Muse! Muse! Muse!

Here we are. The reason for our trip to Vegas.

Muse.

The first time I saw Muse, I only knew a handful of songs. Muse was one of many bands playing at KROQ's 2004 Almost Acoustic Christmas.

I was floored. I even got a little teary during "Butterflies and Hurricanes." I felt terrible for poor Modest Mouse who played right after Muse. You just can't follow Muse. Through no fault of its own, Modest Mouse sounded like poo.

Then we saw Muse at the Forum. Then at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. Then at the 2007 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas as headliners. Then at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

And then at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on April 10.

Epic.

Undoubtedly the best live band touring right now. Maybe the best live band of our time.

Uprising




Resistance




Map of the Problematique




Supermassive Black Hole





Hysteria




United States of Eurasia





Feeling Good




Starlight




Time Is Running Out





Plug In Baby




Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture




Stockholm Syndrome




Knights of Cydonia





Incredible show.

But that wasn't the end of our Muse experience. No, no. It gets better, guys.

As we were waiting for the valet the next day at THEhotel, Mrs. Oro spotted some very familiar hair across the way.

Could it be?

Yes.

Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard posed politely as I mugged maniacally.

But this photo was even better.

Mr. Oro is lucky he snagged Mrs. Oro when he did. Ha!

A-MUSE-ing miX

miX sits atop THEhotel. If you haven't been, you absolutely must go sample Chef Alain Ducasse's brainchild. Las Vegas is a lot closer than Paris after all.

I really liked the design. Stunning.

You'd think that a restaurant that provides a pad of paper and pencil would be quite food-blogger-friendly.

But, despite its stark white interior, miX is sort of horrific for food photography because of its dreadfully dim lighting. Boo hoo for me.

Assorted complimentary bread.

See that brown square closest to you? That's some awesome house-made peanut butter. Swell stuff.

Japanese sea bream sashimi, corn emulsion, and popcorn ($18).

This wasn't my favorite, but it was an interesting effort. I'm not sure I've ever had sea bream before. It was a little on the chewy side. I did enjoy the dots of corn emulsion.

Tender potato gnocchi, pumpkin, and crispy bacon ($26).

Man, oh, man. Li'l nuggets of heaven on a plate. Like happy dough pillows.

Roasted Maine lobster "au curry," coconut basmati rice ($54).

Superfreakingdelicious. YOU MUST GET THIS. YES, I AM SHOUTING. The combination of flavors and textures knocked my socks off. It's not often that you have lobster prepared so creatively. This was my favorite dish of the night.

Beef Rossini ($75).


Decadent with a capital "D" -- one of the biggest pieces of seared foie gras I've ever seen perched on prime filet mignon swimming in a luxurious black truffle reduction, accompanied by the creamiest, most buttery mashed potatoes ever. Rich, rich, rich, rich. Jealous? You should be. Superb.

miX Dessert Tray ($20).

Very pretty but not as tasty as I'd hoped. Sad.

Complimentary madeleines and chocolate.


Now this mignardise was something. Blew our "real" dessert out of the water. Glad we ended with these warm sweet goodies.

I'm definitely visiting miX in the future and doing the tasting menu.

Why didn't we do the tasting this time?

Because of time constraints due to this.

Like our trip last weekend, our December trip to Vegas was planned around Muse. In December, Muse headlined Holiday Havoc '09 at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. We had to sit through some crappy bands, but even a truncated Muse set is worth that.

Uprising




Supermassive Black Hole




Hysteria




Starlight




Time Is Running Out




Knights of Cydonia

Muuuuuuuuuuse. Soooooooooo good. Obsessed.

Acoustic Christmas Fun...and Then Some

I present to you a lazy, crappy, blurry iPhone pictorial of Night Two of KROQ's Acoustic Christmas, wherein you can't tell what the hell band is playing unless I tell you so.

Getting in.

Spoon. B-O-R-I-N-G. Not a fan.

Feist. Very cute personality. Incomprehensible. But lovely.

Silversun Pickups. So nasally in person! Still good, though. Gotta support L.A.

The Shins. Love love love them. So great. They can do no wrong in my book.

Surprise guests -- The Killers! A few years ago, we were surprised with Gwen Stefani. So there's your "one more awesome act to get [you] on board," Jessica!

As usual, Brandon Flowers was dynamic and quite the crowd-pleaser. The Killers started with Joy Davision's "Shadowplay" and followed with "Somebody Told Me," "Don't Shoot Me Santa," and "When You Were Young."

No pictures of Modest Mouse. I hate Modest Mouse. Instead of making my ears bleed, I went to the restroom, took a picture with Julius the Monkey (which should be on the Paul Frank website tomorrow), bought two t-shirts (The Shins and Jimmy Eat World), and ate some chicken fingers and fries. After all that, I still had to sit through a few Modest Mouse songs. Pure torture.

Jimmy Eat World. I got their shirt with good reason. I'm sad they didn't do "Last Christmas," but the whole place was jumping up and down for their closer, "The Middle."

Muse. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but they weren't as impressive as times past. I mean, they were fantastic, but I wasn't totally blown away like I have been the last several times. Maybe it's because I saw them twice on their own for full-length shows. Maybe it's because they didn't play my fave song, "Butterflies and Hurricanes." I did appreciate that Dominic (the drummer) wore a Spider-man suit, though. That was cool and unexpected.

I'm really sad that I can't blog right after events now. Immediacy makes entries so much better and enthusiastic. Sorry, readers. This was pretty lame. Boo.

