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About 14:45 my sister and I left for Emirates Stadium. Yesterday it poured, but today it was dry, phew. Getting rained on during a concert would have sucked and I wouldn't have been able to wear my beloved Glitterati converse that I've been wearing to every Muse gig since Wembley 2010.
On the way I put my postcards in a mailbox. What I didn't know yet was that my postcards wouldn't be collected on Monday (because it was a bank holiday) and that they would take 3 weeks to arrive anyway, because apparently I used the wrong combination of stamps and mailbox.
Shortly after 15:30 (doors were supposed to open 17:00) we arrived at the stadium. While we were looking for our assigned Turnstile M, I looked around for people I know. I recognized my Portuguese friend Inês's back and her boyfriend (although I hadn't seen him in real life or his back before) and ran to them to say hi and wish Inês a happy birthday.
"Queuing". As you can see there is nothing that could be called a line.
This guy was next to someone with "Muse" written in black and red on their face. I have to say he used the color better than his neighbor.
It wasn't much past 17:00 when the doors open. Unfortunately at the door we were closest to there seemed to be the slowest progress, so we moved towards the door next to it. So we were inside yay, but the gates to the inside inside seemed to be still closed.
This hung next to the gate that's closest to Turnstile M.
Thinking we had some time, we stood around, went to the toilet and stood around some more. Then we went from one closed gate to the next until we found an open one. Oh great, it turned out the gates had been open all this time, just not the ones closest to Turnstile M, because that's where the stage was. Luckily we still got an almost-barrier spot: 2nd row, far on Chris's side, pretty much at the corner of the barrier.
I sat down on the ground, because I didn't need my back to ache before Muse even started.
Our view.
18:00-30 Bastille played.
Shortly after 19:00 I couldn't sit anymore and stood up. I had nothing soft to sit on and the closer it got to Muse starting, the less space I had.
19:00-45 Dizzee Rascal played and my sister finally understood why I had ranted about this choice of support.
Ooh, how nice, the security guys at the barrier handed out plastic cups of water. That's how it's gotta be! Well, maybe it's a thing everywhere now - I wouldn't know, I hadn't been at the barrier for years. I had avoided it, because 1. it can get too squeezy there (and I wouldn't be able to change my stance to relieve my back), 2. some security people can be right party poopers (not that I've witnessed it, but I've heard some stories) and 3. as much as I like to watch the band, I'm totally not cool when they have the opportunity to watch me all the time.
After the sun was behind the stadium walls, it got colder and I was glad that I had taken my cardigan with me. But it's weird to be in 3 layers at a concert.
Because I was busy putting my jacket back on over my cardigan, I missed 20:15. Damn you, Muse, for being punctual for once! I quickly took my camera out of my bag and started recording. I have a playlist of the whole gig on YouTube, if you're interested. Most of the following pictures are screenshots from these videos.
1. intro + Supremacy.
Heh, everytime the chimneys fired it was comfortably warm for a moment.
Check out this girl's glorious hair!
2. Supermassive Black Hole.
I totally didn't notice that they started the song differently until Matt didn't play, went "fuck" and said that he'd expected a different song. So they started again, this time with Matt playing the usual live intro.
*sigh* The focus while zoomed in was being a pain in the ass, but did get you a nice view of Morgan rocking the cabasa.
Here, have a medium shot of Chris.
3. Panic Station.
Matt looked up at the visuals of dancing David Cameron and laughed.
Heh, from following the Coventry (first gig of the stadium tour) sexy plane, I knew that David Cameron was in the visuals, but here I got to find out that there are also a dancing Obama, Putin and Merkel, hee. And a guy I still haven't identified.
4. BLISS!
OMFG, Bliss! I got to hear Bliss live a second time \o/! When the song started I squeezed my sister's shoulder, because I had too much reaction that I had to get out, the noises I made weren't enough. I almost cried tears of happiness. And I zoomed back out, because Bliss is for jumping, not for trying to hold a camera still.
Chris paid us a visit. Hi Chris!
5. Resistance.
Matt making use of the cat walk and encouraging the crowd to clap.
I tried to film Matt and Chris on the catwalk, but my view was too sucky. Couldn't see Matt at all.
More awesome hair.
6. Animals.
I wondered if Inês's video (hers won the contest for the official Animals video) would be shown, because she had been told that it would be shown at the gig she went to. This London gig was her prize and it was her birthday too, so she wanted it to be shown here instead of the gig in her country. But it wasn't shown here.
Smiley Dom is my favorite Dom.
The things that I had suspected to be confetti machines turned out to be just that. It was raining Musos, but none came down close enough for us to catch them.
7. Man with a Harmonica + ...
I really like it when you can tell from an intro what song is about to follow.
... Knights of Cydonia.
