Muse @ Teignmouth Den

Saturday 5th September 2009

To see a band you love without leaving Devon can be a bit of a rarity, especially when they’re the sort of band that are one of the first to play the spanking new Wembely Arena, win countless live act awards, not to mention album sales. So when Muse announced their two dates in Teignmouth, they were set to transform the serene and scenic sea side town into a bustling landscape, hyped with festivities. The streets were swarming with adrenalized music fans, anxious to witness the event to make their summer. Any fan would know that this event was the stuff that dreams were made of, despite any preconceptions over the trio’s ability to marvel without sold-out-stadium vastness to back them up. Wait and see.

Ten thousand tickets were sold for each of the two titanic nights in Teignmouth, so the supergroup doubled the population of the ten thousand people seaside town. With ease I might add. The Den was transformed from a coastal green to a bustling festival ground complete with everything from street performers to burger vans, and VIPs to porta-loos. Two punch and judy figures framed the Victorian circus style stage, which projected a quirky nostalgia and childlike excitement on the eagerly awaiting crowds. As dusk was creeping in BBC Radio One’s Zane Lowe busted out a tasty entanglement of anti-anthems without letting the crowd grasp a beat or lyric long enough, like a super-fan’s struggle to catch a breath. Finishing with a pep-talk, emphasising how “to see a band like this, in a place of this size is something that doesn’t happen often, so savour every moment”

With everyone firmly in the spirit, the band swaggered onto the stage with a spring in their assertive step, oozing with confidence and ownership of the night. Instead of soaring into a luxuriously familiar riff, they began, perhaps against the expectations of some, with the first single Uprising from their recent album The Resistance. The track is a polished product of Matt Bellamy’s concept of ‘us’ and ‘them’ which he illustrates through atmospheric dance qualities andpolitical themes with a recognisable Muse pulse running through it. This will have been the first flavour for many fans of The Resistance set for release on Monday 7th September.

Crowning moments of the night would include the hands together audience contributions through Starlight, the sharp emergence of the Plug In Baby intro through the seductive feedback from the front-man’s guitar. Of course joker, not forgetting the memorable mistake when he admitted to forgetting Collateral Damage, the classical piano outro to United States of Eurasia which is the forth track from the new album. If this doesn’t bring the group down from their musical pedestal, it may be the awkwardly nonexistent between-song-banter that gave them back human form. A few timid one-liners communicating their gratitude and fulfillment for being able to play in the spot where they spent a lot of their youths, and where Bellamy first met drummer Dominic Howard.

As Muse conclude the magic with the tempestuous, stormy Knights of Cydonia, the punters are given the last chance to look around at the balcony on-lookers in their seaside flats, and the full moon gleaming down on the second of the Muse homecoming gigs on an extra special September weekend.