"The M-Team: Poison-Tooth, Hollywood and The Pipe"

Tinni-Merchandise, first draft

The idea derives from the legendary 'Rumpfkluft' by Max Goldt. This one is kind of the inspiration...



...for this:

The road to Wembley step 8: the tickets are here!

YAY!!!!!

The Road to Wembley, step 7: We belong to you

The Hamburg concert changed something for sure. I consulted the notes I took on the train ride back home for proof:
[October 29th, 2009]
“The i-pod plays Muse, almost like an omen. It was a blast, with Bellamy off limits. That is farther off limits than usual. Looking through the pictures I took yesterday, I still cannot believe it. Because what happened was: unbelievable. More like a musical or an opera than a rock concert.


[had i known what was expecting me, i would've downed my cider in one go!]

The stage: three pillars with cages in the middle in which Matty and the boys stood. The cape is the new trend accessory for the cosmopolitan singer. With fringes! Along with pink satin pants, silvery glitter shoes and greenish sparkling sunglasses. Premium style, dude!
And he might have actually had a clown for breakfast, that Bellamy. I mean: he talks. Several times. Hello!? When did that happen for the last time?
Besides that: hit after hit. Every instrument in every song: sang along to it. The new stuff is received not so well and through ‘Undisclosed Desires’ it feels like Marion and I are the only ones dancing. But there’s guy-love in the row behind us. 4 dudes, close to tears, arm in arm, shouting ‘Thanks Matthew’ after every song.
Matty happens.
Muse: no words, only visual and acoustic lunacy. Precision machines they are. But I have to admit that this perfection leaves me a bit at a loss. The show lacks emotion. The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, still under construction, would have been the perfect venue, with its sharp and cold architecture, placed on the top of a skyscraper overlooking the harbour - as close to the stars as possible. Not to mention the symphony factor.
At some point I have to get rid of my ear plugs in order to enjoy the sound in its full scale. Here too everything is designed perfectly. No unsurpassable walls of sound, rather a sound gown – or cape! – you’re wrapped into.
I look down at the crowd and all the raised fists and catch myself thinking: Rage against the Machine meets Rachmaninov is what this is. Agitation meets classical music. And Matty is dancing with himself. His fingers caress the piano keys and torture the guitar strings. He gniedels (there is no appropriate English word, I’m sorry) one orgiastic solo after the other. Let alone the effect stage. Matty is off limits vocally, too.


[having no Bellamy-ish fashion items around to focus her attention on, marion turns to coffee]

Marion says that the stuff Muse produced on the last two records will in 10 to 20 years time have the status Queen songs have nowadays. I agree. These songs will be modern classics. Maybe they are already. I’ve always hated the word rock-opera. But I can hardly think of any more appropriate label for this evening.”

Hamburg, October 28, 2009: Almost there

At the beginning of a long, harsh and dark winter that already showed its shadows in late October 2009, Muse's The Resistance Tour stopped in Hamburg, my new hometown - and Muse once again enlightened our lifes. 

But to be honest, Esther and I had not even a glimpse of an idea what to expect. At that time, we had listened to Muse’s new album several times. We liked what we heart, and definitely recognised what Muse once called „the Monty Python aspect in our music“, something very familiar to the Rodgau Casi Kingz. And that symphony of course, three parts that blew us away from the start. But we actually had no idea whats going on with Muse at that moment: being at the climax of their musical development, maybe. A double sold out Wembley Stadium triumph in 2007 and two fabulous Teignmouth homecoming shows on their “done” list. The “Resistance” treasure hunt – heard of, that’s it. The board? Well… I need to admit at that point that Esther almost had to talk me in to going to that gig. I thought: “I’ve already seen them three times, that’s enough.” Finally, I gave in and Esther came all the way to Hamburg for the concert (she actually met a Muser guy on her train and had a chat with him – signs, hello?!). For us, it was the best decision ever made – until our Wembley plans.