God, I fucking love this song. Having it so early in the set instead of being the closer is still weird though.
8. Dracula Mountain + United States of Eurasia.
9. Dead Star!
Although I kind of expected this song (because Coventry got Bliss and Dead Star and then we got Bliss too), I didn't really expect I'd get to hear it live. You guys, I got to hear Dead Star live!
10. Montpellier Jam + ...
Yes, very happy that I got to hear the lovely Montpellier Jam again! \o/
... Feeling Good.
*snort* That was unexpected. I expected Montpellier Jam usual follow-up, Explorers.
11. Follow Me.
Short moment of a non-sucky view of the catwalk, yay!
12. Liquid State.
I was a bit disappointed that we got this song instead of Save Me. Meh, at least Matt came for a visit.
13. Madness.
Oh god, he's still using these ridiculous video glasses.
14. House of the Rising Sun + Time Is Running Out.
The combo for guaranteed sing-along fun. :oD
Ah, the evil roulette moment, when we find out if we get Stockholm Syndrome or New Born.
15. New Born + Ashamed outro.
Because I love Stockholm Syndrom so much, I was a bit disappointed.
But New Born is still great.
And this was the end of the main set.
16. Unintended.
Whereis Waldo are Matt and Chris?
17. Blackout.
I wonder if this is the same acrobat as from the Wembley 2007 and 2010.
My camera battery chose this rather fitting song to die. Good thing that I had a 2nd battery and that my sister also recorded the song.
18. Guiding Light.
I can't believe they're still playing this song! Feels pretty pointless without streamers and confetti.
19. Undiclosed Desires.
It was pretty fun watching Matt walk past the crowd. XD
After that came an encore break that I didn't notice.
20. Unsustainable.
Charles the robot on stage with Muse the band.
21. Plug In Baby.
22. Survival.
Aw, look at Chris grinning as he leads the finger snapping.
Meh, look at that stupid song getting the cool rainbow-triangles visuals.
Break before the 3rd encore.
23. Isolated System.
Well, actually most of the song was the encore break. They played the video and some replacement for the news readers you hear on the album, and later the band came back on stage.
24. Uprising.
Holy shit, an army of Chriseseses. Imagine their impregnation powers!
25. Starlight.
In Conventry this was the last song - it was weird feeling in the middle of the gig and then suddenly you know it's almost over.
The way from the stadium to the Tube station was slow. The police had put up barriers and we were divived. Sis and I didn't understand what the guy said, so we didn't know if we were on the correct side. We just took the one that moved faster. It turned out that this one was longer, but I think we did get to the station faster than we would have on the other way.
From my hotel room I saw a fox.
On the way I put my postcards in a mailbox. What I didn't know yet was that my postcards wouldn't be collected on Monday (because it was a bank holiday) and that they would take 3 weeks to arrive anyway, because apparently I used the wrong combination of stamps and mailbox.
Shortly after 15:30 (doors were supposed to open 17:00) we arrived at the stadium. While we were looking for our assigned Turnstile M, I looked around for people I know. I recognized my Portuguese friend Inês's back and her boyfriend (although I hadn't seen him in real life or his back before) and ran to them to say hi and wish Inês a happy birthday.
"Queuing". As you can see there is nothing that could be called a line.This guy was next to someone with "Muse" written in black and red on their face. I have to say he used the color better than his neighbor.It wasn't much past 17:00 when the doors open. Unfortunately at the door we were closest to there seemed to be the slowest progress, so we moved towards the door next to it. So we were inside yay, but the gates to the inside inside seemed to be still closed.
This hung next to the gate that's closest to Turnstile M.Thinking we had some time, we stood around, went to the toilet and stood around some more. Then we went from one closed gate to the next until we found an open one. Oh great, it turned out the gates had been open all this time, just not the ones closest to Turnstile M, because that's where the stage was. Luckily we still got an almost-barrier spot: 2nd row, far on Chris's side, pretty much at the corner of the barrier.
I sat down on the ground, because I didn't need my back to ache before Muse even started.
Our view.18:00-30 Bastille played.Shortly after 19:00 I couldn't sit anymore and stood up. I had nothing soft to sit on and the closer it got to Muse starting, the less space I had.
19:00-45 Dizzee Rascal played and my sister finally understood why I had ranted about this choice of support.
Ooh, how nice, the security guys at the barrier handed out plastic cups of water. That's how it's gotta be! Well, maybe it's a thing everywhere now - I wouldn't know, I hadn't been at the barrier for years. I had avoided it, because 1. it can get too squeezy there (and I wouldn't be able to change my stance to relieve my back), 2. some security people can be right party poopers (not that I've witnessed it, but I've heard some stories) and 3. as much as I like to watch the band, I'm totally not cool when they have the opportunity to watch me all the time.
