DVD reviews: Muse – Haarp – 71

Recorded live at Wembley Stadium over two nights last June, this DVD is a spectacular 20-song display of Muse at their most outrageously over the top.

So vast and pyrotechnic is this spectacle that it’s tempting to assume CG was involved. Certainly it looks like there was some post-production on the visual digital files; even the colours are played with, sometimes washing out backgrounds and accentuating the performers’ costumes.

It’s a viscerally exciting thing to watch, with all the stops coming out production-wise and the group in every way at the top of their game. The three members of Muse arrive through a bizarre worm-like thing in the middle of the arena and make their way back to the stage; later, acrobats ‘dance’ suspended from hot-air balloons. Yes, it’s like Pink Floyd, only more garish.

Muse are one of those groups, like Queen before them, that divides listeners. Certainly there are aspects of their act that are pompous and about as tasteful as Liberace (in fact, the set-piece with a see-through grand piano puts Liberace in the shade).

On the other hand, it’s great entertainment and the virtuosity and energy of the group members is inarguable.

Just to round things off, the package includes a slightly different song line-up on CD.

Muse

Haarp

From: Warner Music
Genre: Power pomp performance
Rating: M

Sound: 4/5
Vision: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5

GARY STEEL