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Muse rips through Paramount Theatre with explosive performance

Muse rips through Paramount Theatre with explosive performance
by Albert Rodriguez - SGN A&E Writer Muse October 4 @ Paramount Theatre It wasn't a rock concert. It was a rock experience. British industrial-electro trio Muse blasted the Paramount Theatre a week ago with a brilliant, two-hour showing that more than exceeded the expectations of a sold out audience. The band, a 2006 nominee for the UK's prestigious Mercury Music Prize, opened the concert with "Take a Bow", the leadoff track from their newest release Black Holes and Revelations, backed by four curtain-length screens and three gigantic coils that displayed a colorful light show, a staple at any Muse performance. The threesome followed with two stimulating numbers from 2004's Absolution album, "Hysteria" and "Butterflies & Hurricanes". The crowd was thrilled, to say the least, and many concertgoers raised their fists in the air while others bounced up and down jubilantly. "Starlight" and a marvelous rendition of "Map of the Problematique" were thrown early onto Muse's set list, as was the addition of three older group favorites, "New Born", "Bliss" and "Muscle Museum". For "Forced In", supporting act The Like intro'd the song by dressing in alien costumes and surfing the crowd in an inflatable raft. Lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Matthew Bellamy looked mouthwatering in jeans, tight T-shirt and his usual spiky black hair, and his vocals were raw and eerily beautiful, as on the edgy ballad "Invincible" and on the pulsating entry "Time is Running Out". Chris Wolstenholme jammed on bass guitar and drummer Dominic Howard pounded so heavily on his percussion set that I almost got a headache watching him, especially on the sizzling "Stockholm Syndrome". The Paramount Theatre was a huge upgrade from Neumo's, the site of Muse's previous in-city appearance two years ago. In between these shows, the three-piece played at White River Amphitheatre as part of radio station 107.7's "EndFest" festival. Beforehand, I wondered whether the band's booming sound would get lost in a bigger venue, but any doubts or worries were put aside minutes into the performance. The sound was startling; at times it felt as if I was at some kind of rock opera combined with a flashy laser light show - a fantastic audio and visual effort. For an encore, Muse saved the best for last. "Apocalypse Please" was dramatic and anthemic, a sweet hybrid of swirling keyboards, driving guitars and unrelenting drums, and the stage illuminated like a Fourth of July fireworks display. "Feeling Good" was chilling, and the night's final song "Knights of Cydonia", the first released single from the new album, was peculiarly riveting. Muse just kept going and going until the final chord was strummed. An unbeatable finish to an unbeatable performance! And for me, it meant a next-day trip to the massage therapist to get the kinks out of my neck and back from overdoing it at this show. Muse elevated to fame a few years back, resulting from the success of fellow British groups Radiohead and Coldplay. Their music contains much of the trance-like qualities of those two bands, but they have more of an industrial, near metal sound. The Paramount Theatre concert sold out weeks in advance, and single tickets on the Internet down the homestretch were going for as much as $130 on the main floor.