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Muse - Simulation Theory
Jun. 9th, 2019 07:22 pmWe have just spent the weekend in Manchester, where we went to see Muse live at the Etihad Stadium. The first time I saw them live was 2000 at Leeds University, and they have certainly come a long way since then. I think the last time I saw them live must have been sometime around 2005 as my interest in them has wained slightly as their albums have become increasingly ostentatious. However, when Stray offered Wolfie and I tickets to see them, we jumped at the opportunity as we both feel that we do not see enough live music. Furthermore, with Stray living exceptionally close to the venue, it made the whole gig incredibly easy and combined it with some fantastic social time too.
We had intended to go over to Stray's on Friday evening, but Wolfie's window wipers stopped working. With the rain being particularly heavy, we thought it would be far too dangerous to risk driving and with Wolfie's Mazda also refusing to fire (he pissed a fair number of our neighbours off trying to get the engine to start at 11pm), we ended up having to take a train on Saturday. This left Wolfie feeling down on Friday night as we felt we had let down a friend, who had cooked a wonderous chicken in creamy sauce meal for us. As it turned out, we ended up reheating it and eating it after the gig on Saturday night so everything worked out in the end.
We caught the train at 11:50am, arriving shortly after 1pm. This was something of a chore, but at least we got to see a cute border collie who was incredibly excited about travelling to Halifax. She couldn't stop moving and at one point stuck her snout between the two seats in front of us and licked my face. We had arranged to meet Matt Squ and his friend Miles for lunch, but first we decided we might as well go to the Post Office and pick up the International Driving Permit we need for our forthcoming trip to Argentina. We did this quite quickly, before arranging to meet Squ in a rather rainy Exchange Square. After walking around the various eating options available, we decided on the Mexican food of Wahaca, only to discover they had a thirty minute wait. Stray joined us while we were in the queue, with us then venturing to the SE Asian cuisine of Tampopo nearby. This turned out to be quite the find as the Thai Green Curry was delicious, as were the perhaps overly greasy prawn crackers. Still, the service was good and it was in this restaurant where Miles joined us, a fur from Leeds who we did not know. It was great getting to meet him and catch up with Squ once again, although our liaison was somewhat brief as we needed to head back to Stray's at about 4pm. We had intended to swing by the Manchester Meet, but this didn't even enter our minds on the day. I had canvassed Twitter to see who would be going but got no interest, and of course I am not a fan of the venue, particularly after a couple of incidents which took place there ten years ago.
Stray had invited a number of his family, while some other furs were also permitted to use the car parking around his flat. This meant that by the time we had gotten back to his house, his father, sister and her boyfriend were already there, entertaining Eddi. We had a good chat with them about a wide range of subjects, before Ki Saro's crew of him plus Shiro, Ottercon and Funky also arrived. Funky and Ki Saro ended up in McDonald's so we didn't see them, but we did manage to chat to Shiro and Ottercon briefly. We also got to chat to two furs from Newbury who were to sit with us in our block of six that also consisted of Eddi, Stray, Wolfie and myself. This was up in the gods on row EE, meaning the view was perhaps not the best, but the acoustics were truly fantastic and drew you more into the show as it progressed. Indeed this and the fact that the darkening skies enabled the light show to be more pronounced resulted in a fabulous final half of the gig. Part of this was the playing of a number of songs where I could let myself go, starting with Bliss, which is one of my favourites on the Origin of Symmetry album. This, along with Time Is Running Out and Starlight, were the most visceral experiences for me as Stray, Wolfie and I bounced up and down and singing along, much to the annoyance of the grumpy quartet in front of us. Fuck them.
The gig was a real stageshow, although the choreographed dancers at the start were more out of a pop concert than a rock one. Still, with the sci-fi theme and Matt Bellamy's range of eyewear, there was a common dystopic future theme running through the show which was quite easy to buy into. The same was arguably the case with the support act, Tom Morrello of Rage Against the Machine, who at one point showed a placard saying 'Fuck Farage' which he had stuck to the underside of his guitar. He did very little singing, with much of it recorded, but the guitar playing was fantastic, as it was with Muse too. Being a fledgling guitarist, it was incredible to see, while it was also great that Morrello got a local activist group on stage to act as the choir for Killing In The Name. Some of the political statements were perhaps a little sixth-form, but ultimately it was a punching cathartic blast against the current malignant forces shaping politics in both the United States and Europe.
