Muse / Reading Festival 26-08-06

The day began at 7am.

The mother-in-law came round to collect our daughter, and by 8:30, we were free.

So the stereo got cranked up, and the neighbours got a blast of Muse - and Jet, who I was also looking forward to seeing today.

A casual stroll down Richfield Avenue later - 25 minutes from my front door - we entered the arena and found a comfy spot in the Radio 1 tent.

The 747s proved the first hit of the day, as we listened to them soundcheck and deliver some impressive vocal harmonies. The set was great, and held promise for a good day.

Alas, the bands up until 5pm on all stages were middling to below average corporate junk with target audiences to match, Wolfmother being the biggest disappointment, translating badly from record into unadventurous Led Zep lite wannabees.

And the crowds!

I have never experienced crowds like it at a gig - except at kick-out after the Monsters Of Rock festival that used to be held at Donington Park - is it the Download festival these days?

Horrendously over-subscribed, if it wasn't for the lure of Muse, I would have left there and then. And it was only 2 in the afternoon.

The food was overcooked, and served by staff who looked like they could care a lot less, the bins almost non-existent, so the rubbish was ankle-deep - and the "comedians" in the Comedy tent were no joke.

But at around 5ish, in the Carling Tent, the Noisettes brought some hope to the festival. Fashionably raw and stripped-down rock with a blistering edge and feeling of sparkling spontaneity, they set the tent alight. With failing equipment that had long forgotten about going up to a mere 11...

Feeling musically refreshed, I hit the bar. Again...

When Jet came on at around 20 to 8, they were better than I dared hope - the eclectic mix of the Stones and the Beatles with a large dash of AC/DC guaranteed some tuneful and ballsy rock and roll - but those guys knew how to work the crowd as well, and the music came across as fresh and exciting. Their performance of "Do You Wanna Be My Girl" rocked, and to hear the massive crowd inside the Radio 1 tent singing along to "Look What You've Done" sent a shiver down my spine - it was a "moment". Of course, when I say "tent", I mean 6 circus marquees stitched together...


So, finally, onto Muse - I wasn't interested in seeing the over-hyped Arctic Monkeys... but they were bloody good! In the live environment, they gave Muse a hard act to follow with pithy and insightful lyrics, intruiging melodies and arrangements of fashionable ska/punk flavoured "street" rock that translated unbelievably well from their lacklustre album with bags of energy and unpredictability that suddenly made perfect rock and roll sense with zeitgeist.

Muse delivered a perfect show.

The problem was, it was too perfect - and the guys knew it. Desperately, they knocked out more improvs than I've ever heard them put into one set, but the magic of the Glastonbury 2004 set was not there. They opened with "Knights of Cydonia", which was a peculiar move for a festival-opener, when they already had "Hysteria", a song made for the job.

More tracks from "Black Holes" were forthcoming, as were unexpected old inclusions such as "Showbiz" and a terrific rendition of "Feeling Good". Unbelievably, they fluffed the intro to "Stockholm Syndrome", and the track lost the impact it should have had.

There was nothing majorly wrong with the performance.

But you could have listened to the CDs at home and heard much the same thing - although without the one-riff improvs.

Matt's anti-guitar solos sounded old - not at all spontaneous as a proper non-melodic rock solo should sound - as both the Noisettes and Jet managed. The music sounded like it was beginning to get a little long in the tooth - especially after the youthful couldn't give a wossname attitude of the Arctic Monkeys. Matt really should develop the solos - and the entire band needs to do more live improv to keep the music alive.

But, despite their best attempts, they are starting to go through the motions and will hit their sell-by date if they are not careful.

Recommended listening for them: "Duchess" from "Duke" (Genesis).


    
    
    
    
    

Edited by Certif1ed - August 27 2006 at 18:59

I saw most of the show on television and they outshone the Arctic Rolls by a long way (I don't like their sound at all).

Having said that, I didn't really know much of their output before watching it, apart from the hits.  I've not got Black Holes & Revelations and it's an excellent album.

Richard, I would go and see them if I were you.

By the way, a lot of the Reading performance can be viewed on Youtube, if you want to know what they were like.