Muse Commandeer Barclays Center for Drones World Tour (Photos)

Resistance is futile. Muse's walloping Drones World Tour forces the audience to confront Big Brother.

Sachyn Mital / 5 February 2016

Few rock bands have arena shows that are epic in scope. While U2’s recent tour spectacle was a grandiose testament for peace and humanity, the equally as elaborate production from Muse embodied conflict, repression and war. Minutes before the band too the stage, Cylon-like warriors strode out onto the Barclays Center floor and took defensive positions next to the stage. Their cold blue eyes and blaster guns (at least I thought that’s what they were holding) menaced any who would dare approach.

Moments into their first song, as the anti-military song “Psycho” kicked into full gear, bubble drones took to the air, circling the stage above the heads of the band and the crowd. Numerous cameras, including several on the drones themselves, captured the powerful trio from all angles. Vocalist Matt Bellamy, bass guitarist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard (plus Morgan Nicholls assisting from the center) performed “in the round” giving their surrounding audience equal attention and over the top visuals. The top of the middle platform rotated, giving the band different angles of the crowd while, when on the catwalks, the screens projected images of the band controlled like marionettes or more dangerously set ablaze.

As the band powered through their twenty years of hits they tapped into classics, including “Starlight”, “Uprising” and the epic finale “Knights of Cydonia”, many of which became huge sing-alongs. Along the way the band teased bits of Weezer and AC/DC dropping in little bits of laughter in between the bombast. The levity aside, Muse are an unstoppable juggernaut in rock, crushing other tours, and unfortunately making any opening band seem inadequate. All hail Muse.

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