MUSE!!

So today is all about going to see Muse at the NIA in Birmingham. I managed to get home without getting lost and even avoided the roadworks on the M1 save for about 3/4 of a mile before my exit junction so I made good time. I was treated to a fish supper by my Gran who has come to stay and keep my mum company for a week now that she is home alone. As usual, my timings are completely off and I missed the train I was planning to catch into town. Thankfully they were still running quite frequently and I got there with about ten minutes to spare. What I didn't realise was how far away the NIA was from New Street (the way I went anyway). I'm pretty hopeless with directions and still don't really know my way around Birmingham City Centre despite living here for most of my life. I managed to find it eventually though after following the crowds of people dressed to go to a gig. Just as we got into the arena the Big Pink came on stage and started playing. I had been forewarned about the excessive use of strobe lighting throughout their performance but thankfully we were still quite near the back at this point so it didn't matter too much. After they'd finished there was a complete mood kill when the safety announcement came on and explained about the emergency exits etc and the house lights were raised. About half an hour later (after several false cheers from the audience) they were once again switched off and the magic began.

My friends were convinced that we were still waiting for another support act so at this point we were still quite far back. As soon as we realised that this was the real dead however, we squeezed our way through the crowds to get as close to the front as possible. They started off with Uprising and appeared on a raised platform from behind a cover resembling a block of high rise flats. The lights and screens were incredible and were showing visualisations to match the music as well as showing the performance. It just kept getting better and better as the night went on and on a couple of occasions there seemed to be some problems but they were quickly resolved. We were even treated to their first ever live performance of MK Ultra which the crowd responded particularly favourably to. During one of the more energetic performances I managed to break my somewhat delicate belt which wasn't so good but it was well worth it.

Once the gig had finished we all stumbled out onto the streets, I started to feel really faint because of the heat and dehydration. We went looking for a bar to get a drink but anywhere close to the venue that wasn't either shut or crammed full of concert goers so we headed down to broad street and ended up in Walkabout thanks to a leafleter outside promoting it. We didn;t have to queue for too long and the drink made me feel a lot better so it was probably dehydration rather than anything more sinister. I'm hoping to put some pictures up tomorrow and a got a video of Undisclosed Desires as well although I have no idea how well it has come out but hopefully the sound quality isn't too bad.