Muse

Dan has had two grand musical passions in his life, so far (if you don't count High School Musical): first Green Day and now Muse.

And the poor little fellow was distressed to find that Muse's UK tour coincided almost exactly with the trip to Cape Town. Almost. There last two nights of the tour were in Glasgow, yesterday and today. However, with him being just back to school after nearly three weeks away and the gig being two and half hours' drive away, it seemed pretty implausible that he could see the band play.

Then a Twitter friend of mine, RustleyB, went to see the show in London. He's my age, a music lover, and the veteran of a lot of gigs, and he DM'd me to say that we *had* to go, that it was the best show he'd ever seen. And since I take his recommendations pretty seriously, I wondered if there was some way Dan and I could go along after all.

So I went onto Stub Hub and found tickets both standing near the front of the show but also some up in the seats. RustleyB assured me that we needed to be elevated (and, therefore, seated) to get the real benefit of the show and, it would turn out, he was quite right.

Dan and I were on a tight schedule, and I picked him up from his mum's house at four o'clock, this afternoon. Then it was straight up to Glasgow. Happily, it was perfect driving weather and the motorway north of junction 36 was clear, as it usually is. After two and a half hours of listening to Muse CDs, we arrived at our hotel bang on schedule, got changed, and then walked across to the SSE Hydro.

Dan was so excited by this stage and his exuberance only increased as we got closer to the venue. The first thing we did was queue up for merchandise. It was a longish queue, which was a mercy as Dan had to choose from the range of t-shirts and hoodies ("this is the most stressful event in my whole life"). He chose a great looking hoodie, which he immediately changed into, and we headed up to our seats.

We seemed to be in a perfect spot, and I must admit I was taken back by the scale of the set. I watched as a couple of technicians elevated themselves using an automated winching device up to a control area above the set that looked like something out of a science fiction film. I think that, at this stage, Dan was still wondering whether we should have taken tickets down the front but that would soon change.

The lights went down and the beautiful track 'Drones' from the new album started. At which point, a dozen spheres - drones, in fact - floated down from the top of the rig and began to circle the stage. In combination with the music it was the magical thing I've ever seen. I felt like I was in the closing scene of 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind'!

And, just as RustleyB had promised, the show got better and better. As a band, Muse are great: a lean yet full, muscular sound, great songs, and powerful performances. That, in combination with all of the incredible effects made it the most amazing show I've ever seen.

My enjoyment was only increased by Dan's, who cheered and clapped along unselfconsciously. It made my heart ache to see him so happy and we had a wonderful walk back to the hotel talking about everything we'd seen. I'm so glad we made the effort.