British rock band Muse is currently on their first-ever tour in China. On Saturday night, they made their mainland debut at Beijing's Mastercard Centre.
Famous for their highly conceptualized albums, innovative instrumentation, and outstanding showmanship, Muse have often been heralded as "the best live act in the 21st-Century".
But for this "Drones" tour: when they say "back to basics" they mean it! There are no spaceships or tricks, only a three-piece band rocking out to hit singles old and new, thrilling Chinese fans who'd waited years to see them live.
The theme of "Drones" is a lament for the loss of humanity in modern warfare and how technology can detach people from their hearts.
"We thought if we were gonna try... you know the art form of an album is a little bit non-existent these days. People are much more accustomed to & interested in listening track-by-track... That's inevitable, that's gonna happen. But we're seen as we're going to record a bunch of songs together, and release them essentially as an album," drummer Dominic Howard said.
"We thought, 'Let's try and make the album (at least) feel like it's one piece of work.' So the idea of doing a concept album felt like the right thing to do, to try like tie up all the songs together, have every song be a meaningful part of the album. I suppose that's one of the reasons why we decided to do that, really."
After producing two albums on their own, Muse collaborated with renowned producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange this time. Lange is widely known for shaping the sounds of bands AC/DC and Def Leppard.
"He's got great ideas. He's a very, very musical guy, so he really kind of understands what everyone was playing, the instrumentation, the notes... He's got the vibe at the harmonies. He just really understands music... The last two albums, we've been very much left by our own devices, producing by ourselves. And we're very comfortable like that, so able to experiment and push ourselves. But because we have done that twice before, we felt like it to do something different, to get to work with someone," Howard said.
The "Drones" tour may not be their biggest one in terms of scale and production value, but it's definitely thrilling to see a powerful trio pushing each other to realize their song's magnificence with their musicality, rather than putting on a theatrical showcase on stage.
"It's both looking internally, your own life & your own experiences, and how you relate to the rest of the world and the people around you. Obviously those things can make you think about things outside your life. So there's some context putting yourself in the current world. And I think that the album ended up having this sort of dual narratives going on at the same time. The songs can be interpreted as being either political, or either self-expressive, about personal lives. I deliberately write the songs to be mixed message in that way. They can be interpreted in two ways," singer Matt Bellamy said.
This is not the first time that Muse have tackled weighty social or political issues; their previous albums have dealt with Global Warming and Economic Downturn.
"You can not be too confident about the impact or anything like that... But I guess music, obviously, is bringing people together to experience something, which is - you know they're physically in the same space together so they feel each other. That's something a little different I guess, to help people live their lives, mainly. And also listening to music it's a method of hearing and feeling somebody else's feelings in a slightly deeper way maybe than it's possible for some other ways. For me anyway, I like that. Music has always been a very powerful method to understand the feeling of somebody else's, both the feelings of somebody from a different time as well. So I guess in that way music is slightly unique form of communication compared to modern technology methods of communicating," Bellamy said.
Yet the band try not to take themselves too seriously and are not afraid to explore the realms of absurdity and ecstasy.
After touring in Beijing and Shanghai, Muse will continue their Asian leg in Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul.
