The fan base for Muse grows with every release. 2006 s Black Holes And Revelations broke into the U.S. Top 10 while hitting #1 in the U.K. and much of Europe, where it sold 1 million copies and was #3 on NME's Albums Of Th... more »e Year list. A multiple BRIT Award winner for Best Live Act,
Muse then staged two massive sold-out performances at 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium in London last June, which increasingly are recognised as amongst the definitive live moments of the year. The best performances from those concerts, as well as bonus backstage footage, are presented on the CD/DVD set HAARP. The concerts once again demonstrated the raw power and unquenchable ambition of one of the UK's most successful long-term bands and one of, if not the, greatest, most ambitious live act in the world at the present time.« less
The fan base for Muse grows with every release. 2006 s Black Holes And Revelations broke into the U.S. Top 10 while hitting #1 in the U.K. and much of Europe, where it sold 1 million copies and was #3 on NME's Albums Of The Year list. A multiple BRIT Award winner for Best Live Act,
Muse then staged two massive sold-out performances at 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium in London last June, which increasingly are recognised as amongst the definitive live moments of the year. The best performances from those concerts, as well as bonus backstage footage, are presented on the CD/DVD set HAARP. The concerts once again demonstrated the raw power and unquenchable ambition of one of the UK's most successful long-term bands and one of, if not the, greatest, most ambitious live act in the world at the present time.
Want to know why Muse is the best live act in the world toda
Daniel Aldana | North Bellmore, NY United States | 04/01/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"HAARP is the answer to the question of why Muse scoops just about every single "best live act" award that they are nominated for. We're talking about a band that has been able to master every single aspect of live entertainment on a career that has spanned over the past 10 years.
Being lucky enough to witness Muse on stage 6 times, I have to say that their performance never gets boring, and it's never short of fascinating. Matt Bellamy's voice, guitar riffs and distortions bring all that on-stage magic, backed of course by the stunning drum performance of Dom Howard, and the brilliant bass lines and backing vocals of Chris Wolstenholme.
Anyone who's been lucky enough to witness the Muse live experience knows that it's powerful, over the top, and enchanting.
In other words, Muse makes U2 look like Hannah Montana.
I truly wanted to give this DVD a 5 star review, but the only thing that stops me from doing so is the lack of extra features. Certain songs from the performance on the night of June 17th are missing, as well as songs from the 16th that weren't played on the 17th, including:
- Sing For Absolution
- Bliss
- City of Delusion
- Citizen Erased
- Sunburn
- Man of Mystery
- Microcuts
Let's just hope that we will be able to witness these performance, on a Blu-Ray release of HAARP.
Nevertheless HAARP could easily be considered among the best concert DVD releases ever."
A Must-Own for Any Muse Fan!
Cale E. Reneau | Conroe, Texas United States | 04/01/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The last time Muse toured through my city, they were the opening act for My Chemical Romance. Such a thing doesn't seem fair for a band that can sell out Wembley Stadium, one of the world's largest sports facilities, twice in two days. This CD/DVD set is from those two famous shows and contain almost every great song Muse has ever written.
Unfortunately, I've never been a fan of live CDs. Why pay money to hear a band perform something live when you can just pay the same amount and get a better, studio-quality recording? The same holds true for the CD in this set. Though the songs are performed greatly and it has one song that the DVD doesn't (boo), "Microcuts," it's just not the same experience as watching the DVD. A live show, especially one on this scale, is equally about visual stimulus as it is audio. That's why I'm focusing this review mainly on the DVD, because it's amazing, awe-inspiring, and it make me wish that I actually went to the Muse show the last time they came through my town.
In a word, this performance is massive. The band enters the stage from the middle of the stadium, rising up onto a platform, before making the long walk down to the absolutely gigantic stage. Once there, they embark on a nearly 2-hour long concert that is one of the most mind-blowing spectacles I have ever witnessed on a DVD. The set goes through different phases, opening with huge numbers like "Knights of Cydonia" and "Hysteria" and really pumping the crowd up. Matt eventually moves over to a grand piano where he plays "Apocalypse Please," "Hoodoo," and "Feeling Good." Things pick back up soon after and the band plays a couple of their more heavy tunes before leaving the stage for a brief intermission.
They reenter shortly after, Matt carrying an acoustic guitar on which he plays "Soldier's Poem" and "Unintended." This is really the most flawed portion of the act, as "Soldier's Poem" isn't really a crowd pleaser by any means. Fortunately, this section is followed by the performance of "Blackout" which is truly breathtaking. During this amazing number, there are actually trapeze artists suspended from gigantic orbs overing hundreds of feet over the crowd. It is worth buying this DVD to witness, as it"s probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen at a concert.
Overall, I've found Haarp to be an awesome piece of media to add to my collection. Though the experience given on the CD is nowhere near as impressive as that found on the DVD, for the price, you really can't go wrong. Though I'm a little upset that "Citizen Erased" is nowhere to be found on this set, I'm more than happy with it. After seeing The Flaming Lips live, I was pretty much sure that I would never see a show quite as entertaining. After viewing this DVD, however, I can safely say that they have some stiff competition. If you call yourself a Muse fan, you owe it to yourself to pick up this set. Disappointment is not an option.
Key Tracks:
1. "Knights of Cydonia"
2. "Butterflies and Hurricanes"
3. "Invincible"
4. "Microcuts"
5. "Take a Bow"
CD: 7 out of 10 Stars
DVD: 9 out of 10 Stars"
You know, I already liked Muse a ton...