We started the evening with a fenomenal dinner at Kumpir cellar, with baked and filled potatoes at a digital bonfire in a trashy location worth a food coma experience. We left late, because we actually weren’t able to move for a pretty long time. But the Color Line Arena where Muse played that night fortunately was just a 15 minutes trainride away, so we were in no hurry. And we just came in time – we just sat down (yes, we’re getting old – we prefer to SIT THE FUCK DOWN) and Muse started to play. Well, playing is not the right word. They just made the whole arena EXPLODE. They were standing on these three towers, Matt in his hilarious pink throusers, the LED shades on his nose, with silver glittery shoes, wearing A CAPE. A couple of rows behind us, a group of young leds embraced each other and sang along every single verse. Pure happyness. I remember that I grinned all the time. And danced (standing, not sitting). And that I still wasn’t that familiar with the “older” Muse songs (in opposite to Esther, who sang along all of them) – I knew them, but I couldn’t say on which album they were. I was such a fail.

I’m not sure what happened that night, it was one of those concerts that make you feel like being part of something huge, but you couldn't explain why. You just remember the feeling, but not every detail. An EXPERIENCE, not only a gig. 

It needed a while until we were able to leave the venue. We sat in the food corner, drinking something and watching the crowd leaving. We laughed about two girls on extrem high heels that obviously weren’t able to walk with them, passing in the direction of the VIP area and returning unsuccessfully some minutes later. Well, even that: we didn’t got it at that point. I think I wouldn’t be able to say what Dom’s an Chris’ family names was at that point (once again, Esther surely knew, because she’s a genius at things like that – and I’m definitely not). But honestly: why should a guy be attractive that is wearing pink throusers and a CAPE – not only in public, but at an arena show, in front of 8,000 people (besides his musical genius, of course)?

There came a time we knew the answer, immediately. A time when we became Musers.

Set list

1. Uprising
2. Resistance
3. New Born
4. Map of the Problematique
5. Supermassive Black Hole
6. Guiding Light
7. Interlude + Hysteria
8. United States of Eurasia
9. Cave (with Butterflies & Hurricanes interlude)
10. Helsinki Jam + Undisclosed Desires
11. Starlight
12. Plug In Baby
13. Time Is Running Out
14. Unnatural Selection

Encore

15. Exogenesis: Symphony Part I (Overture)
16. Stockholm Syndrome + War Within a Breath riff + riff
17. Man with a Harmonica intro + Knights of Cydonia

The Road to Wembley, step 6: The Persistence

Released in Germany on September 11th, 2009 (exactly one year before Wembley – destiny, hellooooo…!), it wasn’t necessarily love at first tune with ‘The Resistance’. Well, except for ‘Undisclosed Desires’ of course. I noted the following into my diary: the new Muse record really is a symphony. I mean, I don’t listen to classical music usually, but since this IS classical music I might as well buy me some Mozart and stuff. I especially dig one song [didn’t we all?], ‘Undisclosed Desires’. And over the months we grew fonder of the rest of it as well.



While we thought that this might finally be the record with which Muse had risked too much and had gone over the top, so that no one would be able to relate to it anymore it was in fact the opposite. Who would’ve thought that a record with a feckin’ symphony on it would finally mark the breakthrough for the band in the States (with a little help from something called Twilight)?
For us the three year gap between 2006 and 2009 was filled with a good amount of…well, life, I guess. I went to study in Ireland, Marion graduated from university and moved to Hamburg, Muse toured their asses off. The band didn’t have that big of an impact on our lives during this period - up until last year. Somehow, resistance seems to have been an album title symptomatically describing what was about to happen with us and this band. For what other than a resistance of everything deemed to be adult behaviour is it to go nuts over a music group at the puppy-ish age of 26 going on 27?
Slowly something emerged from the depths of the music: Muse came to stay with us. This one was to last. Love is our resistance. What more is there left to say? Except for: Muse is our persistence.

Three years in music:


2007
Era Vulgaris – Queens of the Stone Age - In Rainbows – Radiohead - Mothership – Led Zeppelin - Year Zero – Nine Inch Nails
(I’ll be honest: apart from the constant inspiration Trent Reznor always has been and still is, and the nausea caused by the fact that I couldn’t attend the Led Zeppelin reunion gig: there wasn’t much to last from 2007’s music releases)





2008
H.A.A.R.P – Muse - Only by the Night – Kings of Leon - I’m a Celebrity – Right Said Fred - Heart On – Eagles of Death Metal



2009
Under the Radar Over the Top – Scooter - Cosmic Egg – Wolfmother - Only Revolutions – Biffy Clyro - Dto. – Them Crooked Vultures

Dominic Howard's Yellow Pants...

...do suit me pretty well, too. Only 39 days to go until Wembley. YAY!