After the sun was behind the stadium walls, it got colder and I was glad that I had taken my cardigan with me. But it's weird to be in 3 layers at a concert.
Because I was busy putting my jacket back on over my cardigan, I missed 20:15. Damn you, Muse, for being punctual for once! I quickly took my camera out of my bag and started recording. I have a playlist of the whole gig on YouTube, if you're interested. Most of the following pictures are screenshots from these videos.
1. intro + Supremacy.Heh, everytime the chimneys fired it was comfortably warm for a moment.Check out this girl's glorious hair!2. Supermassive Black Hole.I totally didn't notice that they started the song differently until Matt didn't play, went "fuck" and said that he'd expected a different song. So they started again, this time with Matt playing the usual live intro.
*sigh* The focus while zoomed in was being a pain in the ass, but did get you a nice view of Morgan rocking the cabasa.Here, have a medium shot of Chris.3. Panic Station.Matt looked up at the visuals of dancing David Cameron and laughed.
Heh, from following the Coventry (first gig of the stadium tour) sexy plane, I knew that David Cameron was in the visuals, but here I got to find out that there are also a dancing Obama, Putin and Merkel, hee. And a guy I still haven't identified.
4. BLISS!OMFG, Bliss! I got to hear Bliss live a second time \o/! When the song started I squeezed my sister's shoulder, because I had too much reaction that I had to get out, the noises I made weren't enough. I almost cried tears of happiness. And I zoomed back out, because Bliss is for jumping, not for trying to hold a camera still.
Chris paid us a visit. Hi Chris!5. Resistance.Matt making use of the cat walk and encouraging the crowd to clap.
I tried to film Matt and Chris on the catwalk, but my view was too sucky. Couldn't see Matt at all.
More awesome hair.6. Animals.I wondered if Inês's video (hers won the contest for the official Animals video) would be shown, because she had been told that it would be shown at the gig she went to. This London gig was her prize and it was her birthday too, so she wanted it to be shown here instead of the gig in her country. But it wasn't shown here.
Smiley Dom is my favorite Dom.The things that I had suspected to be confetti machines turned out to be just that. It was raining Musos, but none came down close enough for us to catch them.7. Man with a Harmonica + ...I really like it when you can tell from an intro what song is about to follow.
... Knights of Cydonia.God, I fucking love this song. Having it so early in the set instead of being the closer is still weird though.
8. Dracula Mountain + United States of Eurasia.9. Dead Star!Although I kind of expected this song (because Coventry got Bliss and Dead Star and then we got Bliss too), I didn't really expect I'd get to hear it live. You guys, I got to hear Dead Star live!
10. Montpellier Jam + ...Yes, very happy that I got to hear the lovely Montpellier Jam again! \o/
... Feeling Good.*snort* That was unexpected. I expected Montpellier Jam usual follow-up, Explorers.
11. Follow Me.Short moment of a non-sucky view of the catwalk, yay!
12. Liquid State.I was a bit disappointed that we got this song instead of Save Me. Meh, at least Matt came for a visit.
13. Madness.Oh god, he's still using these ridiculous video glasses.
14. House of the Rising Sun + Time Is Running Out.The combo for guaranteed sing-along fun. :oD
Ah, the evil roulette moment, when we find out if we get Stockholm Syndrome or New Born.15. New Born + Ashamed outro.Because I love Stockholm Syndrom so much, I was a bit disappointed.
But New Born is still great.And this was the end of the main set.
16. Unintended.Where
17. Blackout.I wonder if this is the same acrobat as from the Wembley 2007 and 2010.
My camera battery chose this rather fitting song to die. Good thing that I had a 2nd battery and that my sister also recorded the song.
18. Guiding Light.I can't believe they're still playing this song! Feels pretty pointless without streamers and confetti.
19. Undiclosed Desires.It was pretty fun watching Matt walk past the crowd. XD
After that came an encore break that I didn't notice.
20. Unsustainable.Charles the robot on stage with Muse the band.
21. Plug In Baby.22. Survival.Aw, look at Chris grinning as he leads the finger snapping.
Meh, look at that stupid song getting the cool rainbow-triangles visuals.Break before the 3rd encore.
23. Isolated System.Well, actually most of the song was the encore break. They played the video and some replacement for the news readers you hear on the album, and later the band came back on stage.
24. Uprising.Holy shit, an army of Chriseseses. Imagine their impregnation powers!25. Starlight.In Conventry this was the last song - it was weird feeling in the middle of the gig and then suddenly you know it's almost over.
The way from the stadium to the Tube station was slow. The police had put up barriers and we were divived. Sis and I didn't understand what the guy said, so we didn't know if we were on the correct side. We just took the one that moved faster. It turned out that this one was longer, but I think we did get to the station faster than we would have on the other way.
From my hotel room I saw a fox.Leave a comment