I had listened to Muse’s Uprising a few times after its release with a very half-assed attitude. You know what I mean – mindless shifting through static induced radio stations mid-song. There was no doubt this song was amazing with some sort of never heard/never seen before shock value as all Muse songs seem to have, but that was it. I didn’t really give it a second thought.That is, until I saw them performing at the MTV VMA’s. I know, I know – how mainstream and absolutely mundane of me. But let me tell you something: a good 80% of why I was watching the VMA’s in the first place was because it marked Muse’s official American television debut. They had a lot riding on that performance that night, especially considering the fact that they had two unbelievable acts to follow – those belonging to the infamous newcomer with the industry now wrapped around her gloved fingers: Lady Gaga, and the living legend, the goddess, Ms. Sasha Fierce herself: Beyonce.
Muse was introduced and the camera shifted to New York City’s Walter Kerr Theater, a location barely a fraction of the storied and main event venue Radio City Music Hall – much more intimate, but a packed house no doubt, with fans overflowing out the building and scattered onto the streets (a real claustrophobe’s dream, let me tell you).
Images start flashing in the background, and every single person starts jumping up and down in unison the nanosecond they hear the first beat of Muse’s signature rock/electronica sounds. After a long waited, anxious, but beautiful instrumental opening, we finally hear Matthew Bellamy’s unpolished, fragile, thespian, and perfect-in-every-way vocals. There is no choreography, no dancers in wheelchairs onstage, no hanging from the ceiling with blood dripping down the cornea, no voluptuous dancers in leotards, and no neck snatching dance movements that seem to be humanly impossible.
There is only the band onstage rocking out with every ounce of their being, and Bellamy’s insanely clear, utopian vocals. But their presence is in one word, omnipotent. In no time, the much anticipated chorus is amongst the lips of every single person within the radius of a mile, making an unequivocal statement – there is truly an uprising.
I watched this through a small screen television, in my pajamas, lying in bed. Yet, I still had goose bumps all over my body. I finally fulfilled the overdue deed of purchasing Uprising on iTunes and had my sister burn it onto a CD.
Back to reality, I listened to it in my SUV today for the first time with the speakers blasting, and I don’t know how this could be possible, but it had about twenty times the effect of the televised VMA performance. The song is unbelievable, it almost makes me feel as though I’m not worthy enough to listen to it. But I did. Over and over again. And now, I cannot save myself out of the oceans of “They will not force us. They will stop degrading us. They will not control us. We will be victorious.”
Why, oh WHY, is Muse not playing a show anywhere subsequently near me during the rest of 2009?! I am actually planning to take a trip to the UK or Australia around concert dates. Am I just entirely out of my mind? I think not. But if I were out of my mind, it wouldn’t matter if I contradicted myself, now would it?
Interchanging mind control.
