Musings on Muse......

Went to see Muse tonight at the Hordern Pavilion, which is part of the Fox Studios complex in Sydney, adjoining the SCG.

The exterior of the Pavilion very much resembled that of a Victorian school, I was half expecting to find doors marked "Boys" & "Girls" & I suppose if it had been in England it would now be a complex of luxury apartments now. The interior closely resembled a student's union.... only larger. Whilst, the set consisted of a large set of drums, 2 transparent TV screens & what looked like 12 large, ribbed, condoms hanging from the lighting rig.

The band played a good set, from what I could tell... either the sound system was terrible or Matt Bellany (lead singer) really does have trouble enunciating his words. Anyway, the driving guitar and pumping drums more than made up for that & the mosh-pit seemed to get pretty excited. I spent most of the time listening with my eyes closed as the lights came close to blinding me & the strobes would have been the worst nightmare for an epileptic! Probably the most enjoyable song was the last before the encore when, continuing the condom theme, what looked like 12 inflated condoms, filled with red petals where passed above the heads of the crowd...when the balloons were popped the 'petals' floated into the air.

Certainly one of the better concerts I have been to here, even if I was a little too tired to enjoy it. Some thoughts on the other gigs Lucy & I have attended since arriving in Oz:

Kanye West (should stick to indoor arenas, bad choice of support for U2)
U2 (good but past best, should tone down the preaching)
Kylie (superb!, so energetic & great duet with Bono)
Kings of Leon (good despite only playing as warm-up in half empty arena)
Pearl Jam (excellent, really got the crowd going)
Robbie Williams (awful, truly awful. Should learn that getting your random mate on stage to sing badly with you is not a way to entertain a fee paying crowd. Only good songs were in the encore & even that was spoiled by combining with Rudebox, the title track to his new album)

Best piece of concert going advice in Sydney: Never, ever, under any circumstances think of traveling to the Telstra / Olympic Stadium by ferry - no matter how 'special' the journey is promised to be. Takes 45 mins & you end up at a place which is 30 mins away from the stadium by 'fun bus' & struggle to get home - the train from the CBD takes 20 mins.

On a separate note, I spent part of this afternoon at work trying to explain to one of my colleagues who Jade Goody was. I really think that I have done my fellow Englishmen no good in admitting that we have such people living in our wondrous country - and make millions too. And yes, she did 'get her kebab out' on national TV. However, I have to admit to chuckling away for a while at some of her quotes from the house. Let me share a couple with you:

"The Union Jack is for all of us, but the St George is just for London, isn't it?"
"I am intelligent, but I let myself down because I can't speak properly or spell"
"You see those things on peacocks...don't think I'm daft...but them things that look like eyes, are they real eyes?"
"Rio de Janeiro, ain't that a person?"
"They were trying to use me as an escape goat."
"Do they speak Portuganese in Portugal? I thought Portugal was in Spain"

Legendary.....