On Saturday, I went to the 100th Big Day Out in Sydney. And it was BOILING. And I mean boiling...something ridiculous like 40+ degrees!!!
Anyway, I spent the entire time I was there on the barrier waiting for Muse's set at 9pm...was absolutely worth every minute and all the pain. The set was amazing and they are an amazing band live (as proven by their numerous awards for best live band).
Muse during Supermassive Black Hole
The stage set up was a toned down version of their arena shows which believe me are amazing (see next photo), and rumour is that they will be coming back to play the arena shows in november/december.
Muse's stage set up at the O2 Arena, London
The day was capped off with an amazing present from one of my friends, who also nabbed herself Dominic Howard's drumstick. This:
Chris Wolstenholme's (Muse's bassist) set list.
Was one of the best days ever! And I can't wait to see them at the end of the year again!
I'm a huge fan of amazing album artwork and Muse's album artwork is no exception (although I still don't get the cover design for Black holes and Revelations...but that's another story).
The cover for The Resistance, their latest album is by a design crew from London called La Boca. Who have just won the best Art Vinyl award at artvinyl.com. For those who want to see it in the flesh its on display at Selfridges from the 5th of January at the Art Vinyl gallery. Here's the BBC website article.
The other artist that I love the work of that has also done Muse covers is Jasper Goodall. He did the single covers for Black holes and Revelations. My favourite out of the five singles that were released off Black Holes and Revelations is the cover for the single Knights of Cydonia. And the great thing is that he is talking at the Semi-Permanent design conference, which I will hopefully get to go to.
Another guy that I'm a huge fan of is an illustrator named Joe Whyte. Though not strictly muse related, he does some amazing designs, mostly vector based and mostly for a lot of hardcore bands I love. This is one of my faves, and I'm itching to buy the poster for my wall.
Not sure if anyone has picked up or not, but I've been completely obsessed with Muse for the last few weeks...mainly due to the Ununited States of Eurasia treasure hunt.
For those that need recapping, it was a worldwide (well mainly Europe, Japan and Hong Kong and the USA) treasure hunt for these awesome looking USB keys (image courtesy of the awesome musewiki):
which contain an activation code to unlock parts of the song 'United States of Eurasia'. After the European/Asian countries unlocked their 'stations', they requested recognition by the USA, and of course its all been completed. And the end result is the first download off the new album 'The Resistance'.
NOW, this is a big song...starts off with a slow piano piece with some orchestra parts before breaking into a huge queen-esque build up. And the Queen comparison is pretty justified since its very similar...but it is still amazing. I can just imagine this song live and its sending shivers down my spine...and the great thing is that I will get to live this live as I've managed to get a ticket to one of their O2 shows in November. And, if all goes to the usual pattern of touring for Muse, it will mean that they will probably head to Australia either for the Big Day Out tour or at least do some shows - all of which I shall be attending.
So, if you've got the chance, head to the Ununited States of Eurasia microsite and get yourself an mp3 download of the song...mind you, you have to sing up...unless they have stopped sign up. In that case you're a little stuffed. I'm sure its up on you tube somewhere...but dont fret...I've found it for you:
All we have to do now is wait for September for the new album...which for me, after this little taster is a long wait!!!
Paper Hearts is the blog for Evelyn, formerly from Sydney, Australia and currently living in London. This is a collection of ramblings, pictures, designs and interesting things.
