The Road to Wembley, Step 5: Black Holes and Realizations

The six months in between our respective Muse adventures, from the very first encounters to the growing appreciation of ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ as one of the defining moments in music of the decade saw us separated and reunited. Marion went to Sweden and came back. And songs like ‘Starlight’ accompanied us on our various travels. Far away, this ship has taken me far away from the memories of the people who care if I live or die. But we were reunited and besides our growing fondness for the Teignmouth-three, the realization was that friendship might cross borders and abridge distances, yet it is best when one is close to the other.
Music wise, I recall the mad excitement of listening to the full-length record for the first time. I sat in my garden and had pen and paper ready for the revelations the title suggested - and couldn’t write anything down, because I was so sedated and seduced by the sheer awesomeness of it. Pure joy. A fat grin I couldn’t get rid of the whole day. A hand grenade of Rock, bullet-proof sound-walls, horses from outer space, inter-planetary and outer space moments – and it kicked ass, too!
Apart from the cherished ‘Knights of Cydonia’ and the sexiness of ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ one of my favourite tracks of the early phase of listening was ‘Assassin’, because it just killed you like a Kalashnikov. Bang Bang, you’re dead. I only discovered the beauty of ‘Starlight’ or ‘Invincible’ after several rounds of intensive listening. One of my favourites must be the inevitable ‘Map of the Problematique’, too.
Many of my friends who weren’t interested in Muse before fell for them with this record, and understandably so. How could they not? The fact that it is so completely off track from anything mainstream rock had to offer at that time only made it more genius – if that is possible. This record cemented Muse’s status. It put everything to a whole new level. And nothing was the same afterwards. It changed my perception of what music can be and how music can sound completely. Consulting my notes back from that very first listening session in my garden, I found this:



Take a Bow
sounds like a gambling machine; burn in hell, corruption, techno-beat, spacey, glam rock, sacral; ‚bow’ being distorted to a moan; in the end the instruments shriek themselves to the climax; a feedback as if they had smashed their instruments and left the stage without comment

Starlight
Clapping the snare-drum; you electrify my life, hopes and expectations rhymes with black holes and revelations; in the end there is only Bellamy’s voice left, begging ‘I just wanted to hold’ and ending abruptly

Supermassive Black Hole
sexy, falsetto, dark, industrial, stamping, sweaty; ‚you set my soul alight’, ‚melting’, Computer, ‚suck’, ‚you’re a supermassive black hole’: no idea how to interpret that – or too many. DIRTY.

Map of the Problematique
Kraftwerk, fragile keyboard in front of a wall of trance; fear, desperation, despair, swept away; catchy hookline; polyphonic; Placebo-ish break, hymnic chorus

Soldier’s Poem
Soft, quiet, acoustic, tea-dance; Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, only slower; no justice in the world, desparate lyrics; kitsch, cliché; a mild summer breeze smelling like refuse incineration; a 50s combo playing, I see smoking ties and Bellamy who lets these verbal handgrenades explode with a devoted look on his face; a thorn in the flesh of modern day’s amusement society

Invincible
Church musician shortly before mass is about to begin; little drummer boy, calm in the beginning; singing saw; together we’re invincible; bass and rhythm groove leisurely

Assassin
The start reminds me of Knight Rider, brachial, hardcore electro, System of a Down, lose control, once again you ask yourself: three guys? Really?

Exo-Politics
Drums are catchy: da-da-da-da-da-da-daa; spooky; will our leaders tell us why, I wait for the sign

City of Delusion
Acoustic guitar, happy music; voice and lyrics are the exact opposite; Mediterranean; Jack Johnson [sic!]; mushy synthesiser-sounds in the background; the electric guitar, brilliant ensemble playing; movie soundtrack, blockbuster, Batman, Spiderman or something; then acoustic again, trumpet, prairie, western, destroy this city of delusion, break these walls down

Hoodoo
Title reminds me of Star Wars, music of Andalusia, Mexico, Flamenco, Tango, heated aspahlt in the night, James Bond; Bellamy sings with a sleepy, seductive voice, I see myself in a run-down motel with him, a rumpled bed; why is this a crisis; piano, oh the piano; then things take off: instincts; strings, one can almost see the big gestures; ‘I’ve had recurring nightmares that I was loved for who I am and missed the opportunity to be a better man’ he whispers and sighs into my ear, his breath on my skin

