Concert Review: Muse at Aragon in Chicago

Wow, what an amazing show! I've seen Radiohead twice and I have to say, for sheer power and energy, the rock show Muse put on last night (July 27th, 2006) at the Aragon just might be better. Now, I've never seen Radiohead in a smaller venue, only at Alpine Valley and Coachella, so maybe it's not a fair comparison. And Radiohead has been awesome, but the Muse guys are snapping at their heels for the mantle of best British rock act if this keeps up.

The venue was perfect for this sort of show, big open room with ornate art deco/gothic decorations and a vaulted ceiling, just one of the great old Chicago theaters. Amazingly enough, although I've been in Chicago for over 3 years now and seen a decent amount of shows, I've never seen a show at the Aragon before.The crowd was hyped for the show and ready for something big before the band even took stage.

I have to say I love being in a rock crowd that really loves the band and sings along. I love to sing along at rock shows. In fact, in the middle of "Time Is Running Out," Matt cut away from the mic and the crowd took over singing "bury it, won't let you bury it, won't let you smother it, won't let you murder it..." before Matt came back in "our time is running out..." It was awesome.

The addition of a keyboardist on this tour really adds a lot to flesh out the band's sound in more of a live organic way (they used a lot of keyboard loops anyway before) and he also sings, so the background vocals were spot on and sounded much like the new album for much of the time. They played about half the songs from the new album, including my current favorite, "Starlight." A piano version of "Soldier's Poem" worked just as well as the acoustic guitar version on the album. Sprinkled in were a number of favorites from Absolution that were all responded to with roars of approval from the crowd, with the one notable missing exception of "Sing For Absolution".

Article Author: Curtis Swartzentruber

Curtis Swartzentruber lives in Bristol Vermont, a recent transplant from Chicago IL. He works as a .NET software development consultant and programmer by day to support his many hobbies and interests. With an intense interest in sustainability, Curtis …

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