Just no biz like Showbiz for Muse

Edinburgh Evening News
Friday 18th February 2000

Alternative rock hopefuls deliver goods on first UK headline tour 

Muse, Soulwax
The Venue (four stars) 

THEY only released their debut album, Showbiz, in October last year, but Muse, have already managed to create a formidable impression in the minds of innocent alternative rock kids. 
 With an NME Best New Artist Awards and a bucketful of touring supports under their belts, it's no wonder The Venue was chock full of wide-eyed youths, hoping the band's full first headline tour of the UK would be worth the wait. 
 But before all of that, we have tonight's support act, Belgian loons, Soulwax, If you were to invent a musical genre for Soulwax, it would probably be daft-metal or something similar. 
 They stroll on stage in their smart suits and ties in front of a backdrop spelling out their name with hundreds of tiny CDS, and before long the mic stands are flashing away in a light=sabre style, naturally. This all appears perfectly normal to them. 

Heroin

 But what of the music? Well, on top of some of sequenced drum bits and some whooshy keyboard bits, they happily carve out huge slabs of metal riffage, while the spiky-topped singer screams his little heart out about something or another. 
 The overall effect is like a goofy Alice in Chains, hooked on sweeties instead of heroin. 
 Also, some of the snippets of lyrics that occasionally escape from the general guitar onslaught are hideously corny, the timeless classic 'cuts like a knife', even sneaking in there. But seeing as their Belgian and a bit silly, we can probably let them off. 
 After a pointlessly long wait of over an hour (what are the roadies getting paid for exactly?), Muse hit the stage, and the depth of their self confidence is evident from the off. 
 They start the night with a sleazy organ version of Nina Simone's Feelin' Good, all cocky reassurance and showmanship. From then on we're treated to blistering versions of most of their Showbiz album, with a couple of promising new tunes thrown in for good measure. 
 Having got this far in the review, it's now time to mention the "R" word. That's Radiohead to anyone who isn't quite up to speed yet. 
 Though the band must be sick of the comparisons by now, they did go and get Radiohead's producer, John Leckie, to work on their album, so what do they expect?
 Actually, Muse, and frontman Matt Bellamy especially, come across like Radiohead's show-off kid brothers. It's not for nothing that their album is called Showbiz = that's exactly what they love doing, unlike the stubbornly stroppy Thom Yorke and friends. 
 Muse the live band pretty much break free of the constraining sheen of their album's production and are a much more entertaining prospect as a result.
 On the heavier songs, like previous single Muscle Museum or scratchy gem Fillip, they really go for it, cranking up the distortion to ear-splitting levels and battering all sorts of hell out of their instruments.  
 Ending the show with the anthemic uber-metal of Showbiz, Muse go the whole hog, with guitars played behind heads, cymbals smashed to breaking and swathes of feed-back, sweeping across the Venue. 
 This has the desired effect of sending the heaving mass of punters bananas, and not for the first time tonight equipment gets knocked about as bodies spill on to the stage and are quickly wrestled off by burly security guards. 

(Doug Johnstone) 

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