Knights of Cydonia
Horse’s hooves on dusty ground; neighing; laser canons; disturbingly high pitches that I fear are produced by Bellamy; Pulp Fiction; the beat goes along with the clatter; mariachi; it takes two minutes until there is a voice recognizable; strong lyrics: no one’s gonna take me alive, the time has come to make things right, you and I must fight for our rights, you and I must fight to survive’; it takes off from there à la Led Zeppelin



…and that’s it. Other songs 2006 had to offer (but who would have wanted to listen to them anyways?):

I bet you look good on the dancefloor – Arctic Monkeys
She moves in her own way – The Kooks
Hard to beat – Hard-Fi
Meds – Placebo
You have killed me – Morrissey
Steady, as she goes – The Raconteurs
Joker&the thief – Wolfmother
Dani California – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Beating Heart Baby – Head Automatica
I don’t feel like dancing – Scissor Sisters
Sexy Back – Justin Timberlake
Rehab – Amy Winehouse

Muse-trippin' to Düsseldorf, December 2006

Short after our overwhelming Southside experience with Muse, I left to Sweden to study abroad. We'll, that's actually what I planned there. But the place I've been to turned out to be pretty boring so I started to travel around, just to do anything with my time. And I missed my friends. There's some point in life when you realize what's really important - I needed Sweden to recognize what it is for me: friendship. The analog, not the digital one. So I came back with the feeling that "together we're invincible", and we were.

friends need to be close to each other - sometimes.

On December 12, 2006 we went on a trip to Düsseldorf to see Muse again. Four girls, one car, lots of Lulz. Esther has been to a Morrissey gig in Frankfurt (where have I been?!), I've seen Tool in Mannheim (one of the favorite bands of my youth) the night before, so we've been in a pretty good mood. Pictures of the trip: some. Pictures of the show: none. Annoying people in the audience: a few. Setlist: supermassive. Balloons over the crowd: many. The production (with Dommeh on a UFO-like something): huge.

It's needless to point out that we waited for KoC the whole gig (being mocked by an older guy who prefered to sit and was angry because we were standing in front of him - well, we didn't SIT THE FUCK DOWN). We needed to wait until the last encore. And again Muse and especially that song amazed us. Esther noticed in her blog right after the gig that she would like to be Matt's guitar... Another step on our road to Wembley had been done.

German autobahn service area advertisements on the toilet (!!!): this one is for a chimney called "Wet"...

... and this chimney is calles "Uranus" - ehm, is that a fireplace conspiracy?!

Facial excitement after the show: boundless!

Setlist (yes, you may be jealous):

1. Map of the Problematique
2. Butterflies & Hurricanes
3. Supermassive Black Hole
4. New Born
5. Starlight
6. Forced In (instrumental)
7. Bliss (extended)
8. Feeling Good
9. Hoodoo
10. Invincible
11. Time Is Running Out
12. Plug In Baby
    Encore:
13. Sunburn (piano)
14. Hysteria
15. Stockholm Syndrome
16. Take a Bow
    Encore 2:
17. Knights of Cydonia

The Road to Wembley, step 4: A Southside Rendezvous, part deux

Our first face to face encounter with this band was a super massive initiation. It did set our souls alight; it was a closure as well as a beginning. As mentioned before, that was where the road to Wembley initially started. In June 2006, at Southside festival, with the first snippets of soon to be released ‘Black Holes and Revelations’. The first single ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ had been played a few times. It again sounded so different than anything anyone – including the band themselves – had ever produced. It was so unbelievably sexy and dirty – almost like a Justin Timberlake version of a Nine Inch Nails song. No wonder it appealed to us, with our recently discovered sympathy for the Pretty Hate Machine that is Trent Reznor. But this would supply enough material for yet another appreciation blog, so on we move to the concert that manifested itself as the commencement of all of this. Marion had won herself a place as a festival reporter at a contest. This gave her access to the backstage area as well. So, theoretically, she could have met the boys. But we’re not heading to Regretville right now. So shut it, Karma, it obviously wasn’t the time or the place (seriously, after two sweaty and dusty days, would you have wanted to approach Dom with a sunburnt face?) Anyways, our all girl travel group, with the RodgauCasiKingz completely in attendance and ready to fill in any vacant slot should someone not be able to make it was in good spirits.



