November 1st 2001 – De Montfort Hall
Supported by: Hundred Reasons
After a phenomenal performance as part of the MTV Introducing concert at Shepherd Bush in 2000, this would be my first chance to see Muse on home ground.
Hundred Reasons
You don’t get many bands from Aldershot (in fact I don’t know another one!), so worth a listen if one comes along. I never really understood what “emo” was as a music genre, but apparently these were in there. It’s sort of emotional intelligent rock, I think?
Anyway, Hundred Reasons opened tonight not long after releasing their debut album “Ideas Above Our Station” which was quite a shouty but somewhat melodic rock album.
The music was ok and came across well live with swirling guitars and good vocals. I would buy the album, but it didn’t really catch on for me to follow them.
Set List
- If I Could
- Answers
- Dissolve
- Shine
- Remmus
- I’ll Find You
- Falter
- Soapbox Rally
- Drowning
- Gone Too Far
Muse
The main act, lots of smoke and a really nice looking battleship grey and white stage. Muse now had two big hit albums under their belts, “Showbiz” and “Origin of Symmetry”, so a great time to see them in a small venue with their full catalogue.
The first two albums are arguably the best, just because you can see the progress from a raw, but edgy guitar band to a cleaner cut edge to the music. Even now, you could see the chance for them to morph into a huge stage show and stadia band was on the cards. This was a big deal concert for Leicester and a great buzz around the venue.
They come on to background music of Tom Waits’ poem/song – What’s He Building?, a really atmospheric sound and builds the atmosphere.
Then – straight into Dead Stars and the first of many pogo’s this evening. This is going to be a hot and sweaty one!! we had sitting tickets…..but that doesn’t mean you can’t cheekily sneak down to the ground floor does it? 😉
By the time Citizen Erased was in progress, we were soaked! I’m fairly sure it was during this song and after some twiddly guitar from Matt, that balloons were released from the ceiling, Matt thrust his guitar into one of them and the lights came on to reveal the bright grey/white stage and red confetti from the balloon….we went a bit mad as Matt Bellamy casually played guitar and moonwalked across the stage!!
This was an epic show with the songs being played at full pace, it wasn’t until half way through the set we felt time for a sit down!…before coming back for the later big hits! of course!
Set List
- Dead Star
- Micro Cuts
- Citizen Erased
- Sunburn
- Showbiz
- Megalomania
- Darkshines
- Uno
- Screenager
- Space Dementia
- Muscle Museum
- In Your World
- New Born
- Cave
- Hyper Music
- Plug In Baby
- Encore: Feeling Good, Bliss
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