Founded in the late 1990s, Muse joins the lexicon of groups such as Stone Roses and The Music in the category of “bands that are big in the United Kingdom but …”
However, unlike the aforementioned artists, Muse is riding a newfound wave of success on this side of the pond. The band’s latest album Absolution was released in March and has been getting consistent radioplay since its release.
The group achieved moderate success in 1999 with its debut album Showbiz. The album made for an impressive rookie LP, showcasing a layering of hefty guitar riffs over melodic keyboards all guided by the strength of vocalists Matt Bellamy. This same formula is nearly perfected on Absolution.
On the scale of modern British frontmen, Bellamy falls somewhere between Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. It would be easy to write him off as another whiny Brit, but the way his voice carries a song — not quite as chaotic as Yorke’s, yet not as melodic as Martin’s — demands listeners pay attention to his songs.
Although the album was a small success, Muse’s sophomore effort, Origin of Symmetry, was not released stateside. However, that may soon change because Absolution has been so well received.
The album has been so successful that the three-piece has sold out almost all the dates on its current U.S. club tour, including a sold-out show in Seattle at Neumo’s Sunday night.
The tour is the band’s first trip stateside in more than four years and Muse is eager to make a positive impression on concertgoers. So eager, in fact, that the first show of the tour had to be canceled because of a guitar move gone wrong. Five songs into the set, Bellamy spilt open his lip on his guitar and had to leave the stage and be taken to the hospital, where he received stitches.
“I was shocked,” said Muse drummer Dom Howard during a phone interview. “I knew it was serious when we had to stop the show.”
“There was so much blood coming from his mouth, his lip was totally split open. He couldn’t talk let alone sing.”
Even though Bellamy got stitches, only two shows had to be canceled. The group recently played its biggest show of the tour at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., where it performed in front of more than 30,00 fans in 100-degree weather.
Taking the stage at festivals like Coachella, where Muse crossed paths with like musicians such as Radiohead and the Pixies, is commonplace for the group. But one musician who wouldn’t necessarily be thought of as having a connection to Muse, Celine Dion, has crossed paths with the group as well.
When Dion was planning her Las Vegas stage show, she considered titling it “Celine Dion: Muse.” However, since the British trio owns trademark for the name Muse for all music-related services, including live performances and records, it threatened legal action.
“She probably whispered it into the ears of her lawyers and they had to check and see if it was taken,” said Howard.
After being threatened by legal action, Dion offered to buy the right to the name for $50,000, but Muse wasn’t selling.
“We never wanted to sell our name to Celine Dion,” he said. “It would be horrible to see big posters in Vegas that say ‘Celine Dion: Muse.’ My God, that would be the end.”
While you won’t see Muse sharing a bill with Dion in Sin City any time soon, it’s likely you may see Muse take Dion’s former spot on top of the charts in the near future.
