MUSE XIV - Hullabaloo at the Brabanthallen

quote:

" The Knights of Muse
by John Earls

Halfway through their UK tour, even by Muse standards it's a spectacle. Have they ever thought "That's too OTT?"

"Loads of times," laughs Dom Howard. "We've got a second stage on this tour. We were going to 'fly' to it in a UFO. We started designing the UFO, realised after a few days 'This is just silly.' "We try to stop the past tours, but you can't do stunts for the sake of it."
Although they began touring arenas with their previous album Absolution, Muse say it's only with their current shows that they feel at home there.

"I prefer 2,000-capacity venues," says drummer Dom. "We played those size venues in the US last year. It was good for reminding us about intimate shows. I think it's only now we manage to mix the spectacle and intimacy the way we'd always wanted to achieve."

Festival headliners who can be relied on for a fabulous spectacle, are Muse thinking about playing stadiums yet?

"I'm not against the idea," ponders Dom Howard, 28. "When we started, stadiums were only for pop acts or dinosaurs. Now that you've got bands like Green Day and Chili Peppers playing stadiums, the idea of proper 'stadium rock' is back. Yeah, I guess we could play them now and get away with it."

Do Muse find it easy to write on tour?

"Not for the first year," admits Dom Howard. "Give us a chance, we're still trying to figure out how to play half the songs off Black Holes live! What usually happens is that, after a year on the road, ideas start coming - though usually the first songs we write on tour never make it on to the album. Black Holes didn't properly get going until we quit our first studio."

The idea for Muse's new single Knights of Cydonia came during their low-key tour of the US in summer last year.

"I woke up on the tourbus one morning in cactus country to see Matt bouncing about, going 'Listen to what I did last night!', recalls drummer Dom. "From the start, the way it changes every verse, Knights was shaping up to be epic. It's amazing to play, every night we lose ourselves in that one."

For a band known for their spectacular gigs, would Muse consider doing a stripped-back, simple tour?

"Funny you should ask, it's one of the ideas we've had for the next album," says Dom Howard. "The two ideas we've discussed most are doing something totally stripped back, or going all the way with the berserk stuff, pianos everywhere. One way or another, I think it might be extreme." "