Corkus

Pfft, Muse came on at 9 PM and I waited in line since 7 AM for both of my recent shows. 28 hours over two days? Oh yes. :D ...hey, it got me barrier both nights, okay? And there were people ahead of me who were there since 5 AM.

And now for someone who is not as strong as the rest of you... I'll be honest - I don't really have the will to attend concerts alone, and I truly envy those of you who do. Heck, I almost sold my Arcade Fire tickets last week solely because I had nobody to go with (but I ended up having to sell them anyway since I had a school project going on that night). Even in that instance, I had the opportunity to nail a single pit ticket for the second night (a bunch were released the night before). Couldn't bring myself to do it and I'm now devastated and deeply regretting passing it up. On the bright side, that may have been the very push I needed. I'm currently leaning toward buying a single ticket for Stars next month, even though tickets have been available for 3 months now, and the only reason I've held back is because none of my friends know who the hell they are, and the last time I introduced somebody to a new band by taking them to that band's show, they were a total killjoy the whole time. So I may do it. On the topic of CD's, I bought a bunch up until about a year ago, and since then, I've bought maybe 5 CD's max, and those were only for bands I really, really like and likewise wanted physical copies of their material. Kind of a shame, but CD's can get expensive. Not as expensive as gigs, of course, but they're obviously different experiences.

Does anybody else feel unfazed by the Coldplay covers - especially Viva La Vida - by this point? I mean, part of that may have to do with the fact that I no longer really care about Viva La Vida the song, but I've seen snippets of so many covers (most of them bad) that I no longer really care when someone else covers the song, or any other Coldplay song for that matter. If someone wants to cover it, let them. If they cover it badly, then lots of shame, but it's not like the song is ruined forever.

Hate This & I'll Love You is okay but certainly the weakest closer on any of Muse's albums. Sober is one of the few songs on an LP that I outright dislike. I really love Blackout, though. If I had to pick out a weak point on Absolution, it would be Endlessly, but there's really not a bad song on Abso. SFA, B&H and RBS are bloody gorgeous songs (with B&H being my second favorite Muse song behind Bliss). I still get chills from re-watching videos of the performance of Ruled By Secrecy at Staples (aside from the idiots talking over it). Also, I thought Coldplayers were bad when it came to griping about setlists. Go look at the sheer chaos that's happening over at the Muse board. :rolleyes:

Good news and bad news for me, mostly bad. Bad news is that I had to sell my Arcade Fire tickets for October 7th. I have a vital production session for one of my cinema classes that night and I'm super disappointed that I can't make the show anymore. :( Good news is that I was able to find a friend to sell to who is just as passionate about the band as I am, so I didn't have to resort to selling to an anonymous person on a scalping site. My best hope is that they return to LA toward the end of this tour (and hopefully at a better venue).

Damn...it's been a week since I saw Muse, and I may not see them again for another 2-3 years. :\ Highly depressed. Need a new band to stalk. (had to sell my Arcade Fire tickets, grr...) Aww...you don't like Matt's falsetto? Or just on certain songs like Micro Cuts? The second half of OoS is definitely harder to get into than the first half, although I think it's one of their best albums overall. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Absolution, which I believe is the peak of Muse's career. New Born is definitely immense live, although they removed the piano on this current tour, which is kind of a shame.

As someone who ranks both Coldplay and Muse in his Top 5 bands, I would have to vote Muse.mu over Coldplay.com but would vote Coldplaying over Muselive in a heartbeat. Coldplay.com has bugs from time to time and can be very sluggish, especially with its new features. In addition, it was never a really beefy site in terms of content. However, Coldplaying has a much better community than Muselive (and a better community than .mu as well). At least Keane's terribly hideous official site didn't win. :P

Yeah, USB sticks were hidden around Europe, Asia, and the US that were used to "unlock" parts of the song piece by piece. Still can't get over the amazing-ness of the past week...

Yeah, I didn't get to physically meet Tom, but I was standing by when my friends were taking a picture with him and we exchanged smiles. Really nice guy.

