‘We are caged in simulations,” reads the gigantic, stage-wide convex screen as a legion of neon robots with trombones herald Matt Bellamy rising from the centre of the stadium with android fanfares, as if the AI have arisen and stolen the jobs of the nearest marching band. So have Muse been a glitch in the matrix all along?
They always seemed a spectacular rock’n’roll programming error: three Teignmouth lads who became superstars by deciphering the malevolent sociopolitical virus code of the 21st century and delivering their findings in a blitz of operatic space rock, dystopian stage fantasies and solos resembling a cyborg Queen ferociously malfunctioning.
Certainly the tour for 2015’s Drones – when remote-controlled spheres strafed the stands and diaphanous screens stretched the length of arenas – was so immersive that it’s surely only a matter of technology before they go fully virtual and play stadium gigs in your squat. Meantime, they bring the retro-futurist 80s teen flick unrealities of their VR-themed new album Simulation Theory to life.
Donning glowing glasses throughout, Bellamy plays an avatar being hunted through the machine. Space zombies chase him along the ego ramp throughout synthrock anthem Thought Contagion. Acrobats in isolation suits walk vertically down the screen during the Arabian-inflected Break It To Me, tracking him with flashlights. A 23rd-century task force, wielding steam-throwers, invade the stage for Propaganda, the sound of Prince being crushed beneath a grooving Terminator.
These breezy, synthetic new tunes interface seamlessly with Uprising, Supermassive Black Hole and Psycho – tracks that always sounded like glam being shot around the Large Hadron Collider – and the first hour zips by. A plodding gospel Dig Down hobbles the pace, but there’s enough momentum to sci-fi anthems such as Mercy and pop-metal classics Hysteria, Time Is Running Out and hellfire opera Take A Bow – sung by Bellamy to a silver skull like a Spielberg Hamlet – to ensure the most dizzying and future-facing of stadium spectacles.
At its climax, a giant alien borg bursts from the stage, flailing at the air, growing angrier as Stockholm Syndrome mashes magnificently into Reapers and New Born. Keep telling yourself: it’s only a simulation…
• At Ashton Gate stadium, Bristol, 5 June; and touring.