We saw the fabulous Hives, amongst others. Honestly, there are not many other bands or performances to recall. All weekend long, they showed bits and pieces of the ‘Supermassive Black Hole‘video on the big screens next to the stages. You just couldn’t escape it. You didn’t want to escape it, either. It was feckin’ hot. It was Saturday, the 24th of June 2006, circa 10.30 pm. We stood on a heightened platform, when a young blonde boy approached us for a cigarette. His name was Tobias, but his friends called him Tobse. He was so innocent, with his angelic face and a festival virgin. His euphoria was contagious and made us feel like we were wise festival-Yodas advising the young Padawan. He wanted to know what to expect from the upcoming band he had never heard about. “Everything, dude!” And who they sounded like? “Erm…well, you know Tobse…Muse sound like…Muse.”



We never saw Tobse again. We like to think that he became a dedicated follower that night, thanks to our guidance. We ourselves were equally blown away. The notes taken from this event sound like we had had various epiphanies during these particular one and a half hours. From this legendary night, we both only remember two things vividly: the premiere of ‘Knights of Cydonia’ and the premiere of one good night of sleep, almost like a black out. Like both body and brain needed a time out. In the evening there were dark clouds on the horizon. We watched the equipment being carried on stage. The sky darkened. It smelled like rain. Could there be anything more suitable for this band than thunder and lightning? But the thunderstorm remained limited to the show. Muse: a force of nature; a storm, a tornado, a hurricane. Fragile Matt Bellamy overwhelmed you mightily. These three people sounded like an orchestra. The year before, Queens of the Stone Age were a wall. Muse were a wave. The guitar functioned as a light bulb, a singing saw, a beloved, a dancer. Bellamy: a virtuoso; his slender fingers caressing the instrument. At a certain point there is no more capacity to keep up. All there is to do is take in, soak in like a sponge. The performance left us speechless and breathless.
The first thing we did, when we came home, was pre-ordering ‘Black Holes and Revelations’.

countdown to insanity...

...only two feckin' months until w-w-w-wembley! YAY! Fear and panic in the air!

Exclusively revealed: the ROCK Tour Rider

Check out what a mega-succesful band demands when on the road...

Hospitality Rider ROdgauCasiKingz

The ROCK-Rider provides you with information about the artists’ essential needs and supplies in order to make the stay as convenient as possible for both crew and performers.

Again: the following things are essential for the band’s preparation and performance, they are NON-NEGOTIONABLE.

If something is missing, this will endanger the well-being of anyone responsible.

…nah, just kidding. Or maybe not?

1) Dressing Rooms

[3x] Ego Room/Private Room

Each band member needs one private room with a bathroom, bathtub (hot tub preferred) and/or shower.

Each room should contain: a lounge area (e.g. a bed, sofa, love chair to stretch out on), cushions, blanket.

Freshly washed towels. Big and small ones. Erm, and lots, please.

A selection of Body Shop beauty products (Mango flavour preferred).

Scented candles (anything food flavoured should do: cinnamon roll, chocolate – surprise us!)

Two of the three rooms should contain a package of cigarettes each, as well as ashtrays and lighters. In fact: make it two lighters per room minimum. Wait, the third one needs a lighter too for the candles. You know what: just put an ashtray and a lighter in each room.

Selection of various magazines. Surprise us. But an NME must be!

Full size mirror in each dressing room.

Selection of Victoria’s Secret underwear (call tour manager for sizes, colours, etc.)

Table, chair and mirror for our personal make-up artist Boris Entrup to do his job properly.

Something leathery.

Outside each room we need an empty birdcage. This is needed for non-verbal communication between band members.

NOTE: at no point should there be any bacon around, anywhere.

[1] Music Room/Rock Box/Lurch Box

This will be the main socializing area. So we need furniture to hang out on.

We need music (Anatolian Rock’n’Roll) and a proper stereo system, a DVD-player and DVD’s (Scooter preferred), and the Rock Band game.

Also, we need a Tuba app for symphony hero.

Various instruments are required for rehearsal: guitar, key-tar, xylophone, teapot, melodika, hang, tin whistle, rattlesnake, drumsticks/wooden spoon, vuvuzela. Don’t ask, just do. Creativity knows no boundary, that’s what we need to rock! ♫

Something leathery

And once again: NO BACON!

