Muse in Glasgow, April 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You cannot fault the effort that Muse put into their show, the production values are simply out of this world, the sound magnificent and the extras that make it always worth attending one of their performances just something to behold with slight awe. What can let it down as you watch the whole evening unfold is when the audience don’t seem to want to join in the fun and the absolute pleasure until very late in the day; the odd mosh pit opening aside, until the old storming favourite of Time Is Running Out presented itself to the crowd, there was hardly a peep of mass voice joining in.

For Muse though this was the band once more at the height of their powers, musically pleasing, artistically delightful, more to see and hear than many could ever hope for; a group with imagination and the skill to act upon it to give a show that ranks very highly in the memory banks. It is to be entertained and to understand the music on offer, the meaning behind this important British band that makes attending one of their shows such a prized asset to life.

With the latest album Drones very much in mind, the satisfying spectre of such flying objects caught in some cosmic dance, an arrangement of beauty encircling the lengthy stage in the middle of the Hydro was a spectacle to behold; these phantom like strangers that sit above us, recording our moves, the eye in the sky that can bring destruction at a moment’s notice to our lives. The giant balls themselves added a great dimension to the concert and only gave the songs on offer greater meaning and depth as they circled and waltzed in the air high above the crowd.

With songs such as Map of the Problematique, Dead Inside, The Second Law (Isolated System), the superb Supermassive Black Hole, Citizen Erased, Madness, Stockholm Syndrome, the aforementioned Time Is Running Out and Uprising all carrying the weight of expectation on the broad shoulders, The Hydro was under serious threat of bursting at the seams and allowing the wall of sound to explode out past The Clyde and the memories of master shipbuilders who dominated the scene with grace.

Muse will always give a hell of a performance and perhaps the exhilaration of the day had been lost with the Old firm derby in the Scottish Cup, but the music certainly spoke for itself as The Hydro rocked to the sound of symphonic Rock.

Ian D. Hall