Last night (Monday, May 9) saw Muse play the first of two special charity shows at London’s Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. Check out photos, footage, the setlist and more below.
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The Devon rock trio announced the gigs back in March, with money raised at the first show donated to War Child and Médecins Sans Frontières‘ relief efforts in Ukraine. The second show will celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Big Issue. This marked the band’s first major gigs of 2022 after playing an intimate comeback club show in Exeter last month.
Taking to the stage with a simple but powerful light show rather than their usual theatrical stadium production, the band opened with ‘Won’t Stand Down‘, the lead single from upcoming ninth album ‘The Will Of The People‘. A run of singles followed with ‘Absolution‘ favourite ‘Hysteria’ (with the riff from AC/DC‘s ‘Back In Black’ tacked on to the end), ‘Pressure’ from 2018’s ‘Simulation Theory’, ‘Origin Of Symmetry‘ classic ‘Bliss’, and ‘Psycho’ from ‘Drones‘ all whipping the sold-out crowd into a frenzy before the band dropped a number of rarities.
Described by frontman Matt Bellamy as “back from the dead, from a weird B-side version”, the band then played the rocked-up ‘Grand Omega Bosses Edit’ of ‘Black Holes And Revelations‘ track ‘Assassin’ (which was the B-side to the ‘Knights Of Cydonia’ vinyl release) before the singer told the crowd: “This is the deepest of deep cuts. If anyone knows this, I’ll be very surprised”. They then performed the instrumental ‘The Gallery’ live for the first time ever since it appeared as a B-side for ‘Bliss’ in 2001 and later ‘The Hullabaloo Soundtrack’ in 2002.
A rock-tinged version of recent single ‘Compliance‘ followed before an early airing of former set closer ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ (extended by incorporating the riff from Rage Against The Machine‘s ‘Calm Like A Bomb’). A run of crowd-pleasing stadium staples followed with the likes of ‘Starlight’, ‘Plug In Baby’ and ‘Supermassive Black Hole’. But the biggest fan reaction was saved for the sprawling ‘Origin Of Symmetry’ centrepiece ‘Citizen Erased’ and rallying cry closer of ‘The Resistance’ single ‘Uprising’.
Introducing ‘Citizen Erased’, Bellamy told the crowd: “We have missed you guys so much. It’s so great to be back here with you, sweating. We’re going to play this one for you, because we all know you love it.”
The band then returned for an encore of the rarely-played ‘Origin Of Symmetry’ favourite ‘Space Dementia’ (which saw Bellamy throw his guitar across the stage during the outro) and the standard ending of ‘Knights Of Cydonia’ before Bellamy thanked the crowd and paid tribute to the charities that the shows were in aid of.
Muse return to Hammersmith Apollo for a second show tonight and will be supported by Razorlight.
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Muse played:
‘Won’t Stand Down’
‘Interlude’
‘Hysteria (with AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ riff outro)
‘Pressure’
‘Bliss’
‘Psycho’
‘Assassin’ (‘Grand Omega Bosses Edit’ version)
‘The Gallery’
‘Compliance’
‘Stockholm Syndrome’ (with Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Calm Like A Bomb’ riff outro)
‘Prelude’
‘Starlight’
‘Plug In Baby’
‘Citizen Erased’
‘Supermassive Black Hole’
‘Uprising’
Encore:
‘Space Dementia’
‘Knights Of Cydonia’
Muse will release ‘Will Of The People’ on August 26. Bellamy previously revealed what to expect from the record, telling fans: “A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests and riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilisation of the global order all informed ‘Will Of The People’.”
He added: “This album goes from metal all the way to pop to my first version to an Adele song… a lot of electronica.” he added. “We produced it ourselves. We were analysing everything we’ve done to date. The last song on the album is called ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’. I’m really happy and proud of it. I genuinely think it’s our best album.”
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Alongside a long summer of festival appearances – including Mallorca Live, Mad Cool, and Andalucia Big Festival, Muse will headline the Isle of Wight Festival in June alongside Lewis Capaldi and Kasabian, with tickets available here.
