^{_{oleh Haryth Hilmy}}

Circa 2007 was the phase when modern rock music was still played on radios; so the likes of My Chemical Romance, Evanescence, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park were at one point overplayed like any other mainstream music right now. Those bands are still pretty much in my Spotify playlist until now. Nak kata I’m just riding on nostalgia, tak juga. Maybe because pop punk, alternative, emo rock are just my dominant taste in music.

But there’s this one particular band at that time which my elder cousin decide untuk introduce dekat aku yang baru around 14 tahun. Band itu adalah sebuah band alternative rock dari UK. Muse. Band tu adalah sebuah band alternative rock dari UK. Muse.

Of course ‘Time Is Running Out’, ‘New Born’, ‘Citizen Erased’, dan ‘Plug in Baby’ antara lagu yang buat aku hooked. From music videos, beralih pula kepada live shows. Kagum dengan energy diorang ni perform atas stage. Dah la three-piece je.

Then a few years later, Muse released a full concert album at the Wembley Stadium, HAARP, dekat Youtube. I replayed every performance religiously, memorizing the setlist. I've had most of the videos downloaded in .3gp into my Nokia XpressMusic back then. That was the moment when I was like, "Damn! I gotta see them live at least once before I die.”

And the rest of the story continues. Embracing each new album's punya direction. Liked some, didn't like some. Hated some, but then suddenly loving it pulak. This went on from my school days, university life, sampailah recently, as a tax-paying adult, listening to ‘Won't Stand Down’ punya heavy riffs with double pedal drumming from Dom dan screaming (kinda) vocals from Matt, blowing my mind away because I'm very much are into heavy musics, so I was like holyshit, “I’M LOVING THIS!”

I enjoyed the rest of ‘Will Of The People’ as well. Sampailah this one day, I thought god finally answered my prayers when I saw @hellouniversemy teasing Muse coming to KL on Twitter. I had this thing that I always stick to, that is, if I ever gonna see Muse live, it's not gonna be from belakang-belakang. It HAS to be in the front row, no matter what, or else I'm gonna regret it my whole life. So, I got myself a Zone A ticket even though most of my friends that were planning to go together bought Zone B. Sorry guys, but this time it's Muse before bros. Lol.

The anticipation had been building for weeks. The excitement was real, somewhat nervous, but the day finally arrived – I was going to witness a band that I've been waiting to see in front of my eyes since forever. Was in no rush when I reached Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil around 5PM, hanging around the ticket collection area. First impression aku masa tengok orang queueing, “All these people were all about my age, give or take 2-3 years. And they definitely had the same excitement as I was. Probably also waited their whole life to be there and that makes me so happy.”

The entry was no hassle at all because they opened the gates way earlier. While walking in, I couldn't help being mesmerized by the scale of the stage and screens. The real set is here, the official tour set and I'm glad they changed it to the stadium. I believe there's no place better to set this up other than Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil (SNBJ). As I tried to get the best view that I could, there were already people sitting down, probably came a lot earlier to chop a better spot. My view was from the front right side, close to the runway and still getting a good view of the stage. I was alone standing between people that I don't know but I knew I'm going to enjoy it to the fullest, nevertheless. And I also noticed there were people from all over the place from their conversations; Indonesians, Singaporeans since this is the only stop in Asia.

Kyoto Protocol, the opening local band that was chosen by Muse themselves, started on time at 7:30PM. I have seen them live a few times before in much smaller gigs, but seeing them performing there opening for such an iconic band, I can't help but to feel proud of them. They gave an astoundingly energetic performance; the instruments sounded amazing, Fuad's vocals were crisp and clear. They performed a few of their famous songs like ‘Guilty Plea’, ‘Beautiful (Jelita)’, ‘Pussycat’ and also a cover of ‘Tiada Lagi Kidungmu’ by Search that I believe made them more famous during the reality show Versus last time.

Now it comes to the most controversial part of the night. Between Kyoto Protocol and Muse, there was like a 90-minute gap. Kyoto finished at 8:00PM, tentatively Muse was supposed to start at 8:30PM but for some reasons we kena sidai with some songs playing (dahlah the songs are like out of genre, mostly pop and techno songs that I didn't enjoy), with no announcement. Sweating because it was hot. Bad internet reception, so you couldn't really go online. People started to shout out of displeasure. Some are sitting down because come on lah, most of us there were 90s kids yang dah starting to get weak knees, back pains, etc. I have been sidai-ed by plenty of international acts before, memang jaranglah they on time but that was just ridiculous. I was ready to blame and shame the organizers after the concert dah because the experience was very uncomfortable, to say the least.

Then the songs stopped.
The lights dimmed.
People are cheering knowing that it's time.

‘The Will Of The People’ (WOTP) chant began to echo the whole stadium. Goosebumps teruk time ni. Macam nak menangis. The lights got back on with some pyro performance, revealing the band members; Matt on guitar and vocals, Chris on bass and Dom on the drums, with their WOTP mask on. Suddenly everyone forgot about the 90-minutes wait earlier.

