and are that tired, taste doesn’t matter as much), but not something I would order again. I then proceed home and pull in at about 12:20AM. Go inside, take my shoes off, and check the blister. Interestingly enough, because the shoes were wet and made my feet shrivel, the blister is actually shriveled as well. I have no pins readily available, and I couldn’t grasp the moist, dead skin well enough with some nail clippers, so I literally use my fingernails to tear the blister slightly to drain it. This proceeds to hurt even more for the next hour until I fall asleep.

So I dealt with the blister, head to the bathroom and wash off my face and hands since I had been sweating so much at the concert, eat my food, checked some webpages real fast (mainly Facebook, Twitter, and the muse.mu message boards), uploaded the video I shot to YouTube, and finally head to bed around 1:15AM. It takes me maybe 5 minutes to pass out, and this morning at 7AM my alarm goes off playing Bliss for me to wake up and get ready for a full day of work. So now after about 5 1/2 hours of sleep, I sit up and have to reason with myself logically that it is not worth losing hundreds of dollars by not going in until noon while I’m half asleep and all my body wants to do is fall back over and force me into sleep. I manage to get up with the intent to check my cabinet for a “5-hour Energy” shot. I don’t normally drink these, but I thought I had one laying around in case of emergency, and this appeared to be one of those times. Although there is no 5HE bottle, the act of getting out of bed wakes me up enough to the point where my body doesn’t have much of a case against my brain to lay back down since I’m already out of bed now.

And thus, I get ready, go to work, and proceed to indulge myself in uploading photos from the concert, reading the message boards, and debating going to Vegas on December 12th since a show with Muse headlining just appeared on Ticketmaster yesterday.

It was totally, 100% worth it. I probably won’t say that as I hobble around the grocery store doing my weekly shopping for my apartment tonight though.

Muse – The Resistance

Be warned, this is an extremely long post.

To say that I am an obsessive fan of Muse would be an understatement. While I haven’t listened to them since they started 10 years ago, I have quickly gotten on board within the past few months. I haven’t even bothered to listen to any other music in this time, as none of it seems interesting or worth the time. Of course I am sure this will eventually change, but for now I’m quite content to solely listen to music by Muse. Quite honestly, everyone knows that smart, geeky guy who always fixes their computers and has his own little quirks, and listening to Muse constantly is one of mine.

The Resistance, their 5th LP, leaked yesterday, and of course I downloaded it. I will absolutely be buying the CD when it is available on Monday. I’m not saying that because I need to escape the RIAA, but rather I’m saying it because I believe in paying for music if you like the music that was put out by the band. Being a musician is their day job, and we pay their salaries. If you don’t like the music, fair enough, delete it. However, it should already be evident that I like The Resistance, a lot.

I always find it funny to see how fans of Muse, who are all pretty rabid, act about everything concerning the band. The people who started listening to Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry fell in love more for the hard rock edge with just a hint of flair and progressiveness. Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations go much further with synthesizers and explore the more progressive side, with less hard rock songs. I think The Resistance follows this formula as far as using synthesizers and prog rock, but the feeling and goal from the start were to do something different and original. Thus, I think most of these old people hoping for any kind of return to that era of Showbiz or OoS are finding themselves disappointed upon listening to it.

The same goes for the fans looking to see the next Black Holes and Revelations.

You have to go into The Resistance with an open mind and decide if it is good or not on it’s own merits. Muse are not like most other bands who continue with the same formula of success, the same who do not push the envelope and ride on a myriad of mediocre rehashes of the same song that Top 40 stations can’t get enough of. This is why we love them in the first place though. Of course, it is still certainly fair to dislike the kind of music they have put out on The Resistance if it isn’t your thing, although there are a few songs that any Muse fan should love, and I think most people who dislike The Resistance are just being stubborn in that they want more of the old stuff. I think of the reviews/comments I’ve read, most have been positive from fans who did go in keeping an open mind, who judged it by itself and not against any of their other releases.

The first time I listened to the album, I was working and only had a headset with 1 ear covered. The second was in the car on the way home, the third was a little bit in the background while I was talking to a friend, and the fourth was hanging out with my headphones up full blast in my nice, comfortable Sumosac Sultan beanbag chair in the dark about an hour before bed. At the time of the fourth playing, I was slightly… inebriated… OK fine, I was stoned, and I wanted to get the full experience of the music and only focus on that without any other distractions. I think this was incredibly useful in deciding my opinion. Of course most things are cooler when you aren’t sober, but now that I can identify all the neat things happening in the songs after having listened to it with a much higher volume going right into my ears, I picked up on so much that I missed that make all the songs exceptional.

