Mr. Matt Bellamy ponders whether he left the tea kettle on due to the excess amount of smoke coming from backstage…

When the New York Post reported over the weekend that Muse had sold out “The Big Room,” I was scared.

Well, maybe scared isn’t the right word for it. Anxious? Was it panic that I was feeling, given how horribly the audience had behaved during the White Stripes show on July 24? Out of reflex, I playfully ducked in my office chair, remembering the vicious onslaught of glowing drink sticks that flew around the Garden like pissed off dragonflies.

To wit, this was an exchange I overheard while waiting to enter the venue:

Business Casual Man: “So, um, tell me more about these guys. What do they sound like?”
Ironic T-Shirt Man: “Oh dude, they’re so badass. They’re like Radiohead; weird like Radiohead, but louder, and edgier.”

More info after the jump!

If you look really closely you can find Business Casual Man & Ironic T-Shirt Man. They’re def. in there…

Maybe I was just fascinated; fascinated that a not-totally-mainstream, but beloved band like Muse, who hasn’t to date scored a platinum record in the States, could pack the Garden with fans so thirsty, so frighteningly devoted, that I spent much of the show marveling at the fervent display of undying love to Matt Bellamy and his fellow beasts of beautiful bombast.

Hell can’t be hotter than Muse was tonight…

California’s Cold War Kids provided a dutiful, passionate opening set to a supportive packed house, with a highpoint being an astonishing performance of their hit “Hang Me Up to Dry,” along with a guest appearance by Elvis Perkins. Singer Nathan Willett’s Jeff Buckley-cum-Elton John vocals and frenzied ivory tickling were certainly not hindered by the arena as they fluttered in the air and kissed the rafters.

Cold War Kids rev up the MSG crowd

But no matter how commendably Cold War Kids carried out their task, the night belonged to the very moment when the vamp music cuts, and Muse begins. That was nonnegotiable.

Leading with a curious quote-as-visual (a la U2’s Vertigo Tour) by John F. Kennedy from 1961, (“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society…”), Mad Scientist Matt Bellamy clad in dapper red jacket and trousers, keyboardist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard launched into a militant, heart-pounding, fist-pumping, red-blooded, red-lighted “Knights of Cydonia.”

Matt belts out yet another crowd pleaser and Chris plays his heart out

I didn’t know it was possible to blow tens of thousands of minds at once. Who knew?

One thing that was for certain – I felt for the cynics who missed out on this night simply because they joylessly turn their noses up at seeing shows that can house the largest amount of people. Tens of thousands of people should see Muse. It would be good for them, their spirits, and might even show them what music could and should do in an environment that allows for such high octane melodrama.

Heavily interspersing cuts from 2003’s Absolution and 2006’s Black Holes and Revelations, Muse pulled off as its first act the following: a spell-binding “Hysteria” replete with maniacal moshers alternately shoving each other and slipping on puddles of spilt beer, a fuzzy, groovy “Supermassive Black Hole” with animated marching robots, a trumpet-augmented “City of Delusion,” a frenetic, awe-inspiring “Butterflies and Hurricanes,” and a gorgeous but short “Apocalypse Please.’

Don’t worry Matt, they’re not real lasers…

The latter song gave the rest of us (or those of us over 25, ahem) a much needed breather, and ushered in a lovely lull with piano ballads “Feeling Good” (off of 2001’s Origin of Symmetry) and “Sunburn” (from the band’s 1999 debut, Showbiz). Bellamy, as Muse fans well know, is massively influenced by Sergei Rachmaninoff, and his prodigious turn at his clear-top Kawai grand piano was nothing less than spectacular. Always good to get the kids interested in classical music.

“Invincible,” as grandiose and inspiring a tune as it is, was the bearer of bad tidings, with a violent, war-is-hell montage. Granted, Americans should be aware of atrocities that our nightly news anchors either defend or deflect, but seeing someone be made to kneel down and then get shot execution-style in the head can be an unwelcome visual and downer at a rock show. Even if it is during a song that beckons, “Let’s use this chance/To turn things around/And tonight/We can truly say/Together we’re invincible.”

Then it got crazy. “Starlight” reached U2 levels of deeply felt mania, which gave way to a ridiculously rocking, floor-leaping, arena sing-a-long to “Time is Running Out.” And just when it seemed that no audience member had air left in his or her lungs, “New Born” made everyone its bitch, reducing even the toughest of guys to squeal, raise both arms to Heaven and open their mouths so wide a dentist would blush. Add a confetti balloon spewing “Plug in Baby” to the mix, and Muse surely earned itself a jersey to hang on the ceiling. Is this hyperbole? I promise you it’s not. Muse is just that great, and, as one frat guy observed while spilling his beer on my shoulder and elbowing me in the face, “it’s like Radiohead you can mosh to.”

Start praying ’cause your soul now belongs to Muse…

“Stockholm Syndrome” brought crowd-surfing, body-slamming, and what felt like the Rapture to many, and prepared us for “Take a Bow,” which, as you may have heard, has lasers. That’s right, frickin’ lasers. And blasts of pressurized carbon dioxide as a final punctuation and goodnight kiss. Have mercy.

Well done, lads. You win. And kudos for convincing thousands of music fans that they just saw the best show of their young lives.

They probably did.

–Carrie Alison/Photos by Chris David