[1]Escalation Room

Needs to be moshpit proof.

MUST contain: Pen and paper. In fact: lots of pens and lots of paper!

A proper Hate area (provide sandbags)

An equally proper Brain-melting area

A De-materialisator

One conspiracy theorist minimum

Body Ticklers. Many.

Assorted Halloween/carnival costumes

Something leathery

A quibble.

At least one pitbull mops.

A sporting area including set-ups for aggro-dart and agrillard.

And (you’ve heard about this one): NO BACON!

[1]Cheese Room/trailer

Without cheese, this band wouldn’t exist. Without cheese, there will be no performance. Cheese is equally essential to us as oxygen. Therefore a separate room for it is needed. Where this cannot be provided, a cheese trailer will also be accepted. The selection of cheese should include (but is not limited to):

Cheddar (mature, Red Leicester preferred), Brie, Feta, Raclette and Fondue. All cheese needs to be digital. No analog cheese will be tolerated. Ask tour-manager for details.

STRICTLY NO BACON IN THE CHEESE ROOM

2) Foods and beverages

We will bring our own chef. He needs supplies. He will tell you about that in detail. But keep Jamie Oliver in mind. He essentially needs free running salt and oregano.

Plus: waffles, mackerel, potatoes (mashed, fried, cooked, roasted: they MUST be there), hummus, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, Mett, Pasta, Schmand, Kebap, spinach, Veschperplatte, cinnamon rolls, butter, Buttersupp, Türkenbüffet, Falafel, Paella, Kumpir-keller, Cookies

One George Foreman Grill minimum.

Numerous bottles of quality wine, colour doesn’t matter (Le Patron – der Gute is preffered; 1,5 litres for 2 Euros, ask your local gas station for further instructions),

Fresh pots erm, I mean: coffee, Zitronentee, Bulmers Pear Cider, Bulmers Apple Cider, Beer, Smoothies, S-C-H-naps

Brad Pitt – eating. ALL THE TIME! Never let Brad run out of food or something to chew.

Please make arrangements for leftover food to be collected by a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter or our roadie that looks like (and actually is) Zac Efron

3) Transportation

We don’t need any police escorts (hello Metallica). That’s ridiculous and unnecessary, thanks. But if Jay-Z can demand a Maybach, we want a horse carriage. Or the Timmousine. Anyways, at least something that qualifies itself as a Hoolmobil.

4) Personnel

Who we’re travelling with: Jorge, Rolfe, Boris, Kongo-Paul, our chef, our very special producer, Aladin and the Rodgau International Crew (2 to 50 people, depending on the distance of the specific venue to Rodgau)

We want: at least two heavy duty fans (e.g. groupies, MALE and preferably looking like a Jake Gyllenhaal sort of type - consult the ‘Bums-liste’ for further information)

A Masseur (again, Jake Gyllenhaal would be the ideal).

An assemblance of the local Turbojugend (to be placed in the escalation room).

An assemblance of the local Dave-Gröhl-Jugend (to be placed in the escalation room).

Dave Grohl.

A well assorted selection of party hools (to be placed wherever)

When in Scotland, the appearance of the following people is necessary: Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro), Ewan McGregor, James McAvoy.

Besides, the following people must always and immediately be placed in the private rooms, if around: Gavin Rossdale, PillePallePelle, Jared Leto, Trent Reznor, Matt Bellamy, Dom Howard and/or the Wolstenholme

Matthew Bellamy lately has been investigating a bacon-conspiracy-theory. ONLY IF HE IS AROUND MAY THERE BE BACON. BELLAMY: BACON.

5) Dress codes/mottos

On Mondays: Springbrunnenwear

On Tuesdays: Calypso Christmas and a hula new year

On Wednesdays: Face no more

On Thursdays: Klaus Stockdale (we need Andrew Stockdale wigs, a normal afro will do à a big afro makes a huge sound!)

On Fridays: Zac-gasm

On Saturdays: Free-hand Spirograph

On Sundays: Cape selection

Glasto? Musto!

 Dom's point of view

It's that one pic telling the whole Glasto story. Dom's perspective. Chris' lovely ass. Matt's pink trousers.

