Glastonbury 2016
Muse give a masterclass to close day one of Glastonbury 2016
Their Friday night headline slot is a set that encompasses everything.
Muse know exactly how to do this. Tonight’s set makes them the first band ever to headline the Friday, Saturday and Sunday on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, and this experience results in a set that has everything.
Opening with ‘Psycho’, Matt Bellamy is full of bombast, and the hits roll out with absolute precision. Still part of the ‘Drones’ tour, tonight is admittedly light on material from the band’s seventh album, instead feeling like more of a greatest hits run-through - as a Pyramid Stage headline slot commands.
Coming after Foals - a band still ferociously on the rise, thriving on the unexpected - Muse work by giving everyone in attendance exactly what they want. There’s fireworks set off by guitar chords, confetti streaming at every opportunity, Bellamy its uber-confident orchestrator.
The ‘Drones’ tour ended in the week leading up to this set, and tonight gives no indication of the plan moving forward - it’s not needed though, and the band are at a point in their career when anything is able to happen moving forward, with tonight serving as a victory lap more than a forward-looking set.
It could be considered that Glastonbury played it safe by getting Muse to headline for the third time, but for an opening night all-out stage show, and for nearly twenty years of hits rolled through like it’s second nature, no-one does it better.
Photos: Emma Swann / DIY
Records, etc at
Muse - The Resistance (Vinyl LP)
Muse - The 2nd Law (Vinyl LP)
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (Vinyl LP)
Muse - Absolution (Vinyl LP)
Muse - Origin of Symmetry (XX Anniversary RemiXX) (Vinyl LP - black)
Muse - Origin of Symmetry (Vinyl LP)
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