Simply put, I think The Resistance is fucking brilliant. It is definitely ahead of it’s time, so much so that even with all the mainstream support Muse is currently getting, I don’t know how many people will truly grasp how amazing this album is. I read on Twitter someone quoted their brother once they heard it: “Music in it’s purest form. Surrealism. This is a religious experience.” I’d have to agree. The Resistance is epic, as was Black Holes and Revelations, but not because the music is “bigger” than you as with BHaR, but rather because of how beautiful it all is as a whole album and the story it tells.

Speaking of which, I think moreso than any other album of theirs, this is one to be listened to in order from start to finish. Although I might have changed the United States of Eurasia with Uprising in the track list, it still works.

If I could even begin to try to explain the overall feel, it’d have to start with Matt Bellamy himself talking about how he had recently re-read 1984 by George Orwell and focused more on the love story between Winston and Julia as he was reading it. Although I’m just getting into 1984 myself, I do know the story. I think if you took 1984‘s dystopian setting, put it in a modern context within a musical on Broadway, and asked Muse to write all the songs, the end result would be The Resistance. With that said, I’m going to break it down by track:

1. Uprising – While not the strongest song on the album by any means, I think it follows along with the whole “1984 as a musical” image I have in my mind as the big opening number with how Matt shouts the chorus. In the end, you still have to have a few good songs that are not completely experimental. Uprising is very basic as far as the composition of the songs goes (Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus), but it is still a fun song that can stand on it’s own as a single (whereas I feel many others have to be taken in context, and cannot do the same). You could put this on at a club and it’d be great to dance to, especially because of the bass line that runs throughout, similar to Hysteria. I heard Chris Wolstenholme, the bassist, talk about this during the BBC interview that Zane Lowe did, in that you have to focus on not just making great rock songs, but making some of those songs have certain necessary qualities like the ability to loop the beginning for a radio DJ to talk over before the song kicks in. This is probably the song most similar to anything you’d find on BHaR, with the same kind of feel musically as Starlight and Supermassive Black Hole, even if the lyrics are talking about different things.

2. Resistance – The 30 second iTunes preview clips probably did this song the least justice. I remember reading how so many people weren’t really interested in the song at all. Matt has explained in an interview this song focuses on the love story of Winston and Julia from 1984. This song is so emotional and powerful that it is hard to put into perspective. I hate to cop out on such an amazing song, but everything I’ve considered writing about it simply doesn’t do this great song justice. Every review I’ve read seems to just talk about how great it is or certain aspects of the songs like the ethereal music in the background or the soaring vocals as Matt sings “Love is our resistance!” yet none can really describe the weird, desperate feeling you get listening to it. It’s like a mix of despair, hope, fear, anger, and love all in one. I suppose if you were afraid for your life with the one you love, running from the thought police, those would be the feelings you’d have, and they are all expressed perfectly by the song. I can’t even imagine how awesome this would be live.

3. Undisclosed Desires – From the beginning, it seems everyone agreed this sounded like an homage to Depeche Mode. That doesn’t take anything away from the song, it’s an amazing song. A lot of people talk about how it sounds like Timabaland had a hand in producing it, and it does have that sound. I think it does a great job trying to take the feelings from songs like Invincible and Endlessly, and throwing them into a completely new musical sound. This song “feels” just like Enjoy the Silence, which just happened to be my favorite Depeche Mode song anyway, but Undisclosed Desires is far better.

4. United States of Eurasia + Collateral Damage – This song didn’t make nearly as much sense until I heard it on the album along with the other songs. When put in context to the musical style and sound of the album, it really clicks about how this is actually a rather remarkable song. I want to point out another quote by Matt, paraphrased, in which he talked about how although the songs have meaningful lyrics and are taken seriously, it is still kind of humorous when you think about how he shouts out “There can be only one!” by itself. USoE is a very good song, a beautiful homage to Queen, and one of the songs that most strongly reinforces the idea that this is a “musical” in my mind. I can easily see a cast of characters singing this on a stage.

I need to talk about Collateral Damage separately, as it really puts a lot of the album in context. Hearing little kids play to the sound of only Matt playing the piano before having jets blasting overhead really sets the spooky dystopian, Orwellian image that he is trying to get across in your head. I really think a lot of this album was about creating visuals and feelings for the listener (much in the same way that they wanted you to envision horses galloping with the percussion from Knights of Cydonia).

5. Guiding Light – This is the cheesy, over-romanticized song of the “musical.” It’s like All I Ask of You from “Phantom of the Opera” done by Muse who happen to be trying to revive the 80s in the process apparently. Yet, it just works so well. The emotion comes through due to Bellamy’s incredible voice, and it does a great job of setting up the second “half” of the album where you know this is the last bit of peace and calm with the one you love before all hell breaks loose like in a “3rd act.”

