F1 concerts

Iconic riffs, campy outfits

Muse's frontman Matt Bellamy displayed deft fingerwork on the guitar.
Muse's frontman Matt Bellamy displayed deft fingerwork on the guitar. ST PHOTO: TIMOTHY DAVID

British rock trio Muse are known for spectacular live shows and their cinematic space opera made landfall at the Padang Stage - complete with campy outfits, dancers and visuals.

Frontman and guitarist Matt Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard opened with their newer numbers - Pressure and Break It To Me - all off last year's album Simulation Theory.

Bellamy led the charge, donning an ensemble of LED glasses, a lit-up LED bomber jacket and a robotic "power glove" - like his very own Thanos-style Infinity Gauntlet, which he used to command the crowd from atop his stage perch.

But it was clear that the crowd of 50,000 was there for Muse classics like Supermassive Black Hole and Uprising. The glove came in handy for conducting the crowd during the rousing Starlight, one of the several singalongs during the tight 90-minute set.

The trio had plenty to draw from in their catalogue spanning 25 years, with instantly recognisable, iconic riffs - whether it was the squealing guitar introduction of Plug In Baby or the thumping bass line of Hysteria.

The screens on the sides of the stage provided plenty of close-ups of Bellamy's deft fingerwork on the guitar. Though his voice seemed to be overly processed, possibly to fit in with the retro-futuristic theme of the show, his soaring vocal range was undeniable, especially on tracks like Madness and Mercy.

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On the latter, he walked out on the gangway that extended into the crowd, falling to his knees in dramatic fashion as he belted out the chorus of "show me mercy, from the powers that be".

But sometimes the concert veered into cheesy territory, especially when distracting dancers joined them on stage. The three-man rock band are not known for having dancers and their inclusion seemed superfluous, such as when performers in hazmat suits started writhing on the floor for the tail end of Break It To Me.

The band ended the show rather abruptly with Knights Of Cydonia and did not play their classic tracks like Stockholm Syndrome and New Born, which were included in full-length versions of their current Simulation Theory tour.

But hopefully the band, who have performed in Singapore several times before, will return with a full-length show.

In any case, drummer Howard had promised the crowd, saying: "We love you guys, we'll come back for sure".

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 23, 2019, with the headline Iconic riffs, campy outfits. Subscribe