It was great to have my son along for both concerts. He has definitely inherited my musical obsession, and then some. He's so crazy. He got kicked out of VW 7 times on Thursday night because he kept sneaking down into the reserved section. I didn't realize our tickets were only good for a certain section because when I bought them, they were the only ones available. He was lucky we were at the Casino and they had in-and-out privileges. He got to know the security and they just let him back in. It was a much smaller show than Muse, of course. He is really big into the local punk scene but they're mostly good guys, not gang or mean or anything. He just has a big anti-establishment complex and is always pushing the boundaries on things. He certainly isn't afraid to stand up and be seen. Actually, he rather likes the attention.
At VW, the sound was kind of bad down front but I had a great view so when I called my son on my cell phone to see where he was, he told me he was in the very back. I guess it was one of the times he'd come back in. We actually moved around a lot there. We started in two roomy seats behind the sound machines and I thought, "wow, this is too good to be true." It was. A guy in a wheelchair came up and said we had his seats. We wandered down front to the barrier from there and stood about midway in the venue watching the "lucky" people pass through to the section in front of the stage.
I was a little disappointed with the sound. Always, for the warm up bands the sound is bad, can't upstage the headliners, you know, but it was still a little distorted for VW. I debated and then decided to join my son in the very back. I spent the second half of VW's set at the back with my son and lots of room to dance, which I did. Where we stood at the back, there was great sound and a pretty good view too. Afterwards, we mosied around the Hard Rock Casino (couldn't gamble because he's underage), looked at the glass cased costumes of the rock icons, and grabbed a couple of sodas from the refreshment station. Then we wandered out to the parking lot and talked and waited for the traffic to clear a bit. We finally got home around 11:something.
Muse was FANTASTYK!!! What can I say? They're one of my favorite bands, often labelled the best live band in the world after U2, and they didn't disappoint. We got there early. I thought it started about 7 like VW but the concert actually started at 8. We waited outside with several hundred other diehards and enjoyed the music of the two local radio stations.
Once inside, we beelined it for the stage. My son and I found a place about 10-15 people (20 feet?) from the stage. We were very crowded but the people around us were cool. Of course the five tallest guys in the room were in front of me! LOL. The crowd seemed to drift a bit and pretty soon I only had one or two tall guys in front. Such a difference from Vampire Weekend when there were only four short girls in front of me at one time.
Funny, several of the people around us had also gone to the VW show. I think I grew an inch last night stretching my neck to see the stage better. Muse often played on risers and there were three huge columns of visuals where they had awesome, awesome graphics and close ups of the crowd and the band members. There were two guys in chairs about 50 feet up in the air, working the cameras, lights, sound? I'm not sure what they were doing but we watched them being lifted up by cables during intermission. It must have been scary up there.
It seemed like everybody knew the words to all the songs they played. THANK YOU! Clear Channel for buying the rights to their last couple of albums and giving them airplay on the radio. Just a year ago, they only played one or two Muse songs but for the last 6-8 months they've been playing a Muse song every hour- and rotating them too. They played lots of stuff from the two most recent albums and a couple of older songs, ending with Knights of Cydonia on their encore. Too soon, the concert ended and I only realized how loud it had been when we staggered out. I noticed several "older" women alone at Muse too so when I've considered attending concerts by myself, I now realize that I'm not the only one.
After a quick stop at a gas station for gas and drinks, nothing like a cappuccino after an evening out, we drove the long way home and finally arrived around midnight or so.
I was so hyped from the concert, I searched the internet for some live Muse. I found and downloaded a full set of the songs we'd just heard from a similar concert in Bercy, France. I haven't listened to it fully yet but it's got great sound and includes all the little snippets of impromptu piano and harmonica playing they did. I didn't get to bed until after two this morning and then I was up at 6:30 as usual, so I feel like a zombie today. But I intend to relive my concert today on my cd player.
What a whirlwind these last few days have been. Now what am I going to look forward to? The Balloon Fiesta which starts today? Or the Greek Festival? ?? We'll see...
I've borrowed your time - song: After All, artist: David Bowie
