This being my first foray into the pit, I was hard to contain my excitement when I got to shoot 107.7 The End’s annual Deck the Hall Ball at the WAMU theater this last Tuesday, featuring Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Metric, 30 Seconds to Mars and the headliners, Muse.
Being a newbie to the rocktographer scene, I felt ridiculously intimidated by how big this show really was. Arriving late after finding parking, Vampire Weekend was the first band I saw. The charming foursome played through a disappointingly short 20-minute set, but made the most of the five-song slot they were given. It included the big hits from their critically acclaimed debut as well as a couple from Contra, out this January – “White Sky” and “Cousins,” both incredibly addictive. Possibly the only good thing about having that short of a set was that they only got time to play the really recognizable songs and there wasn’t any time to have any sort of up and down mood. However, with the lightness of Vampire Weekend’s music, I needed more to be satisfied.
Next up was Phoenix – the Grammy-nominated spunky indie pop quartet from Versailles, who came out with one of the best albums of the year, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Again, another short set, but it didn’t feel nearly as short as it was because they were amazing. Dare I say they stole the show? Bringing crowd-pleaser after crowd-pleaser with “Lasso,” “Lisztomania,” “Rome” and “Girlfriend,” it seemed as if front man Thomas Mars loved the crowd just as much as they loved Phoenix. Their unique French brand of indie pop was the breakout of the year, and seeing Phoenix play live was the perfect way to end the year. After their final song, the hugely popular “1901,” the waif-like Mars crowd-surfed all the way to the back of the crowd of people standing on the floor and ran back up to the stage to thank all those who filled the WAMU Theater. Let me tell you, as sad as I was to see them leave the stage, it pumped me up even more at the fact that they’re coming back to Seattle to play a full set at a much more intimate venue right down the street at the Showbox SoDo.
By this point, I’d become pretty comfortable in the pit, filing in an out with all the other local photographers, even though I didn’t say a word to any of them. The third time back up the stage was for Metric, who I strongly underestimated. I didn’t catch them at Bumbershoot in September, but Emily Haines has got to be one of the most charismatic front women I’ve ever seen. She came out with dark lighting slightly glowing behind her sweaty, shaggy blonde hair, rocking back and forth playing her keyboard before walking up to the mic in her Sgt. Peppers-inspired jacket and blowing my mind. Metric played a half-hour set of songs from their 2009 disc, Fantasies and managed to fit so much sexy New Wavey heavy rock into that time frame. I strongly recommend seeing them live, as it makes you appreciate how good Metric is after 107.7 The End played “Help, I’m Alive” more than both Kings of Leon singles in 2008.
This was the end of the short sets, and onto the full-on Rock, yes, with a capital R.
I have to say, when I first heard the lineup, there was one band that didn’t fit. And that band was 30 Seconds to Mars. Honestly, you could tell which fans were there to see 30 Seconds to Mars because they were so out of sync with the rest of the lineup. But front man Jared Leto did make it seem that this was just a 30 Seconds to Mars show. And by the reaction of the crowd, their fans were satisfied. They opened their bombastic goth rock set with “A Beautiful Lie” and “The Kill” off their second album and played through the heavy hits from This Is War for the rest of the 45 minutes. Personally, I would have preferred cutting down their set to give more time to Vampire Weekend. As overdone as 30 Seconds to Mars was, with a spotlight for Leto, he surely has the voice and energy to hold a crowd that large, even if not everyone was there to see him. He jumped down off the stage, ran through the pit, dodged myself, the other photographers, and the sweaty teens being pulled from the crowd. But that could have been his fault – because at the beginning he shouted to the swooning girls, “Let’s see how many f-cking people we can get to crowd surf at the same time!” Great, thanks Jared. It made for a chaotic, almost dangerous pit. 30 Seconds to Mars surely does love the fans, almost in a needy way, as evidenced by the fact that they told the audience they’d sign every single copy of This Is War people brought to the meet and greet table after their show. I didn’t bother going to check, because Muse went on next.
After a way-too-long intermission, Matt Bellamy, Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard came up on stage to the loudest cheering I heard all night. The crowd surely belonged to Muse, an indication by the majority of the tee shirts being worn across WAMU Theater. I’m pretty sure Muse is the only band out there that can pull off the huge rock that hasn’t been popular since before I was born, because with such hits like “Hysteria,” “Uprising,” and “Unnatural Selection,” you’d think they’d be over-the-top, but it’s nostalgic and refreshing at the same time. Matt Bellamy strutted around the stage dry-humping his pink, glittery guitar at one point, and sporting a stylish patterned blazer. It’s almost unbelievable that that much sound can come from three guys. One guitar, one bass, one drummer – and Muse manages to sound like eight people are standing up on stage. I was just glad that now after seeing Muse live, I’ll stop thinking of that stupid scene in “Twilight” with “Supermassive Black Hole” playing in the background, and I’ll think about Matt, Chris and Dom rocking it in Seattle. Ending with “Plug in Baby” from Origin of Symmetry and a killer version of “Knights of Cydonia” from Black Holes and Revelations, complete with a spaghetti western intro, harmonica and all, Muse literally went out with a bang. They finished with giant jets of smoke shooting out from the stage, accompanied by tons of screaming fans.
If there’s one band that’s the current poster band for stadium rock, it’s Muse.
Band Info:
Vampire Weekend: website | myspace | @ treasure island | @ acl | @ monolith | @ popped | @ all points west | @ lollapalooza
Metric: website | myspace | @ midland
30 Seconds to Mars: website | myspace | This Is War review
Muse: website | myspace | Muse Reveal Tracklisting for New Album | Muse to Play Several U.S. Dates with U2 and MTV VMAs | Various Artists: New Moon Soundtrack | Muse – “Undisclosed Desires” Promo Video | Muse Announce Short Spring American Tour
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