I'm so glad I was a witness to this epic riff-fest. Watch the whole thing (not my video). [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpzvUPbbivQ]YouTube - Muse- Outtro (Stockholm Syndrome) HD- Staples Center, LA- 09/26/10[/ame]

They played 30 seconds of Dead Star during a special 10 minutes of nothing but riffs right after Stockholm Syndrome (it was probably 8 different riffs). When we heard Dead Star, my group of 3 friends and I basically had our skulls melted (our faces had already been melted by that point). I actually cried during RBS. No joke. Had to take off my glasses because they were fogging up. By the end of the song, my face was soaking and my friends are all witnesses to it. Then they played Bliss immediately afterward (we were actually chanting "BLISS! BLISS! BLISS!" when he was talking about the next song being a song not played in LA for a long time). At that point, 3 of us got in a huge group hug and bounced in unison throughout the song. It was heavenly. Oh, did I mention they soundchecked Exogenesis 2 & 3? I kid you not. We didn't think they'd play it during the show, but they also soundchecked RBS and Bliss and we got those, so there was a glimmer of hope during the encore. However, the massive riffage instead we got was satisfying enough. I took no pictures at this show. None. Zilch. Except of me holding somebody's setlist, but other than that, this was purely a show for me to rock out to the whole time (I was barrier on Chris's side this time). Glad I did. :D

Home from Staples Night 2. ... Did I just witness Ruled By Secrecy AND Bliss AND a Dead Star riff AND an Agitated riff? ... I think I'll need to answer that in the morning because I'm not entirely convinced I'm living in reality right now.

Heh, because I was being crushed on the barrier so often, you'll notice that most of my pics are either from Undisclosed Desires or Exogenesis, seeing as how neither of those send the crowd into a frenzy (though Exo is quite beautiful live). I'm pretty sure those lights are actually the exit doors in the back of the arena. Yes indeedy. Will take more pics at tomorrow's show! (Hope Viva Child has fun tonight!)

Here are the best pics I took. I didn't take too many, and all the others came out rather blurry, but I admit to being a huge fan of how some of the Undisclosed Desires pics look like Matt is sporting flaming devil horns. Anaheim 9/23 pics:

So like...Muse last night...I have no face this morning because it's basically melted off. Barrier in front of Matt all night, meaning I got crushed against the barricade repeatedly, and it was the most painfully awesome feeling in the world. Intense crowd on Matt's side at times, and I rocked out with the best of them save for the bitch behind me who I repeatedly had to elbow to keep off the barrier. :veryangry2: When Matt tossed his glasses, he misfired and they bounced off the barrier toward security and landed close to me. Security handed it to someone else I know, so he actually let me wear them and take a pic. :D (I'll have to wait for the person who took the picture to upload) So yeah, I have Matt's germs on my face. Will upload pics later. Round 2 on Sunday. :D

All of my usernames are based off cartoon characters I created when I was 9, including this one. :lol:

sweet matt bellamy on ice skates i'm seeing muse tomorrow :stunned::shocked2::stunned: Hoping for Bliss one of the nights.

Ever hear of the word "pornogenic"? I'll leave it at that. ;)

They're opening for Muse, so I'll be seeing them twice in the next week. :P To be honest, I think some of their songs are really annoying. Especially "Sleepyhead". I know it's popular but I can't stand it. Creepy chipmunk sounds. On the other hand, "Moth's Wings" and "To Kingdom Come" are pretty good songs, so I assume I'll enjoy at least a part of their set. Yeah, the Muse fangirls there are even weirder than the Coldplay fangirls here. Everyone else there just complains about setlists to shows they didn't attend. Ooh, shame I won't be seeing you then. I'll be arriving to Anaheim in the morning and to LA Day 2 sometime mid-afternoon.

So just so I'm prepared for later this week, how is Passion Pit's live show? Because I've heard a lot of good things and also a lot of bad things. On record, I like only a handful of their songs. :/ Oh yeah, Absolution > all. :)

And if it isn't, they should at least televise this charade.

I'm going to the second show in LA (the 26th) in addition to Anaheim. But not the first LA date, unless someone needs to get rid of a GA ticket last-minute, which I doubt anyone does. 3 days now. Already planning a massive meet-up with folks from .mu (which I admit to spending more time on than Coldplaying these days; apologies, folks).

^ That's really awesome, I wanted to be at that show (and tonight's SB show, but couldn't make it to either). Did you arrive on-time to see Grizzly Bear? If so, how were they? The other person I know who went apparently got there merely a few minutes before Phoenix came on.

I'm trying to imagine what would come out of my mouth if I heard them play Bliss or RBS or Citizen Erased live. Probably something like "SWEET FLAMING ZOMBIE MOTHER****ING BUDDHA ON ROLLER BLADES YES" :lol: Hope you mean 5 days (unless you mean Staples Center). Otherwise no one will be there. Honda Center show is the 23rd. :P (see you there, perhaps?)

Hmm...I think both songs work well because they're simple. On record, I'd cop out and put them at a statistical tie, but Yellow is a certain crowd pleaser live, and the acoustic version of it is beautiful. Yellow by a hair.