Amazing, A-MUSE-ing

**If you haven't already, check out the Blog Party post! Update coming soon!**

Muse may very well be the best live band on tour today. Spectacular. Seriously amazing. We had decent seats in the loge section at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, and we had the good fortune of having no rain, despite the 50% chance warning. It seemed that the heavens above saw fit to wait until the show was over to let the waters pour. We were in our [previously very dirty] car and well on our way home when the deluge fell. Woohoo!

You can read my previous raving about Matt Bellamy's talents, but I have to re-emphasize briefly just how talented Muse is, especially Bellamy. The man is incredible on the guitar, on the piano, and vocally. I wonder if there's anything this little guy can't do. I am so in love with Bellamy's pimped-out Kawai MP-8. It's a digital stage piano housed by a black grand piano shell with a clear acrylic lid and MIDI-controlled lights. So. Damn. Cool. I wish I had one of these!

I strongly encourage you to view the following clip of last night's performance of "Butterflies and Hurricanes," my all-time favorite Muse song. It really showcases Bellamy's abilities. The best part, in my opinion, starts at about 3:15. If you don't get chills by around 4:05, there is something wrong with you. By 4:55, the whole place is singing along. Loudly.

Here's another clip of a song you may recognize, "Starlight," which has been on the radio. It's shot from farther away, but the sound is remarkably good, considering it was likely recorded on a point-and-shoot.

And...the setlist (as best as I could recall):

Knights of Cydonia
Map of the Problematique
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
Butterflies and Hurricanes
City of Delusion
Sing for Absolution
Feeling Good
Apocalypse Please
Soldier's Poem
Invincible
Starlight
New Born
Time Is Running Out
Plug in Baby

Encore:
Take a Bow
Stockholm Syndrome

It should be noted that Muse played homage to both Rage Against the Machine (with a short Tom Morello riff before "Hysteria") and John F. Kennedy (with a clip of a speech before "Take a Bow"). That's the kind of band this is. If you're not a Muse fan now, you should become one.

Musing on Some Killer Concerts

"Don't you wanna feel your skin on my skin?"

Yes, Brandon Flowers. Yes, I do.

Two very different concerts. Two very enjoyable nights.

This was the fifth or sixth time I saw The Killers and the third time I saw them headlining. All other times, yummy Brandon was seriously off-key. No matter, though. The shows were still, dare I say, killer. Flowers is a good showman, prancing about in his snug little vest and gesticulating like a conductor. It wouldn't matter if he were singing commercial jingles; it'd still be a sweet show. Damn, he's cute.

But Monday was really great. For once, my dear Brandon Flowers had decent pitch! Maybe he got some singing lessons, or he'd had enough practice from the first leg of the tour. Whatever it was, the better singing made the night all the more enjoyable. Mix a passable voice with lights, machine-powered confetti, and some tight pants, and you've got a recipe for good times.

The Killers did songs from both Sam's Town and Hot Fuss nearly perfectly, which was a far cry from the other times I saw them. And there were two encores! Woot woot! What made Monday super fun for us, however, was not even the band's performance....

We got our tickets from a friend who has ties with the Staples Center. They were really good seats -- quite possible the best seats I'd ever had at a Staples Center concert. When we sat down, we noticed we were surrounded by old people and kids. Strange. What the hell were these straightlaced extended families doing here? Then we saw all these peeps had backstage access tags.

We were sitting with the band's family.

Thus, while my boyfriend Brandon Flowers was excellent onstage, my favorite part of Monday night was actually watching Grandma sing along to every song. And...she clearly had the same fave songs as I do. ("Read My Mind" and "All These Things That I've Done," if you're curious.) Classic!

Fast forward to Tuesday night. No Grandma at The Forum, but we had great seats again -- front row, in fact. As a lazy old bum, I love it when I can sit and still see the show without people in front of me standing up. The only peeps "in front" of us were the general admission kids in the pit. Ah, the pit. I can't believe I used to do that. Nuts.

The thing I love most about Muse is that they're phenomenal musicians. Last night didn't disappoint. I'm not sure if non-musicians really appreciate how talented these guys are. Muse makes me thump inside. The music moves me. Wow. That was hokey. I take that back. It was...um...really loud bass. Yeah.

My faves are the songs with elaborate piano and guitar solos. This is the third time I've seen Muse, and I still marvel at Matthew Bellamy's prowess on both the piano and the guitar. He's so amazing, and, like Brandon Flowers, he is quite the charismatic performer. Bellamy is not nearly as flamboyant and over-the-top as Flowers, but he does exude a certain bravado and has this awe-inspiring swagger when he's playing. Mind you, this is especially impressive, as Bellamy is, in the words of the hubs, a "tiny guy." I'm talking 5'6" or 5'7" at best.

I love love loved "Butterflies & Hurricanes" (my fave Muse song), mainly because I love watching Bellamy's fingers fly on the keys. Of course, "Starlight" was a crowd-pleaser during the second encore, as was the sing-a-long to "Time Is Running Out" during the first encore. (What's up with two encores these days? Maybe it's the norm now.) I must say that the Muse audience was far better than The Killers audience, insofar as appreciation of the music (well, except for Grandma -- she appreciated the music more than anyone else in all of Staples Center). You could tell everybody there really really liked Muse. A lot.

You'd think, with two concerts, I would've been smart and worn earplugs. I can't hear a thing today. Whoops.