Magazine: NME 3/9/2011

[Futurellama]

Originally Posted by AlexisGreen

The reality was that Muse was light years ahead of most other headliners this magazine had the pleasure of reviewing.

You're forgetting Pulp, who amazed me more watching in my shit hotel in Slough than Muse the next night.

[mjartrod]

Originally Posted by AlexisGreen

Good morning / afternoon.

I don't usually post here, but reading the review in NME made me laugh and cry at the same time.

I believe NME might have forgotten some key details about the festival - most importantly, if it weren't for Muse, the festival tickets wouldn't have sold for shit. Muse were THE headliner who helped sell the tickets, and part of the reason was playing Origin in full. I stood by the sound tent / booth at Reading and masses and masses of fans were there for Muse and Origin specifically, and went nuts for it.

Secondly, from reading the rest of the NME, I feel like I perhaps attended a different festival - most other headliners (Friday, Saturday) at Reading were a disgrace. I tried to sit through MCR and had my ears violated by the poor sound, while Gerard's voice didn't carry half way through the crowd. Went into the NME tent on Saturday and waited for Jane's Addiction just to be told by an arrogant Dave Navarro to go home... Walked across the field hoping to see The Strokes, and they're 35 minutes late, call the crowd Leeds! then play for 50 minutes, the entire time looking like they wanted to strangle each other.

And then you have Muse, who - Origin or no Origin - played for 2 hours, and brought a production designed specifically for the festival. Whether you are a hardcore fan or not is besides the point. The reality was that Muse was light years ahead of most other headliners this magazine had the pleasure of reviewing.

nice one.



i dont see anything wrong with playing this 'special' set at reading? it was announced AGES ago. muse fans who wanted to see this and had the chance/money bought tickets. i dont know exactly what difference would it make to make it a proper muse gig instead of a festival one..?

reading at least was fucking filled with muse fans LOL! i was standing between the two barriers, it felt like i was miles away from the stage - and there were loads of songs that i couldnt hear matt singing because everyone around me was singing so loud!

[Gareeh]

Originally Posted by Futurellama

You're forgetting Pulp, who amazed me more watching in my shit hotel in Slough than Muse the next night.

Have to say Pulp didn't do anything for me, Muse put on their best performance since the Abso tour imo, and everyone would agree if they got to see the whole set.

People who never compliment Muse or give them credit when it's due will disagree, but performance wise, they were head and shoulders above the rest

[Sippe]

Originally Posted by Gareeh

People who never compliment Muse or give them credit when it's due will disagree, but performance wise, they were head and shoulders above the rest

If I were there, I would probably agree.

But that's not hard, since I thought most of the band there were shit.

[LyraSilvertongue]

Originally Posted by Gareeh

Have to say Pulp didn't do anything for me, Muse put on their best performance since the Abso tour imo, and everyone would agree if they got to see the whole set.

People who never compliment Muse or give them credit when it's due will disagree, but performance wise, they were head and shoulders above the rest

This. I saw the beginning of Pulp but I was a bit bored, then I went to see Jane's Addiction (hah!)
Muse were head and shoulders above Pulp, performance-wise.

[Futurellama]

Originally Posted by Gareeh

Have to say Pulp didn't do anything for me, Muse put on their best performance since the Abso tour imo, and everyone would agree if they got to see the whole set.

People who never compliment Muse or give them credit when it's due will disagree, but performance wise, they were head and shoulders above the rest

Muse weren't that great, I would have been incredibly disappointed with the gig if they hadn't played OoS

[LyraSilvertongue]

Originally Posted by Futurellama

Muse weren't that great, I would have been incredibly disappointed with the gig if they hadn't played OoS

But they did, soooo...

[Cherry Cola]

To be honest though, trying to compare Muse and Pulp is like trying to compare a banana with a Honda Civic I thought they were the two best bands of the festival for me, but for very different reasons.

[Sippe]

A banana is clearly better than a Honda Civic.

[Cherry Cola]

Originally Posted by Sippe

A banana is clearly better than a Honda Civic.

You can't eat a Honda Civic if you're peckish, and good luck driving a banana to work

To me Pulp are a far more "personal" band than Muse. Their performance was centred around Jarvis Cocker as an engaging personality, he's happy to chat away and talk crap between songs in a way that Muse wouldn't dream of. Muse are all about the spectacle which, while awe-inspiring, is pretty impersonal and you get no sense of personality from it. They were both terrific but in entirely different ways.

Aaaanyhoo, back on topic - the NME are always like this and it should come as no surprise, like the psycho ex-girlfriend that you just want more from etc etc

[WutDaFucksy]

Pulp were amazing, miles ahead of The Strokes who were awful.

[Morgan.]

I can't believe I wasted my time reading this shit.

[Furygirl]

I can't believe The Strokes were awful.

[LyraSilvertongue]

Originally Posted by Furygirl

I can't believe The Strokes were awful.

They were. but I was in a bad mood after JA cancelled.

I just read the NME review and it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. There were lots of positive comments in there.

[dead-duck]

Originally Posted by Niall

To be honest I agree with this review.

I don't think any of that should surprise anyone. We all know the the vast number of Muse fans are described by the following details.

• Really started liking Muse because of Absolution and Black Holes.
• Probably only listened to those albums and The Resistance thoroughly.
• Probably love PiB, New Born and Feeling Good.
• Probably have given OoS a few listens but are nowhere near familiar.

As for festival goers, many of them:

• Are only familiar with Muse singles and the last few albums
• Aren't that familiar but came along because they know Muse are awesome
• Were expecting to here at least something familiar in the first 50 minutes.

Given that, I entirely agree that the festival were a weird choice to play the album. It should have been a smaller venue, advertised primarily to the fan base, maybe in a few locations in the UK, or just one big venue like Wembley. It probably happened because Muse signed on for the festivals and then latterly decided they really wanted to play the album live however, so how it came about isn't exactly absurd.

And the reviewer does give due credit. He acknowledges that it was good to hear these rare songs live and they were indeed interesting, and he certainly acknowledges Muse's talent. But he's right: festival crowds are general fans and people who might not be that familiar, and the choice to gear and album adored by Muse fans, not everyone, at a general crowd was probably a disservice to the festival crowd and to the general fans who had to pay over the odds to attend a festival to see their favourite album played live, not to mention the BBC debacle that followed.

Pretty much this..... btw extra points for the use of bulleted lists

One thing, though - they would have heard at least 2 familiar things in the first 50mins, everyone should know at least PiB and FG....

EDIT: oh, one other thing - I first heard muse when Hysteria was on the radio, so like '04, and the first album I bought was BH&R, yet I know the earlier albums