Throughout much of the 1990s I took note of pretty much every band or artist that appeared on the cover of the NME or Melody Maker music publications in the UK. If I wasn’t aware of them already then I’d usually be interested in hearing them but as we moved into a new century I gradually lost a bit of interest in such promotion of new acts, and one of the first bands I didn’t take too much notice of was a rock trio from Devon known as Muse!

Fast forward about five years and I realised I liked quite a few of their songs and kind of began to regret not taking more notice of them from the start. By the time their fourth album ‘Black Holes & Revelations‘ came out in 2006, I was quite the fan and for the next six years or so I listened to a fair amount of their material, particularly the live album ‘HAARP‘ from when they were one of the first bands to play at the new, redeveloped Wembley Stadium in 2008. Indeed, I often watch a few tracks from that concert in the present. It was an era when they were winning many awards for their live performances and established themselves as a popular global stadium band.

Over the last few years I’ve got more and more back into listening to music after a decade of pretty much podcast-listening only. When I was targeted on Instagram a few months ago with an advert for a Muse live show at K-Arena Yokohama I instantly clicked on the link and had secured a ticket within a couple of minutes.

Admittedly, I had never heard of K-Arena until then but that is probably because it only opened two years ago!

With a capacity of 20,000 it is one of the world’s biggest arenas dedicated to music. Indeeed it was an impressive sight and I got to admire it from various angles as I arrived there quite early ahead of doors opening at 5:30 pm.

It didn’t take too long for the place to fill up, and there were probably more band t-shirts being worn than I would’ve expected.

One of the more popular t-shirts was a quite arty black and yellow effort with “We are f***ing f***ed” written on it which was the final track on their last album in 2022. As a native English speaker I don’t think I could wear such a top but it’s fine in Japan where the f-word sometimes features in movie trailers or can be heard in songs playing in shops!

It was only just before entering that I even noticed my seat was on the seventh floor! In my mind I guess I was just expecting a two tier venue as that is what I am mostly used to. K-Arena was more similar to the one in Ariake where my wife and I saw Kylie earlier this year. There was even a cool bar in the concourse on the seventh level with some wonderful views looking out over the port.

Far away, the stage is far away!

As the starting time neared it seemed apparent that it was not a sold-out show and there were probably still one or two thousand empty seats. The Japanese often sit down clutching their bags which is fine and considerate for public transportation but I do still find it weird when they do likewise at a sports match or concert. The two people sat either side of me both did that and I was worried they’d remain in that pose for the whole night. The businessman on my left thankfully put it down and stood up after the first song but the woman to my right did not let go of hers and remained sat down for the whole show!!

As expected the band blasted through their songs with very little speaking between the tunes. Flames blasting off throughout the whole set was something of a theme along with their customary props and visuals.

Bellamy has an incredible vocal range and understandably some of his more high-pitched singing is not appreciated by everyone. There’s also a fair amount of screaming on top of that as well as many indecipherable lyrics too but the mix of electronica, metal, pop, rock, classical and rock-opera works well for me.

Muse’s nine studio albums, as well as Bellamy’s solo work, were all represented in their second show in Japan (they played in Osaka two days earlier), and I knew the vast majority of them. As ever there were a few I was unaware of but I was fine with that as I didn’t go full-on with my preparation this time.

When I first saw Muse at Summer Sonic 2006 I thought frontman Bellamy seemed a little shy as he didn’t really address the audience with the drummer Dominic Howard doing that instead which is a little unusual. He’s still not much of a talker onstage but just lets his musicianship (and dazzling jackets!) do the talking. There were shades of Marty McFly regarding some of his guitar playing, and it also seemed like he was far more of a showman as he just sang on the catwalk part of the stage at times rather than always being behind a guitar or piano like in the past.

With its Doctor Who theme-inspired opening and homage to ‘Call Me‘ by Blondie,  ‘Uprising‘ is one of my favourite Muse songs and it actually did make the hairs on my arms stand on end as the crowd sang along loudly with the “they will not force us” chorus lines. ‘Knights of Cydonia‘ followed that and was also absolutely amazing to witness.

It was sad to not hear the likes of ‘Butterflies & Hurricanes‘ and ‘Map of the Problematique‘ but you can’t expect to hear all your favourites from a band with such a vast back catalogue of songs to their name. There were still plenty of bangers in the 24 song setlist, and this performance showed that when it comes to putting on a great live performance they’ve definitely still got it.

Setlist: 1. Unravelling; 2. Interlude; 3. Hysteria; 4. Will of the People; 5. Simulation Theory Theme/[JFK]; 6. Won’t Stand Down; 7. Thought Contagion; 8. [Drill Sergeant]; 9. Psycho; 10. Kill Or Be Killed; 11. Compliance; 12. Madness; 13. Plug In Baby; 14. Unintended; 15. United States of Eurasia; 16. Hanging In Victory Square; 17. Time Is Running Out; 18. Supermassive Black Hole; 19. Uprising; 20. Knights of Cydonia; 21. The 2nd Law: Isolated System; 22. Undisclosed Desires; 23. Prelude; 24. Starlight.

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