There's little else to report from here really - the Muse set lasted two hours and fifteen minutes, the longest I have ever seen a show last, while the Etihad was a good venue for a live show but definitely strived to rip you off. £5 for a 400ml bottle of Heineken in the concessions outside the ground was steep, as were the £4 we paid for chips. At least inside, £5.50 for a pint of Amstel was borderline okay, but it was flat. Part of the problem may have been the specially commissioned Muse glasses, for which we paid £2, as I don't think there was anywhere for the bubbles in the beer to be agitated. Also, the pints were poured beforehand so they just gave us drinks off the shelf. Still, aside from these gripes, which let's be honest are expected at a venue of this type, it was a marvelous evening. The only other thing to report was a barny between an angry lady and security, which threatened to turn violent. She kept shouting at this one guard 'Get Out Of My Face' to the point where she had to be restrained and led away by two police officers. I didn't catch how this started, but 'Get Out Of My Face' turned out to be the meme of the night between our party.
Once the gig was over, everyone pretty much went home straight away. Certainly the Newbury lot and Ki Saro's crew did, with Stray's parents following shortly afterwards. It was a shame that his granddad could not make it in the end due to ill health, which is why the two Newbury furs were here at all, but I did enjoy spending some time with his family. After this, we largely just chilled, sharing a few different beers and playing Jackbox games. Eddi was tired so there was only three of us, meaning Jackbox didn't really work that well, and after a long day we were pretty much in bed by 1:30am. Our sleep was decent enough but the lightness of the room coupled with the early dawn meant we kept waking up, with Eddi coming in at around 9:30am to do some work and us just staying in bed until 11am. After this, Stray came in to make us a cooked breakfast, which we ate while watching the Women's World Cup. The quality of the football was exceptionally good and Stray and I vowed to try and see more games together as the tournament progresses.
With Eddi working, we decided to go for a walk after breakfast/lunch, heading east along the canal to Droylsden. The weather was pretty inclement initially with heavy rain, forcing us to cower under a bridge for a while, but it did clear in the end and we had an enjoyable stroll around some of the less sulubrious areas of East Manchester. We also got a few geocaches along the way, along with experiencing first-hand some protective geese who were looking after their young. No wonder that Eddi, one night when drunk, described them as 'cobra chickens' when he had forgotten the English word goose. Aside from this, we saw a freaky statue of Elvis in a beer garden in a rundown pub serving no-one and a number of doggo friends too. It was certainly a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and I would have done more had we not needed to head back to Pudsey to sort Wolfie's wipers out. We therefore double-backed at around 3pm, had a quick cup of tea at Stray's at 4pm and then got back home at 6:30pm, with this whole experience being incredibly uneventful. Still, it was an excellent weekend with great friends and I hope we can repeat it again soon. And with Wolfie having installed a temporary fix on his wipers until the parts he needs arrive during the middle of next week, we are sorted here too.
We had intended to go over to Stray's on Friday evening, but Wolfie's window wipers stopped working. With the rain being particularly heavy, we thought it would be far too dangerous to risk driving and with Wolfie's Mazda also refusing to fire (he pissed a fair number of our neighbours off trying to get the engine to start at 11pm), we ended up having to take a train on Saturday. This left Wolfie feeling down on Friday night as we felt we had let down a friend, who had cooked a wonderous chicken in creamy sauce meal for us. As it turned out, we ended up reheating it and eating it after the gig on Saturday night so everything worked out in the end.
We caught the train at 11:50am, arriving shortly after 1pm. This was something of a chore, but at least we got to see a cute border collie who was incredibly excited about travelling to Halifax. She couldn't stop moving and at one point stuck her snout between the two seats in front of us and licked my face. We had arranged to meet Matt Squ and his friend Miles for lunch, but first we decided we might as well go to the Post Office and pick up the International Driving Permit we need for our forthcoming trip to Argentina. We did this quite quickly, before arranging to meet Squ in a rather rainy Exchange Square. After walking around the various eating options available, we decided on the Mexican food of Wahaca, only to discover they had a thirty minute wait. Stray joined us while we were in the queue, with us then venturing to the SE Asian cuisine of Tampopo nearby. This turned out to be quite the find as the Thai Green Curry was delicious, as were the perhaps overly greasy prawn crackers. Still, the service was good and it was in this restaurant where Miles joined us, a fur from Leeds who we did not know. It was great getting to meet him and catch up with Squ once again, although our liaison was somewhat brief as we needed to head back to Stray's at about 4pm. We had intended to swing by the Manchester Meet, but this didn't even enter our minds on the day. I had canvassed Twitter to see who would be going but got no interest, and of course I am not a fan of the venue, particularly after a couple of incidents which took place there ten years ago.