They didn’t stall at all. Habis je lagu ‘WOTP’, kita boleh nampak Chris comes to the front of the runaway. Those who are familiar with their shows know what’s up. Then Chris started playing the bassline of ‘Hysteria’, antara I would say one of the most iconic basslines ever existed. The crowd went crazy, not surprising because it’s one of their most popular songs in the setlist. I got a pretty good view of the runway. Masa Matt was kneeling sambil solo kat tengah tu I got a very good video shot of him like, “Weh, this is real sial!”

I really think the setlist does justice to almost every album, even though it’s a WOTP tour. The concert proceeded with ‘Psycho’ from the album Drones, then ‘Thought Contagion’ from Simulation Theory. And a shout from Matt ‘Terima Kasih’ shortly after the song ended made the crowd lose their minds.

It was not until the 5th song that the gimmick happened. Masa lagu ‘Won’t Stand Down’, when the solo started, the huge backdrop cloth dropped to the floor, revealing the huge mask-wearing animatronic figure that I would say it’s around 7-8 meter tall (using Dom as the scale because he was in front of it lol), accompanied by the pyro display that are reflected to the mirror on the statue’s mask. It was magnificent. Two hands with some shoulder exposed span almost the whole stage-width. Mind blowing gila bila fikir macam mana they transported that thing on tours. Later, I found out the body is inflatable. And here’s the best thing; BENDA TU BERGERAK! The head actually oscillates from left to right slowly throughout the whole concert. The masks are made by planes of mirror-like materials that reflect light. So, the lighting throughout the concert banyak revolves around reflecting the spotlights and lasers onto this mask as it disperses it to the crowd. Such a simple but effective technique, I might say.

The next gimmick was during the song ‘Compliance’, on the second chorus they popped the ribbon confetti. The ribbons were teal and white, complemented by the stage lightings of the same color. It was beautiful. People from Zone A got the confetti rained on them, some stuck on my shirt, I held on to them, ingat nak bawak balik as a souvenir lol.

Honestly, the crowd around me wasn’t that crazy compared to my previous experience with Paramore, Sum 41, etc. Mostly jumped, yes, but weren’t too aggressive. Maybe sebab, i) legs are tired from standing too long waiting and ii) faktor usia. But, when Muse started to play ‘Time Is Running Out’, suddenly everyone macam kena rasuk hantu muda diorang balik. Singing along and jumping like there’s no tomorrow. I only had a moment to record then I put my phone down. It was really our generation's moment. Matt… god knows how many times he's played this song for years now, still delivered it with full energy for his fans in Asia.

I was excited when we got ‘Resistance’. According to setlist.fm, they only played it 28/51 times during the tour so we were lucky! But, I also assume it's because of the removal of ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’ from the setlist to comply with our regulations. I got no complaints at all since Resistance is one of my personal favorites. Almost cried because the song is very special to me.

We could see Matt wielding his signature Manson guitar with Kaoss pad when they performed ‘Supermassive Black Hole’. Chris with his double neck bass also with the Kaoss pad during ‘Madness’ are some details that I really appreciate to notice on their live performance. Another fan favorite was ‘Plug In Baby’, we got to see Matt teasing the audience with his siren-like guitar sound just before he played that sick intro. I noticed he had to wipe his hand on his t-shirt a few times because berkicap bai.

There were a few intermissions in between sets where they would play some visuals and a few remixed tracks, so it felt seamless while the band got their rest and set up for the next song.

Towards the last few songs of the night, we could see Matt wearing his LED jacket and his MIDI glove to play ‘Uprising’. He must have been drenched inside the jacket that he called it 'a hot and sweaty end to our summer tour' on his Instagram caption. ‘Starlight’ was also beautiful, everyone had their flashlight turned on and sang along with Matt. Definitely a core memory that's been added into everyone who came.

It's up. Chris is in front of the runway with his harmonica. A pre-solo intro to the most anticipated moment of the night. After throwing his harmonica to some lucky lady, he ran back to the stage for ‘Knights Of Cydonia’. The intro was insane. You have to be there to feel it. Everyone chanted the “Aaaa Aaaa Aaaa” and the guitar riff “oooooooooOOOOOooooooo”. Ah, you know the part! Such an everlasting experience that's making everybody's money worth.

From Muse's sound engineer @marc_carolan's Reel on Instagram saying, “Maybe... The loudest crowd of the summer”. I have no doubt because I was there. It was damn loud despite some parts of the stadium weren't full. That's what you get for not coming here for 16 years. Kitorang dah lama sangat simpan. From where I stood, the sound, the stage lighting, the view was perfect. I could hear clearly on every instrument and Matt's vocals. With this level of performance, I am still convinced that Muse is one of the best live performers ever existed and that makes a history for SNBJ to host such an event.

P/S: Find me on Twitter for the videos I took, it's on my pinned tweet @harythilmy with the hashtag #MuseLiveInKL!

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