New Muse

Muse – you really do love them or hate them, don’t you? I’ve rarely met anyone who is merely lukewarm or indifferent to Matt Bellamy and his crew. It seems the band’s special brand of bombastic, over-the-top rock spectacle isn’t for everyone, but I absolutely eat it up. It’s so far out there, so ridiculously overblown that I simply can’t resist the theatricality of it all. It’s the musical version of a theater actor on a television show. They over enunciate everything, turn their heads slightly away from the person they’re speaking to (as they’re accustomed to performing to a live audience) and overstate every emotional change. Everything in theatre is larger-than-life, and it’s clear Muse were born for the theatre. Maybe they should have been playing in the 70s, when bands descended to the stage from spaceships or giant coffins.

Instead, they’re stuck here in the aughts in the musical equivalent of television with the rest of us, and always seems slightly out of step with their contemporaries. Good on them, I say. Who wants to listen to 15 million Franz Ferdinand imitators? I suppose you could say they’ve unintentionally (along with Robert Smith) spawned trash like Panic At The Disco, but we can’t hold everyone responsible what comes after them, can we?

The boys are back with their first new material since 2006. New album The Resistance is out September 15th, and the first single – ‘Uprising’ – is out now on iTunes. I’d describe it but I don’t really need to at this point, do I? They’ll be playing some US dates to pump up interest in the new album, focusing primarily on the east coast and midwest. Hopefully some west coast dates will be announced shortly!

Muse – Knights of Cydonia (LIVE @ Wembley Stadium)

TOUR DATES:
September
24- New York, NY- Giants Stadium
25- New York, NY- Giants Stadium
29- Washington, DC- FedEx Field

October
01- Charlottesville, VA- Scott Stadium
03- Raleigh, NC- Carter-Finley Stadium
06- Atlanta, GA- Georgia Dome
09- Tampa, FL- Raymond James Stadium
12- Dallas, TX- New Cowboys Stadium
14- Houston, TX- Reliant Stadium @ Reliant Park

Tags: muse