Muse - Sydney Entertainment Centre - November 17th

Well.

It. Was. Fantastic!

I don't know how many of you are into Muse, but it was an amazing show.

The Hun, middle bro, youngest bro and I drove up to Sydney on Saturday, checked into our hotel, went to the shops (a shirt for middle bro, shorts for youngest bro, thongs for The Hun, lunch snack for middle bro and I), went back to the hotel and then went to the the pub across from the entertainment centre. We settled in for a few (middle and youngest bro had had a few of their own before leaving the hotel) and once eldest bro and eldest bro's gf had joined us, we headed in (with a few drinks) so sit on the floor and wait for the support act.

The support act were called The Checks and aren't really all that describable - so here's their Wiki link. Our opinion was that the lead singer was feeling something that wasn't really there, and one of the bro's commented that someone needs to tell him he should be popular/succesful before dancing around like that. I mean, they were ok, but you couldn't really hear what was going on as it was so loud and his silly antics were kinda distracting.

Muse came on at 9:30 and they totally blew me away. I find it so amazing that three people (well, mostly one) can create something that can affect so many people! I have no idea how many people were in there (it was sold out) but to have that many people so excited to see you, and to be able to elicit such an extraordinary reaction from them is something very powerful.

It was the first time I've been in the standing section for anything (other than my one BDO) so I was a little nervous at the start, particularly once the crowd seemed to all move forward at once. Typically I would have bought a seated ticket because I am old and lame and lazy, but I don't think I would have enjoyed it half as much if I were seated. I felt a part of it - jumping and screaming and singing and pointing, but a good 20 metres away from the stage, I would say. We all stayed fairly close together, except for when youngest bro decided to go into the ACTUAL most pit - that is, I think I saw him on the big screen during one of the songs and when he returned to our group 10 minutes before the end he was absolutely soaked. He had sweated so much (and got himself covered in everyone elses sweat) to the point where he had to leave in the final (second) encore for water, so missed part of the show.

So yeah, where we was was pretty awesome - close enough to be in the thick of it, close enough to still have determined young things push past us to get closer and close enough to have sweaty wild-eyed things push past us to get out. And close enough to have two big sweaty guys hear me proclaim 'Oh F*CK no!' as they decided my line of sight was the best place for them to stand and flick sweat around with their lank hair. "It's a mosh pit, get over it" was the response I got, but whilst I was trying to get up the guts to point out that um no, actually it's not the mosh pit - the mosh pit is the bit where people are being lifted up over the fence and this is actually the bit where people stand when they want to totally rock but are too scared of getting crushed they must have realised for themselves because they moved over to where they belonged.

After that we headed back to the hotel (with a stop for some Gatorade and misery chips which I didn't really need but was hungry and why don't 7-11s have SALAD sandwhiches?!) and met up again this morning for the drive back.

(Note: I bought the tour singlet which is totally hawt from the ribcage up, but a little disturbing in the belly button region. It doesn't help that at dinner on fri night with gf1 and gf2 (before they departed for their tropical Lindeman island holiday which I totally should be on too!) gf1 told us how her brother had a friend that went to the doctor because she couldn't lose weight and the doctor told her to stop dieting because she was pregnant, even though she was on the pill and used contraception.)

The only other thing I'd say about the weekend (apart from the concert was awesome! Woot!) was that I don't think I'd recommend the Regent Hotel just off George street - we stayed in a twin share room as part of a mystery deal thing middle bro organised and it was tiny, there was no iron, the pillow hurt my neck, people were knocking on doors at 7am and there is no noise reduction between the hallway and the room, the room has a fake window with light in it and the lifts are jerky. However, for $88 for a room for a night, it was pretty frickin' awesome. Weigh it up, I guess!