Yesterday I went to see Muse in the 2,600 capacity Manchester Academy. I joined the queue at 10am-ish, and was about 50th in line. Today, I'm lying in bed nursing a migraine, and I don't even have the post-gig euphoria/comedown that I've always associated with Muse.
Well... I wrote that a few weeks ago! And I've not had the headspace for blogging since, either because of me or because I've had a houseful of people, or both. But. With a bit of hindsight, that was actually a belting gig, it's just that I made a discovery, which was that I do, in fact, enjoy myself a lot more when I can actually see the performance, as well as hear it and be in a sweaty crowd of people jumping around. I've had that argument a few times about the point of queueing 'all day' (the need for this varies by band and venue) but that has, once and for all, hammered it home to me.
Anyway. I knew a few people were camping overnight for this one, making the little patch of grass outside Academy 1 into a small corner of a festival site for a few hours. And a few more people were arriving early in the morning, including the notorious French fans. (They're almost always right at the front of the queue, they have a reputation for being unfriendly and entitled. There was a rumour that a couple of them had left Manchester to head early to the next venue so they could be sure to be at the front of queue there. Turned out not to be the case, but it was plausible enough. Very sad, really, that they don't get the benefit of the camaraderie of queueing.) I arrived around 10, had a decent bunch of people around me and we passed the day with banter, regular food and toilet runs and playing Dobble, which is the perfect passing-time game. Oh and there was a bit of laughter at the touts who came around asking if people had tickets for sale, as they usually do, only to discover the paperless ticket system and the fact that there wouldn't be any tickets to sell except the very rare plus-ones. They went away pretty disheartened, I think.
I thought 10am would be OK to get a decent spot on the barrier or second row. After a fairly painless entry, my first time with a 'paperless' ticketing system (FYI it's not paperless if the instructions say to print out the confirmation email!) which was efficiently run, though I'd got behind someone whose card didn't go through first time so I was slightly held up, I headed to my usual choice of the right-hand side of the stage. I had a decent second-row spot, but then I heard my name being called from the other side, and went to join my queue-mates. By that point, though, I was in the third row. This was mostly fine for Marmozets, it was a bit bouncy and wavey but nothing intolerable. Muse, though, was a whole other ball game, and I quickly found myself squeezed back a row, and then behind a couple of tall and sweaty backs, and by the third or fourth song I had decided to try to bounce my way around in an arc back to the right. I ended up going in a diagonal from where I was to the bar! The nearly-a-pint of water I got there was very welcome!
So I then spent the rest of the gig just bopping around in my little bit of space, even at the bar there wasn't much room to jump around, watching the two quite drunk guys in front of me and trying to catch the occasional glimpse of Muse themselves. I leaned my arm against the wall for a couple of videos, so they're fairly steady at least! The setlists for this tour have all had something quite special and rare on them, mostly songs from Showbiz or B-sides from later albums, as well as a couple of songs from the new album and a good selection of the usual suspects. http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/muse/2015/manchester-academy-manchester-england-43cb1343.html
I hung around at the back with a crowd of folk, got chatting to a 17yo guy called Dan who is in a band called Sunburn Asylum, and we waited until Dom appeared. It's awkward at the Academy because they put building-site-type fencing up around the tour buses and building, hard to take photos and ask for things signing and generally chat, and it was all a bit squeal-y and pushy even at 12.15am. I decided to wait 'til 12.45 for the other two. Obviously, they came out about 5 minutes after I left, boo!
All in all, not my best Muse gig, but still, it was a Muse gig, in a small-for-them venue, with an amazing setlist and I didn't get molested. Can't call that a bad day out, and it was definitely a worthwhile use of my spoons. (If you don't know about spoon theory, do look it up! I haven't ever been diagnosed with anything other than post-natal depression, back in the day, but I do have a limited number of spoons at my disposal.) As for the actual sunburn, my spot in the queue was between buildings, so was in the sun for most of the day. When I got home, I got a 'what have you done to your face?!' screech from the other half. Sunburn in March, thanks Muse at least I got some vitamin D!
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