On Sept. 21st fans at the Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine were treated to a bombastic performance by one of the few bands this generation has produced that can be looked on as pure rock and roll. A band that seems practically born of the arena, Muse has been perfecting their live sound for over 13 years now. The three Brit boys from Teignmouth brought their monster sound to So. Cal. and threw down with a stage show as big and soaring as their guitar solos.
After the seductive and somewhat crazy opening act of Juliette and The Licks got fans warmed up, Muse came rollicking in with their smash hit, “Knights of Cydonia,” in all of its simple glory. They followed that with mostly songs off of their newest (2006) release “Black Holes and Revelations,” and their 2003 effort “Absolution,” although through the middle of their set they also moved into songs from previous albums “Origin of Symmetry” and even their major-label debut “Showbiz.” This included their cover of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse's “Feeling Good” (from “Origin of Symmetry”), a song that’s been covered to death, yet still able to be brought to life by showmen like Muse.
Frontman Matthew Bellamy, 
decked out in a flashy red suit covering a Stevie Nicks shirt, seemed barely able to contain himself – despite doing triple duty on vocals, guitar and piano. He spent what seemed like as much of his time in the air as on the stage, from jumping and kicking into the air, to nearly breaking his neck when he almost fell off the giant amplifier he decided to ascend at one point.
Also performing multiduty was bassist and backup vocalist Chris Wolstenholme, decked in black and dedicated to making sure the songs had the perfect amount of unity and harmony that separates their music from the equally big but less intelligent throwback, hard-fi rock bands that get radio play along side them. Drummer Dominic Howard brought his signature explosive percussion out loud and hard, and touring keyboardist Morgan Nicholls had the thankless but no less important job of making the backup sound both ambient and rocking at the same time.
The 16,000+ audience, who knew every word to every song and let the band know it, helped to create the electricity of the evening as much as the superstar musicians they were there to witness. Asked by Bellamy during the late-middle of their set (during the song “Soldiers Poem”) to all hold up their cell phones, the audience stood in its own dome of glowing, radiant light. By the end of the show, they found themselves set upon by a rain of white balloons filled with confetti that would burst out when the balloons were popped. All of this is symbolic of the band itself: A speeding and 
descending (and oftentimes ascending) swarm of doomsday chaos, lying within a sphere of sound just waiting to explode.
At one with the energy of their audience, Muse was dead set against phoning it in. They could have just played the right notes at the appropriate volume, but Muse is known for being a live band that is both workmanlike and FUN. Bellamy engaged his audience throughout, whether it be through his squirrelly and ecstatic physicality, his conspiracy theory-inspired songs, or even his quoting of JFK. And much to the fans’ delight, Muse decided to leave them wanting more, but not to leave them wanting. So, quickly after they left the stage with the appropriately picked “Time is Running Out,” they were right back on to play their three-song encore consisting of “Plug In Baby” and “Take A Bow,” with the epic “Stockholm Syndrome” finally closing the night out. The 90-minute set that spanned four albums certainly set Muse as the performers their fans had heard they were.
