Music DVD: Muse :: Wessex Scene Online

Music DVD: Muse

9th February 2006
Stephen Thompson

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Absolution Tour - After building up an unquestionable reputation as one of the best live bands on the circuit, Muse have decided to release this live DVD so their devoted fans can have the pleasure of enjoying the best bits of the 18 month long Absolution tour from the comfort of their own living rooms. They played to over 1.4 million people on this extensive tour.

As if critical acclaim was not enough, this statistic alone proves their popularity. With blinding light displays and an array of effects, including their front man Matt Bellamy balancing a guitar on his head, this footage really encapsulates what the live Muse shows are all about.

The bulk of the footage was shot when they historically played the Pyramid Stage, at Glastonbury 2004. Bellamy is captured looking like a mad professor, sporting what appears to be a white lab coat. During this performance the music is as intense and passionate as ever.

The flags fluttering in the Somerset breeze complement the strobe lighting, which sporadically illuminate the joyful crowd. If you think you could not stomach a festival for a whole weekend, this is the closest you will ever get to the action, without having to wash with baby wipes and eat out of tins for a few days. You can nearly smell the excitement, as the crowd jump along in time to all their favourite Muse hits.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think their best songs were from their debut LP, Showbiz. ‘Muscle Museum’ and ‘Sunburn’ still make the hairs on my neck stand up. More recent tracks such as ‘Hysteria’ and ‘Time is Running Out’ are very good, but nothing compared to earlier material. The best performance and a number that really gets the crowd bouncing is ‘Plug in Baby’. The extras on this sensational DVD are also well worth a look. They include previously unreleased footage from gigs in Los Angeles, Cincinnati and London. The icing on the cake is strangely enough the excellent interactive title screens. Usually I think these are just a waste of time, but the boys from Muse obviously put a lot of effort in to designing them, as their quality really shows. This is a highly impressive package in general, capturing the brilliant but quirky sound that only Muse can make, as well as some of the magic from their renowned live performances.