Muse at TD Garden: A Bold, Novel, and Wild Experience

“Killed by drones” were the first words blasted out when Muse’s Drones World Tour came to the TD Garden on Jan. 25. This grave opening and the grim setlist, which included the likes of “Dead Inside” and “Knights of Cydonia,” seemed to set the stage for a dark show. But somber fails to describe the rock band’s latest tour—in fact, the show was anything but, as the innovative video projections, charged performances from band members, and flashing, rotating stage rejected any illusion of a low-key, brooding concert. The floating drones, equipped onto glowing translucent orbs, did little to support such a faulty hypothesis either.

Muse is not the type to shy away from the histrionics. Hailing from England, the band has created a legacy of hard rock music with classical influences lasting over two decades, and drummer Dominic Howard once said that band members tried “to push [concert ideas] to the limits of the law.” Its last world tour quickly became known for its lavish effects, which included laser lights and carbon dioxide cannons. Despite this precedent for grandiose performances, Muse’s TD Garden show still felt fresh, generating a vivacious energy that spoke to the high-quality performances expected from the British trio while also exceeding the expectations of the capabilities of theatrical stage-craft. To that effect, Drones World Tour was a bold, novel, and wild experience.

The band played in the round, allowing the audience to circle the entire double-headed arrow-shaped stage. The set-up encouraged high-energy, dynamic performances to ensure an engaging use of the space—a challenge that the members met earnestly. Throughout the entire concert, lead vocalist Matt Bellamy and bass guitarist Chris Wolstenholme repeatedly dashed from the ends of the stage to interact with different sections of the crowd, as Howard stood stoically in the center. It was a move that created a sense of intimacy despite the venue’s scale—an intimacy that supplemented the sincere delivery of their songs. In fact, Muse asserted their ability as live performers, the only recognizable difference between the songs performed and the same album tracks being the cheers from the audience in the background. For instance, during “Supermassive Black Hole,” Bellamy hit the falsettos found in the recorded track with ease, before later switching to the heavier vocals required for “Apocalypse Please.” The singing and playing were consistently crisp, a rare feat for most live shows.

But the true showstopper was the stage engineering—a thoughtful, engaging blend of dynamic visuals and state-of-the-art technology. Video projection became a performance staple, and while employing high-tech tools often seems needlessly ostentatious, Drones World Tour managed to escape such pitfalls. Instead, the use of technology here arose spontaneously and naturally, astounding with a greater thematic purpose than to simply raise eyebrows and drop mouths.

The technology created a narrative for the concert: like the drones that appeared during the opening and near the finale as a bookend. It visually complemented the songs’ lyrics: like the vivid images of orbiting planets during “Supermassive Black Hole.” It even entered into a dialogue with the band: like the moment when Bellamy defiantly grabbed a nearby camera taping him while he belted out the chorus to “Uprising,” as if to further emphasize the song’s message of rebellion in the face of media, and thus absolute control. So when the video screens projected images of hands holding marionette strings, seemingly attached to Bellamy and Wolstenholme and forcing the two to move to the rhythm of the controlling figure, the illusion created was not only a stunning visual endeavour but also a move that possessed a deliberate, strategic tinge.

In these ways and more, the rock trio answered Boston’s call for entertainment last Monday night. Muse’s entire set was an action-packed performance, overflowing with ingenious technical design and brimming with musical gusto. As confetti filled the air during the penultimate song, “Mercy,” it felt as if the band had achieved something unique in its Drones World Tour, something which set a high bar for the innovation and fervor required to truly perform in a concert setting. Muse was victorious.

—Staff writer Ha D.H. Le can be reached at ha.le@thecrimson.com