My ears are still ringing from the Muse show last night. Missed the show? No worries, just go do a search on youtoube. I think every other person there had a damn camcorder in their hands last night. But I digress, how was the show? Not bad, not bad at all. The band are amazing musicians and produced a serious wall of sound. I’m fairly certain that my collarbones are bruised from all the sheer bass impact alone.

Thing was, I really wanted to like the show more but I couldn’t. I mean they are amazing musicians, the stage/light show was stellar and all that and the album is one of my favorites to come out this year. However the concert itself just left me a wee bit cold. On the drive home, Tambo and I were trying to figure out just why we were both feeling blah about the event when we agreed that they were not playing for us. Nope, their attention and energy extended to about the end of the stage and maybe a couple of rows into the floor. Not the entire space. Now I am not saying that the Muse show was bad, just that the band are great performers. Not great showmen.

There is a difference. Someone might be able to create amazing, intricate music that you cannot stop listening to, but ask them to fill a huge theater with said music (with out just turning the amps up REALLY loud) and everyone (even those of us not standing in the communal sweat stain that is the pit) feel like they were singing just to us. That is a whole other thing. Rob Zombie, while not the most technically complex or talented of composers, knows how to put on a show that makes even the guy in the cheap seats feel glad that they came.

Charisma? Stage Craft? Playing to the crowd? Who knows, but interesting food for thought with parallels into the rest of life.

Being a kinkster, I started making associations to one’s sm play. Someone might be able to throw a hell of a flogger or tie a fantastic bowline hitch, but if they cannot engage their audience (in this case, the audience of one-their partner) and deliver an experience that makes them feel like they are the only thing in the world that matters at this moment… well perhaps I am rambling here and need to further flesh this idea out at a later date?

In the end, if you have not listened to Black Holes and Revelations, go do it now. Again an amazing freaking CD. Muse live? I’d say 3.5 out of 5 stars.