Musing On Metacriticism, Or Do I Mean Metacriticism On Muse?

To which question the answer is, of course, who gives a shit?

Lat Saturday I started the day on the Island - you know, Anglesey. That is a good start in anybody's book. We ended our short stay and returned to Brum for the particular purpose of seeing Muse at the NIA or whatever it is now called. I am happy to report that this proved a very good finish to the day even if we had missed closing time at the chip shop by the time we got back to Four Oaks.

This was the second time that the Groupie and I have seen Muse. The first time was at the Etihad Stadium and we were a bloody long way from the action but it was nevertheless close to 'transplendent' as the Shelley Duvall character says of the Maharishi in one of the countless great scenes in that transplendent film Annie Hall. The 'transplendent' remark is in the same exchange as the quite brilliant throwaway excuse that Woody Allen's alter ego, Alvey Singer, offers for having missed the Dylan concert, 'I missed that one, my racoon had hepatitis.' If you can't see that this is one of the funniest lines ever uttered on screen then  I feel sorry for you.

But back to the boys in the band. This time we were witnesses to the first UK iteration of Muse's Drones in-the-round arena tour. I can't put it any better than the Guardian did: 'Space rock behemoths begin massive military offensive.' Bluntly, this is the sort of show that Gabriel era Genesis would have wanted to put on. It was, well, transplendent.

You might just have noticed this - 'drivel' is one of my favourite words, as in, 'Bono talked the usual sanctimonious drivel.' This is an unfortunate but necessary example because I like U2, just as long as Bono stops telling me to rely on his judgement over my own. But one must of course be even-handed in these things so we will have to address the rather quaint anti-war sentiments that apparently underlie the Drones tour and album. I say apparently because you'll be pleased to hear that neither the frighteningly talented Matt Bellamy nor anybody else delivers a sermon during the show. In fact the only talking of substance is a projected JFK speech, which even an old fascist like me can put up with. However I have tracked down the following words of Bellamy about the 'concept' behind Drones:

To me, drones are metaphorical psychopaths which enable psychopathic behaviour with no recourse. The world is run by drones utilising drones to turn us all into drones. This album explores the journey of a human, from their abandonment and loss of hope, to their indoctrination by the system to be a human drone, to their eventual defection from their oppressors.

Now I have decided to give him the benefit of doubt and therefore assumed that he might just have been taking the piss out of an over-earnest NME journo when he came up with that. Either way I'm glad he didn't choose to unburden himself of this stuff during Saturday's show - which was, and I repeat this very loudly, utterly transplendent.

Incidentally I've got a new word for Bono the next time he annoys me - try 'pecksniffery.' I repeat I like U2's stuff, indeed Bullet the Blue Sky would have a run at my Desert Island Discs list. But I also like a bit of Wagner from time to time and he was a bloke who really could talk vile drivel. Proving, as if we didn't know it, that education ain't everything.