Twelve years have passed since I’ve been to the O2 arena when it used to be called the “Millennium Dome”. I’ve heard good things about O2 arena in that time and the transformation that they’d given the Dome and that it’s been put to really good use as a venue for musicians to play in front 20,000 people. Even though I struggled through two hours of M25 traffic to get to the venue and unfortunately missed supporting band fiN, who stood in for The Joy Formidable, I wasn’t disappointed by the venue at all, O2 had indeed created a wonderful venue and surrounding nightlife and I can tell you that I would definitely come back to see further bands here. I arrived a mere ten minutes before Muse took to the stage.
Three years after their last album; Resistance, the boys from Teignmouth were back for the first of a two night sold-out show at the O2 promoting their new album – The 2nd Law. The 2nd Law was released earlier this month throughout most of the world on the 1st October and reached number 2 on the Billboard charts in its first week.
The trio who began the night at the centre of the stage with their dubstep inspired track – The 2nd Law: Unsustainable, during this first track thoughts of will.i.am and Madonna went through my mind and not because of the style of music but because these artists have shown how their music is adaptable and constantly remains current and Muse is band that isn’t content to stay the same and with each out album their sound moves forward and you can hear their production improving. Having listened to their albums since 1999’s Showbiz and now seeing their performance of The 2nd Law: Unsustainable made me really appreciate them as artists and their passion for their own sound.
During the evening’s performance a pyramid screen which was centred above the band was used to great effect showing either the band on stage and a mixture of videos, the best usage of the pyramid screens was during their classic – Stockholm Syndrome which showed various television sets and created a visually stunning element to the night.
Muse really delivered one hell of an amazing performance and really rocked the O2 with Matthew Bellamy pogo jumping his way across the stage and throughout most of the evening with bassist Christopher Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard also putting in great performances with the night coming to a magnificent ending with their Olympic track – “Survival” with glorious jets of smoke surrounding the stage.
Setlist:
The 2nd Law: Unsustainable
Supremacy
Interlude
Hysteria
Resistance
Supermassive Black Hole
Panic Station
Animals
Monty Jam
Explorers
Sunburn
Host
Time Is Running Out
Save Me
Madness
Follow Me
Undisclosed Desires
Plug In Baby
Stockholm Syndrome
Encore:
The 2nd Law: Isolated System
Uprising
Knights of Cydonia
Encore 2:
Starlight
Survival
Mark Brassington 
Well done review! It sounded like a fantastic show! 🙂