Like most of you (I guess) I tried to catch the BBC2 livestream via internet - and failed because I haven't got an UK IP adress. But thanks to the great twitterific Musers I got access via some illegal (ehem) software so I watched the Glasto performance in quite a good quality.





Zane introducing the band in his fanboy way. Uprising. The special stage design. The Glasto singalong audience going mad. The Edge helping out on Muse's U2 tribute. Lovely. But - something was missing. Maybe it's a comparison problem and its kind of unfair to see that gig with a view on the 2004 one, but - I don't know. It's hard to admit, but something was missing. The euphoria. The madness. The spirit. Maybe. Anyways, it was fun watching it, with Esther and the guru on the phone while they celebrated their own Glasto in the Roddy fields.

My point of view

That week we booked our hotel in Tinmäff - it's exactly the one I mentioned in my Muse FF. A twin room with seaview, next to The Den. We just came to the conclusion that even if we wouldn't talk for the whole trip AND finally agreed in silence that we gave away our tickets to some strangers, it still would be the most awesome trip we ever done (and we did a lot of those, believe me - nighttrain to florence, just to mention one). 

Actually we had the plan to stop this Muse thing until end of august. But it's just not working! 

It's bigger than us.

The Road to Wembley, step 3: Abso – fuckin’ – lution

Did you know that 2003 was the year of the bible?
Yeah, right: neither did we. But judging from lyrics such as “It’s time for something biblical”, Bellamy might have heard about it. Us other ignorants were thinking --- erm, yeah, right, Matty.
Thoughts of a dying atheist, Time is running out, Apocalypse Please to begin with –promised a rather uplifting record – not.
Generally speaking, Absolution was Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now revisited.
Released in September, it followed one of the hottest summers in history. The heat wave over Europe could have been orchestrated by a sound designed to melt existences.
The year in music moved between the feverish Hey Ya, the most infamous base-line ever produced by a guitar (aka Seven Nation Army) – and someone else’s falsetto squeaking I believe in a thing called love (does anyone remember The Darkness?).
Johnny Cash died in 2003, surviving his wife June by only a few months.
The third Gulf War in Iraq began.
Marion and I had graduated from school the year before and were now attending university. Muse were not exactly on our schedule. Our time wasn’t running out, we were yet again victims of our own utterly bad timing.
Apart from Stockholm Syndrome, an instant skull-cracker, it needed years until this record became visible on our musical horizon. We would love and we would hate – all to no avail.
Absolution came and went unnoticed - for no reason whatsoever.
Some all time favourites are assembled on this one: Butterflies and Hurricanes, an anthem, with lyrics for eternity…‘best, you’ve got to be the best, you’ve got to change the world and use this chance to be heard’.
Hysteria, an old friend, rediscovered while playing ‘Rock Band’…I want it now, give me your heart and your soul…guess he demanded it all, didn’t he?
[By the way, has anyone ever noticed the parallels between Bellamy’s end of the world scenarios and the nuclear case of emergency depicted in The Clash’s London Calling? Just saying…]
…and of course, Falling away with you, which tiptoes softly, like a whisper. Somewhere inside something explodes. Fireworks. A feeling from deep within that conquers you, a feeling that cannot be explained, calculated or rationalized – not even uttered. It just exists, for no reason. So be it. Falling away with you? Anytime, Love!

Sorry for the ignorance, lads. We were searching, you were on a mission – but it still needed some time until we would combine in a Neutron Star Collision.


...just graduated!

Pop-cultural happenings
Madonna kisses Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears at the VMAs
The Stooges reunite – so do Backstreet Boys
Peter Jackson concludes his Lord of the Rings trilogy with The Return of the King

Soundtrack (indie-approved version)
Speakerboxx/The Love Below – Outkast
St. Anger – Metallica
De-Loused in the Comatorium – The Mars Volta
Elephant – The White Stripes
Maybe Memories – The Used
A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar – Dashboard Confessional
Youth and Young Manhood – Kings of Leon
Thirteenth Step – A Perfect Circle
Get Born – Jet
Sleeping with Ghosts – Placebo
The War on Errorism – NOFX
Scandinavian Leather – Turbonegro

…and a few songs singing along to was only allowed in secret
I’m with you – Avril Lavigne
Beautiful – Christina Aguilera (c’mon, even The Lemonheads covered it)
Dancing on a Friday Night – The Darkness
Thank You - Dido