I spent the long weekend by driving out from Omaha to St. Louis, Missouri to catch the second night of Muse’s US leg of the tour for their most recent album, The Wow! Signal. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of that album title, but considered its songs to be a slight step above their last album, 2022’s Will of the People. Still, I was willing to make the six-hour drive clear across the state of Missouri to see them, since their live shows never disappoint and add much needed pizazz to songs that come off lackluster on the record. Despite the heat, there was a healthy amount of rainfall during the day, causing me to brace for another wet concert. Fortunately, the clouds cleared by showtime, and the floor section of the amphitheater was protected by an overhead canopy that would have kept us dry.
This outdoor venue had to be the smallest I’d ever watched a Muse show in, having seen them a total of six times now, with the majority of those five shows taking place at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum. Despite it apparently having a 20,000-person capacity, the turnout for this show felt significantly more intimate in numbers than that. This was also the closest I’ve ever been seated at a Muse show, me being merely seven rows from the small standing-only pit at the very front of the stage. That presented the perfect opportunity for me to fixate on things I wasn’t close enough to see in the past. I had an aisle seat on the right side of the center orchestra section, where bass player Chris Wolstenholme primarily stands. Having a better look at the gear the band use to obtain their unique sounds made this concert experience stand out from the other times I’ve seen them. From knobs to touch screen controllers, to a killer bass cam, there’s never a shortage of eye-catching moments at a Muse concert. I also made sure to get a few shots of frontman Matt Bellamy and drummer Dominic Howard.
They took the stage about ten minutes after 9PM, and jammed out an over two-hour setlist that covered their best known songs from every album. Despite this being a tour to promote The Wow! Signal, I was surprised that they only played four tracks from that ten-track album, with half the set emphasizing albums like 2007’s Black Holes and Revelations and the other pre-2010s records. Covering a nuanced setlist gives listeners some great perspective on how much the Muse sound has varied over the years, to a degree where Muse have made their rounds in the prog community and been christened a prog group. With them covering numerous musical styles like metal, rock, and even classical, I’m inclined to think that they meet the criteria to be considered as such.
Muse are known for their elaborate live shows, but I found the production for this show to be considerably smaller, with a stronger focus on the band themselves, and the only real projections coming from small rectangular cuboids extending down from the ceiling of the stage. It went to show that they definitely don’t require giant inflatable monsters or lasers to keep their audience engaged.
I will wrap up this entry with a screenshot I snagged off my dashcam of a hidden 2112 I encountered on the drive home! See it?
The Girl in the Scarf 
Leave a comment