I'm back and I'm absolutely exhausted
But it was worth it, the gig was indescribably good. Amazing, magnificent, awesome, there aren't enough words to describe it.
On Saturday morning I was really nervous and was thinking 'I could just not go' but I knew the things that make you nervous are often the things most worth doing.
So I got the Eurostar to Paris, navigated the underground and found the hotel, which was right by the stadium, dumped my stuff and met my roommate, who was very nice, then headed to the venue to sell my spare ticket. An hour and a half later and two support bands missed , I finally got rid of it and headed inside in time to hear Kasabian play their supporting set. They were excellent but the singer's mic was dodgy and we could hardly hear him.
Then about half an hour later (9.15 French time) Muse came on and put on the show of their lives. They were on fire. We got an incredible setlist, including some songs they haven't played in ages. At one point I was welling up, singing along to a song with 80,000 other voices, 80,000 pairs of arms in the air swaying along. You can't imagine the feeling and the atmosphere in that crowd.
During one of the slower acoustic songs everyone got out their mobile phones and lighters and it looked absolutely amazing from where I was.
I was near the front for the first few songs but it was all a bit of a crush and I couldn't see much even on tiptoes, so I moved towards the back of the Golden Lawn (the front standing area) where there was lots of space to jump around and dance and I had a perfect view.
The lights and visuals were amazing and during the second to last song they released these enormous confetti-filled balloons into the crowd, which was huge fun trying to pop them and getting showered in confetti.
During one orchestral song there was a big UFO thing that floated above the crowd with a dancer hanging from it doing an aerial acrobatics display. Matt (the singer) wore a light-up LED suit for one of the encores, which was hilarious, and there was a moving platform with a light-up drum kit on it which they all got on for a couple of songs and it moved out and upwards into the audience.
It was over way too quickly (they played for just over two hours) and I was exhausted. One the way back to the hotel there was still a great atmosphere, all the bars and food stalls playing Muse songs full blast. It was Muse heaven
I got to bed around 2am after chatting for ages with my roommate and the next morning headed out for a wander around Gay Paree. I had lunch by the Seine, wandered around the Cathedrale Notre Dame, walked down to the Eiffel Tower where i lay on the grass in the sunshine with my iPod on looking at the tower, went for another wander, back to the Latin Quarter for dinner and a glass of vin blanc and then to the Eurostar for the trip home. Arrived home about 11.30pm.
Such a great, fantastic weekend. It was nice to break out of my little corner of London and feel alive, having a mini adventure. Paris is a truly great city and Muse are the best live band in the world.
(sorry for the essay )