KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — English rock Muse captivated over 50,000 concertgoers at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium last night with their electrifying performance.
The two-time Grammy award winning band was in town for their Will of the People tour stopover which saw KL being their only Asia stop in their world tour that brought in fans from all other countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore as well as Australia.
Muse is the first foreign band to perform in KL following the aftermath of the controversial behaviour of The 1975’s frontman Matty Healy at Good Vibes Festival 2023 (GVF2023) over a week ago which saw the remaining two days of the three-day event abruptly being called off.
Many concertgoers admitted that the cancellation of GVF2023 left them worrying whether Muse would go on, including for Kuching-born Mohamad Dzulfiqqar who came all the way from Penang with his two friends just to see Muse.
“I think what Healy did at GVF2023 was really uncalled for. Of course we were worried when we heard about the cancellation.
“Because Muse is known for their deep-meaning lyrics and it could easily be misinterpreted by some.
“However, we’re stoked that the show can go on and are hoping for an energetic performance by them,” Dzulfiqqar told Malay Mail.
And Muse did not disappoint serving fans a one and a half hour of high-spirited performances despite a delay for over an hour in starting the show.
The famous 90’s band was supposed to take the stage at 8pm, however only they came out at 9.25pm.
Restless audience members were immediately on their feet when the band opened their set with Will of the People, jumping as soon as the chords of Hysteria kicked in.
After performing Psycho, band frontman Matthew Bellamy greeted concertgoers with a ‘selamat petang Kuala Lumpur’ and ‘terima kasih’.
Bellamy also told audiences that they’re happy to be back in KL after their last performance here in 2007.
“Maybe next time it won’t be 16 years, we’ll come back sooner okay.”
The whole Bukit Jalil National Stadium went into a sing-along mode as Muse performed some of their greatest hits including Time is Running Out, Starlight, Plug-in Baby and Supermassive Black Hole.
The band captivated audiences with their stage setups and montages, with Bellamy coming out wearing his famous lighted bomber jacket while performing his solo song Behold, The Glove.
Muse bassist Chrisopher Wolstenholme, dished up a harmonica solo before going into another of their hit songs Knights of Cydonia which closed their set for the night.
Muse performed around 20 songs for their KL concert last night with local band Kyoto Protocol opening.
Concertgoers were left extremely satisfied with Muse’s performance although some wished they had performed more songs.
Indonesian concertgoer Fitri from Jakarta shared that he thoroughly enjoyed the show despite the delay.
“At first, it kind of felt like we paid for the delay, it was very boring but as soon as Muse took the stage, it was electrifying.
“Although we’re missing some of the songs that were promised by the organiser via social media, we enjoyed the whole setlist. A 10 out of 10 for me,” Fitri said.
Mohd Syukry Anuar and his friends who just landed in KL from Kuching, Sarawak at 6am yesterday morning expressed that the whole experience was worth it.
“We still haven’t slept yet, after checking in at the hotel, we immediately came here. We even managed to catch some sleep during the one hour delay.
“Overall for us it’s eight out of ten. The missing two points are mainly because of the lack of crowd interaction, I guess and the songs choice.
“For us in Zone A, it was amazing but some of my friends at the upper level of the stadium were complaining about the screen which is considered small,” he said.
For local musician Islah Sulaiman, he and his wife had a great time at the concert despite having to walk for about two kilometres to the stadium due to lack of parking space.
“Despite the delay, we were satisfied with them. The sound was very powerful and even the stage setup was amazing.
“It’s just that I wished they played more songs because I couldn’t get enough of them.
“I’m a fan of their old albums such as Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry and how I wished they played more songs from those albums.”
