Over the spring break week, English rock band Muse along with American band Silversun Pickups stopped in Texas on their busy tour to perform in Fort Worth and Houston with a surprise show in Austin. With a sister who is an avid Muse fan, it wasn’t enough to only go to the Fort Worth show so when tickets went on sale a few months ago, we snagged some for the Houston show as well.
Their first Texas stop as at the Fort Worth Convention Center on the 17th. Having general admission tickets meant we needed to get their early and after hearing that fans had been waiting outside the venue since midnight, my sister and I headed over their 5 hours before doors opened. We weren’t too far back in line and got spots on the barricade, right in front of where lead singer and guitarist of Muse, Matthew Bellamy would be standing.
Silversun Pickups came on about seven and played a really good set for about 30 minutes. After a few waves goodbye, they left the stage and thus began the set up for Muse. For them, the band would be on these columns for part of the show that would move up and down for them to get on and off of. If you’ve seen their video for Resistance, you know what I’m talking about. After about a 30 minute wait, the lights dimmed and their introduction began to huge screams from the crowd, myself included.
Soon after the lights when out, Muse was there on the columns and broke out into their hit Uprising. The guys were amazing. Bellamy’s voice and guitar skills made this an amazing show. They played songs off almost all their albums excluding their first album, Showbiz. Most of the crowd sang along to every word of every song, clapping and cheering like maniacs when songs ended and when the group went off before their 3 song encore. I can honestly say that it was the best concert I’ve ever been to.
The Houston show at the Toyota Center on the 18th went about the same way with only a few changes to their set list. The crowd there seemed to love Muse just as much as the Fort Worth crowd did.
Earlier on in the week, it had been announced that Muse would be playing a surprise show in Austin at Stubb’s Barbecue. For those that wished to attend, they had to enter to win tickets. Others found a way to attend though, such as my sister. Since it was an outside venue, she stood outside and listened from the sidewalk along with a few other fans and even managed to meet Muse’s bassist, Chris Wolstenholme.
After this, Muse will be heading up to Canada, back through the U.S. and then eventually over to Europe where the tour will end.