6. Unnatural Selection – Every Muse fan should be able to appreciate this song. If you’ve seen “Phantom of the Opera,” it is hard not to remember it when listening to the organ at the beginning. It goes back to their roots, combining elements from New Born with a few other songs (New Born was the first thing that stuck out in my mind, apparently other reviewers had the same feeling from what I read). It then breaks down into this great electronic mid-section evocative of the blues, with Dom doing some nice jazz drumming. In the end though, it is still the powerful vocals and rage that get your heart racing. You can practically imagine Matt screaming “I want the truth! I want the truth!” on a podium to a bunch of members of a rebellion about to storm the gates of a palace. I don’t see how any Muse fan could not like this song.

7. MK Ultra – This is The Resistance‘s version of Assassin, although unlike Assassin this song does break down a little bit at the parts where Matt is singing “They’re breaking through.” It doesn’t take away from the intensity and craziness at all, and if Unnatural Selection is the background music of a rally, then MK Ultra is them coming back after the rebellion and looking for some vengeance for the destruction caused. Similar to many songs by Muse though, there are certainly multiple meanings for everyone. This song seems like it could be sung from the other side as well, as far as the rebellion ‘winning’ and they are the ones breaking through the last door to kill the King. An even better explanation could be the fact that MK Ultra was a project where the US government used drugs for mind control and interrogation purposes. The lyrics certainly align with what MK Ultra (the real life government project, not the song) was all about, and it could be evoking that the ‘leader’ was caught and now the government is doing these tests. Again though, this entire idea of these songs playing in succession as if they are telling a story from beginning to end might be all in my head too, but that is kind of the beauty of songs by Muse and how vague they generally are.

8. I Belong To You + Mon Cœur S’ouvre à ta Voix – This song is really neat. I like how down and dirty it gets, and it reminds me of Zanzibar by Billy Joel (in fact I bet listening to them in a row would be really neat). It jumps around like Scenes from an Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel as well, and being a big Billy Joel fan as well as a fan of both songs, I love this one. A lot of people also have mentioned it sounds like a Maroon 5 song, and that is a great comparison as well. It seems kind of out of place, and almost like it doesn’t stand up after you just heard Unnatural Selection and MK Ultra, but I think it is fitting. I also want to say before I go any further that this is such a mixed up song, yet all the pieces come together great, especially the bass clarinet (which initially I thought was an oboe or soprano sax). The song evokes the image of being at a party in a speakeasy (the bass clarinet fuels that feeling), as if different things are going on around the room (again, the same idea you get from Scenes from an Italian Restaurant), with the overall theme being Matt being cheerful as he sings while still being serious about his love for his companion.

To go along with my theme that the CD is telling a story, and given that I had three different interpretations for MK Ultra, then I need to provide three for I Belong To You. I will have to be honest with the first as I stole it from Dan Fry’s review on muse.mu. In this, assuming they are “coming after the Rebellion,” then this is the last hurrah before everything comes crashing down. I don’t necessarily agree with this, since I think the album ends on a lighter note (especially with how I feel about the Exogenesis Symphony and that by the end of the album, the rebellion or “resistance” has won), so I am more inclined to think that it is the victory party. The rebellion has won, everyone is around passing drinks, and it is the celebration of what is to come. The final conclusion would tie in more with the literal meaning of the title and lyrics to MK Ultra, and the creepiness you get from the flow of the song kind of feels like you are tripping on acid and everything is wacky and distorted, so this song “could” be the trip the guy is going through while still trying to hold onto the thoughts of his lover.

9. Exogenesis Symphony Part 1, Overture – Right from the start, I have to say the entirety of the Exogenesis Symphony is musical genius. Part 1, Overture, is hands down the best part in my opinion, and while I would argue that the parts of the symphony should be listened to in a row together, I have to say I can understand the people who have just part 1 on repeat and will probably wind up doing it myself a few times. Exogenesis, if you look it up on Wikipedia, relates to life being transferred to Earth from elsewhere in the universe. I can’t even get into all the different meanings behind this song as a whole. I think it’s fair to say this is the “Oh shit” moment when the gravity of a situation is apparent, no matter what you think the meaning is behind the song. I get visions of things from outer space, whether they are comets, aliens, or whatever else, falling through our atmosphere, with people on the ground looking up at the violent display with the same awe as the guy on the cover of Absolution.

