Muse in St. Louis

Last week judakris went to see Muse at The Pageant in St. Louis. The opening band was an all- girl group called The Like. I hate to knock my sex but I don’t want to see a girl band, especially one who I guess attempts to be ironic by uglying themselves up. Next! At one point in their set the lead singer/guitarist looked at her rhythm section and asked “What?” looking slightly paranoid, while the other two just smiled a bitchy smile and the bassist mouthed, “Nothing”. I suddenly felt like I was in a high school bathroom watching mean girls interact. Guy bands don’t do that. Oh, and they skipped off the stage. No, that is not a typo. As K lit a cigarette, she said to me, “Hey, if we ever have a band, we’re not skipping off the stage”. I simply responded, “I don’t skip”. Anyway, the music wasn’t bad but I think it says a lot that I was paying more attention to the clothes and the band interaction. Ilove The Like’s website design way more than the music.

As for Muse, they sounded great and did not disappoint. Our friend M attended as well and he had already seen Muse this summer in Chicago. I asked him before the show what kind of audience to expect and he gave a one word response – “Comic-con”. I don’t know much about prog rock. I know so little that I didn’t even know Muse was classified as prog rock until I read it in a magazine. So prog rock is the thinking man’s music? As we were walking up to The Pageant, I said to M, “Oh, I get it. I just saw a Rose Hulman t-shirt”. He laughed and said yes, exactly. However, when we got inside, M said that the audience was a lot more diverse than the crowd in Chicago.

K and M are bigger Muse fans than me and can reel off the night's setlist. I can only tell you that Muse played my three favorite songs— Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, and Stockholm Syndrome. A little Muse goes a long way with me. There’s just a lot going on in their music, including a heavy vibrato. It didn’t help that as they walked on the stage, K leaned over to me and said how much the lead singer reminds her of this pain in the ass that we work with. I couldn’t get the image of that pain in the ass out of my mind for the rest of the night! The crowd loved them and all the superfans were out in full force. Even if it isn’t my favorite band, it is always fun to watch others having a most incredible night. --J