Stray had invited a number of his family, while some other furs were also permitted to use the car parking around his flat. This meant that by the time we had gotten back to his house, his father, sister and her boyfriend were already there, entertaining Eddi. We had a good chat with them about a wide range of subjects, before Ki Saro's crew of him plus Shiro, Ottercon and Funky also arrived. Funky and Ki Saro ended up in McDonald's so we didn't see them, but we did manage to chat to Shiro and Ottercon briefly. We also got to chat to two furs from Newbury who were to sit with us in our block of six that also consisted of Eddi, Stray, Wolfie and myself. This was up in the gods on row EE, meaning the view was perhaps not the best, but the acoustics were truly fantastic and drew you more into the show as it progressed. Indeed this and the fact that the darkening skies enabled the light show to be more pronounced resulted in a fabulous final half of the gig. Part of this was the playing of a number of songs where I could let myself go, starting with Bliss, which is one of my favourites on the Origin of Symmetry album. This, along with Time Is Running Out and Starlight, were the most visceral experiences for me as Stray, Wolfie and I bounced up and down and singing along, much to the annoyance of the grumpy quartet in front of us. Fuck them.
The gig was a real stageshow, although the choreographed dancers at the start were more out of a pop concert than a rock one. Still, with the sci-fi theme and Matt Bellamy's range of eyewear, there was a common dystopic future theme running through the show which was quite easy to buy into. The same was arguably the case with the support act, Tom Morrello of Rage Against the Machine, who at one point showed a placard saying 'Fuck Farage' which he had stuck to the underside of his guitar. He did very little singing, with much of it recorded, but the guitar playing was fantastic, as it was with Muse too. Being a fledgling guitarist, it was incredible to see, while it was also great that Morrello got a local activist group on stage to act as the choir for Killing In The Name. Some of the political statements were perhaps a little sixth-form, but ultimately it was a punching cathartic blast against the current malignant forces shaping politics in both the United States and Europe.
There's little else to report from here really - the Muse set lasted two hours and fifteen minutes, the longest I have ever seen a show last, while the Etihad was a good venue for a live show but definitely strived to rip you off. £5 for a 400ml bottle of Heineken in the concessions outside the ground was steep, as were the £4 we paid for chips. At least inside, £5.50 for a pint of Amstel was borderline okay, but it was flat. Part of the problem may have been the specially commissioned Muse glasses, for which we paid £2, as I don't think there was anywhere for the bubbles in the beer to be agitated. Also, the pints were poured beforehand so they just gave us drinks off the shelf. Still, aside from these gripes, which let's be honest are expected at a venue of this type, it was a marvelous evening. The only other thing to report was a barny between an angry lady and security, which threatened to turn violent. She kept shouting at this one guard 'Get Out Of My Face' to the point where she had to be restrained and led away by two police officers. I didn't catch how this started, but 'Get Out Of My Face' turned out to be the meme of the night between our party.
Once the gig was over, everyone pretty much went home straight away. Certainly the Newbury lot and Ki Saro's crew did, with Stray's parents following shortly afterwards. It was a shame that his granddad could not make it in the end due to ill health, which is why the two Newbury furs were here at all, but I did enjoy spending some time with his family. After this, we largely just chilled, sharing a few different beers and playing Jackbox games. Eddi was tired so there was only three of us, meaning Jackbox didn't really work that well, and after a long day we were pretty much in bed by 1:30am. Our sleep was decent enough but the lightness of the room coupled with the early dawn meant we kept waking up, with Eddi coming in at around 9:30am to do some work and us just staying in bed until 11am. After this, Stray came in to make us a cooked breakfast, which we ate while watching the Women's World Cup. The quality of the football was exceptionally good and Stray and I vowed to try and see more games together as the tournament progresses.
With Eddi working, we decided to go for a walk after breakfast/lunch, heading east along the canal to Droylsden. The weather was pretty inclement initially with heavy rain, forcing us to cower under a bridge for a while, but it did clear in the end and we had an enjoyable stroll around some of the less sulubrious areas of East Manchester. We also got a few geocaches along the way, along with experiencing first-hand some protective geese who were looking after their young. No wonder that Eddi, one night when drunk, described them as 'cobra chickens' when he had forgotten the English word goose. Aside from this, we saw a freaky statue of Elvis in a beer garden in a rundown pub serving no-one and a number of doggo friends too. It was certainly a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and I would have done more had we not needed to head back to Pudsey to sort Wolfie's wipers out. We therefore double-backed at around 3pm, had a quick cup of tea at Stray's at 4pm and then got back home at 6:30pm, with this whole experience being incredibly uneventful. Still, it was an excellent weekend with great friends and I hope we can repeat it again soon. And with Wolfie having installed a temporary fix on his wipers until the parts he needs arrive during the middle of next week, we are sorted here too.
