Ice Cream Man

Muse at the Forum in L.A.

Words by Ice Cream Man
Photos by Jeremiah Garcia

There are very few bands I'd rather see play at the Forum than a small club. In fact, MUSE might be the only one. Before Austin City Limits festival last year, I wasn't familiar with their music at all. I kept hearing people backstage chatting about making sure they didn't miss MUSE's set, but due to my strenuous work schedule (ha ha) I missed them. The seed of curiosity had been planted though.

A couple months later Jeremiah and I headed up to Download Festival at Shoreline Amphitheater and the stellar lineup had MUSE going on just after sundown, sandwiched between The Shins and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. To this point I had only heard a couple tracks but once they took the stage the whole audience instantly jumped to their feet and no one sat back down 'til they were off ten songs later. It was such a spectacle to witness. Heavy, melodic British rock with a stage presence that demanded total attention and devotion.

When I heard that MUSE was doing a couple one-off shows on the west coast before joining My Chemical Romance on some dates we got our press request in early. Tix were scarce but we lucked out and everything fell into place. For their stop in Los Angeles they were booked at the Forum. Woah... The 18,000 capacity Forum is over six times larger than the Wiltern, which is usually considered a good venue for larger bands. Not only were they playing the Forum but they sold it out.

One good thing about MUSE is that they're HUGE in Europe. HUGE as in selling out Wembley Stadium. From Gigwise.com, "The band shifted an amazing 90,000 tickets for their show on 16 June in less than sixty minutes this morning." Needless to say they've got some experience rockin' big venues; they brought their whole set with them tonight.

The house was packed and as the lights dimmed "Knights of Cydonia" kicked things off as MUSE stormed the stage. I was standing just in front of the soundboard and instantly the head bopping started. Half the fun was watching the band and the other half was looking around at the eclectic audience. Fists were being raised in time with the driving beat and when they got to the chorus, everyone burst into "No one's going to take me alive." BRILLIANT. This has to be what the arena rock days of old were like. It all makes sense now.

After shooting the first three songs Jeremiah stashed his camera and we posted up toward the back right of the floor section for the rest of the show. The "hits" kept coming. Maybe they technically weren't hits as far as chart topping in the US but the amount of energy they packed registered them as hits in my book. As best I can place it, their sound is a mix of modern British rock meets heavy metal (?) Some of their song structures seem familiar and just when I thought I had it figured out, lead man Matthew Bellamy would head over to his Piano or a horn player would hop on stage, or they'd break into a ballad, and it'd all sound new again.

As the set was nearing a close I found myself standing there with arms reached out in front me in a state of disbelief. It was as if you were standing in a cross walk and someone almost hit you and you put your arms out open palms up questioning exactly how or why that happened. It was so over the top and mesmerizing that it almost didn't make sense. How does this band sell out the forum yet so few people (in the US) know who they are? I guess that's the beauty of a band like MUSE. The people in the know tell all their friends and it escalates from there.

The highlight of the night came as I was looking around the audience and saw a young girl, prolly 14 or 15, in the front row of seats just to the right of us. You could tell this was probably the best moment of her life. She'd clinch her fists during songs and cross her arms over her chest while singing/screaming along to every word. Once I pointed her out to Jeremiah, we both became entranced. I leaned over and said, "there are people that never get as high in their whole lives as that girl is right now." He leaned back and said, "That's a shame." Before they kicked off their second set we wondered what MUSE's biggest hit was and if they'd already played it. I'm not sure if it's their biggest hit but they came back out playing "Starlight" and, judging by everyone's response, and the mass sing-along, it might have well been. By this point I was gone. I get emotionally overwhelmed and this was a perfect example. I started laughing and crying in disbelieve at how amazing everything was. And the thought of people, like our new friend in pink, on a whole other plane, completely entranced in the music reminded me of why more people need to get out more often.

SETLIST