10. Exogenesis Symphony Part 2, Cross Pollination – This is the “Ok, now is the time for action” moment. The classical piano is beautiful, before Matt finally kicks in with his desperate pleas that the hero of the universe must now rise up, even if it is along the lines of a suicide mission, for the good of everyone that the times will need to change.

11. Exogenesis Symphony Part 3, Redemption – The gorgeous, angelic finale that all the pain and suffering is over, that we can finally have peace, with the end of the song discussing that from here on out we have to do it right this time around.

You can draw completely different conclusions about the symphony as a whole based on just the rest of the album, the symphony alone by itself, the titles, or the lyrics of the songs. I think overall though, most would agree with the feeling that everything is new now, it’s a massive challenge that we need to step up and change everything and start over, hopefully doing it right this time for the good of all mankind.

And at this point, after listening to the entire album, you just feel worn out emotionally and physically from the roller coaster of emotion, especially due to how huge the symphony is. The Resistance is a masterpiece for it’s time. In the way that many Muse fans feel Origin of Symmetry was groundbreaking and changed everything when it was released, it is hard not to think the same way about The Resistance. Simply amazing.

A retraction and more

A month ago I ripped into Logitech because of a few reasons, one being that I thought my mousewheel was broken. Turns out I hit the button on the bottom that takes away the resistance so you can do ‘infinite’ scrolling. This was useful once for one blog I read, where the comments section has 25 comments at a time and only “Next” and “Previous” on the bottom of the pages to navigate. Luckily, once I hit the second page, if I just type ’99′ in the URL where it has the page number, it jumps to the last page with comments, and thus I reverted my mouse back. This however does not change the cord still being frayed after I had to cut the fabric loose when it was kinking up the cord, and also the clear plastic grip that is over the mouse is still peeling away like someone who has had sunburn for a few days. It doesn’t change my opinion of this crappy mouse, but I’m at least not fully done with Logitech devices now I guess.

So lately I have been doing a whole lot of nothing. I purchased Guitar Hero World Tour last weekend with the full band kit and have been going through that on drums now. During the week I had to leave it here as my wife’s nieces are visiting from New Jersey for a month and they wanted to play, though I may bring that to play a night or two this week. I also brought Fable II which did not impress me for the first hour or so that I played, though I haven’t had much time to play since again I didn’t have the 360 with me during the week.

I have reached obsession level listening to “MUSE” lately. I don’t think I’ve played anything besides their songs for over a month, and heavy rotation for at least 3 now. I’m like a giddy 14-year-old Jonas Brothers fan waiting in anticipation of their new CD coming out in September. They are opening for U2 in October here in Houston, I’m considering going just to watch them play an hour and leave.

I have been trying to read more lately. Currently in the middle of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. After getting through only about 5 chapters, it already has made me think about commercials in a new way.

A few quick comments about current events:

• Obama’s remarks about Officer Crowley “acting stupidly” were completely out line, especially when he “didn’t have all the facts.” Officer Crowley was completely in the right. Gates was trying to act tough to “the man” and got burned. He is lucky he wasn’t charged with a few more crimes for not giving his ID over at first as well as resisting arrest, according to the police report.
• Obama’s health care reform is a joke. We need a single payment system completely run by the government and nothing less. Health care should not be profitable for rich investors in insurance companies. These are peoples’ lives, not to mention that our system is inefficient, wasteful, costs people more money, they are not diagnosed as fast, and people wind up paying more in the end compared to other countries with real state-run health care systems like Canada and England. This is a no-brainer, Americans are too greedy if they are rich and stupid if they are poor to keep more of our necessary industries out of government control. Quite honestly, we let the idea of capitalism run too far, and at this point I support Obama’s “socialist” ideas simply because America has proven it is too stupid to run itself without the government having a great amount of control.
• Get upset that I’m OK with a lot of the socialist reforms? Then read this. Yeah, a man told a senator to keep the government’s hands off his Medicare. The problem is, this isn’t an isolated incident: Simply put, most Americans are too stupid. It isn’t necessarily their fault either. Our society encourages this kind of idiocy. We make Paris Hilton a star just because she is rich and dumb, and little girls look up to her and emulate her by saying the same things and wanting to spend hundreds on clothes and purses.
• None of this really matters anyway, because the Republicans and Democrats are at ends so much that nothing is getting done anyway, just so one side can prove they are right rather than actually let a law pass that might help Americans.

psych starts again on Friday! I’ll finally have something to look forward to watching again. Hell’s Kitchen already started, and is really the only prime time TV I watch. I’m still addicted to HGTV. David Bromstad from Color Splash has some awesome ideas.

Sadly, this is the best I could do to talk about things going on in my life right now.