Christopher Wood | North Haven, CT United States | 04/08/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"... But this stupid live set had to put it above just about every band that I like and love (aside from Dream Theater). I don't typically buy too many live DVDs of bands, but, I had heard by a lot of people that Muse puts on one hell of a great show. Since I would someday love to see them live personally, I figured I'd see what I was getting myself into.
I was a little constricted on time, but I got through just about all of the DVD portion. Let's be honest, I didn't care about the CD part of it. I DON'T EVEN LIKE THE SONG "KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA" THAT MUCH! And they made it terrific on their show. Everything was near perfect. So thanks to this stupid set, I was late to an engagement I had to be at, because I seriously was completely enamored with their talent. Matthew Bellamy sounds every bit as good live, as he does on the studio albums, if not BETTER! There isn't all that much Origin of Symmetry or Showbiz on here, but, enough to satisfy I'd say.
I would point towards those who are huge fans of Black Holes and Absolution to buy this set first and foremost. Buy it even if you love Showbiz and OoS. Actually, just buy it. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll miss tomorrow's really boring management meeting due to having too much damn fun watching Matthew Bellamy completely eradicate your chances of wanting to listen to anything else for the next couple of days."
Muse... "Take a bow"... yes indeed, in front of 75,000 at We
Duke | New Zealand | 04/02/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"In the new millennium Muse together with Gomez, Mercury Rev, Elbow, Coldplay and The Flaming Lips (from "Soft Bulletin" (1999) onwards) were the bands that really excited me the most. (Previous to these recent years Kings X and Dream Theater "did it for me" in the 90's, Marillion were "my 80's" band together with Simple Minds, Big Country, Waterboys and U2. My 70's favorites were largely Genesis and Rush.
This live album from 2007 is a fantastic CD / DVD set (please see track listing as part of the "product information" above. 10 of the 13 tracks on the CD (and 13 of the19) (not including the "Intro" bit) Muse played live when they played in Auckland New Zealand in November 2007 (where they opened with "Take a bow" and closed with "Knights of Cydonia" - the reverse of this set. The CD (from the 16th June show) is 70 minutes of the greatest live music I have heard. The songs are very live in feel, passion and energy. The crowd is great and has been mixed in brilliantly, it really has a great live feel. The DVD is the whole 17th June show (thus 6 more tracks than the CD) is sounds fantastic. Visually it is at times just too much to take in (I mean that in appositive sense, there is just so much happening).
This is also a great companion disc to the bands previous live disc (Hullabaloo - 2002 in support of the "Origin of Symmetry" CD (2001) with tracks from that CD and" Showbiz" (1999). On this new one we get 6 tracks from "Black Holes and Revelations" (2006), 4 from "Absolution" (2004), 2 from "Origin" (2001) and 1 from "Showbiz" (1999). The only "repeat" (ie that was already on "Hullabaloo" is "Micro Cuts" (from"Origin").
The band give a superb performance throughout, just brilliant. I can't speak highly enough of this set. For me Muse are THE band of the new millennium, in terms of their ability / freshness/ willingness to take risks and passion for what they do. 75,000 looked and sounded like they loved every minute...
On a personal note I enjoy playing drums (I'm only average myself) and I was fascinated with the playing ability of Dominic Howard - brilliant. He plays a very compact transparent kit which looks great on the DVD with the various lighting effects.
I really enjoy his very heavy bass sounding style (Single kick, with three floor toms - oneon his high hat side) with the snare and singular rack tom providing the contrasts. It is just a great sound.
Certainly one of the great live albums of the new millennium from one of the great bands of these modern times, a tremendous experience in today's age - real musicians playing real instruments and playing with energy and passion in front of a very appreciative 75,000 at Wembley Stadium, in London, England.
I really enjoyed this CD (and DVD), if this sounds remotely like your sort of thing, go for it, it's a top notch effort and has joined my personal list of "Great Live albums" that I've enjoyed over the last 30 years.
- "Live at the Fillmore" from Allman Brothers Band (1971)
- "How the West was won" from Led Zeppelin (1972)
- "Made in Japan" from Deep Purple (1972)
- "Yessongs" from Yes (1973)
- "Welcome back my friends" from ELP (1973)
- "Too late to stop now" from Van Morrison (1974)
- "On your feet or on your knees" from Blue Oyster Cult (1975)
- "Live in London" from Bruce Springsteen (1975)
- "One more from the Road" from Lynyrd Skynrd (1976)
- "Frampton comes alive" from Peter Frampton (1976)
- "Live Bullet" from Bob Seger (1976)
- "Seconds Out" from Genesis (1977)
- "A Live Record" from Camel (1978)
- "Bursting Out Live" from Jethro Tull (1978)
- "Two for the Show" from Kansas (1978)
- "Playing the fool" Gentle Giant (1978)
- "Waiting fro Columbus" from Little Feat (1978)
- "Strangers in the Night" from UFO (1979)
- "Live Rust" from Neil Young (1979).
- "Paris" from Supertramp (1980).
- "Exit...Stage left" from Rush (1981)
- "Under a blood red sky" from U2 (1983)
- "Stop making sense" from Talking Heads (1984)
- "Live in the city of Light" from Simple Minds (1986)
- "Live adventures of the Waterboys" from the Waterboys (1986)
- "Operation Livecrime" from Queensryche (1991)
- "Without a safety Net" from Big Country (1992)
- "Secret World Live" from Peter Gabriel (1994)
- "Together in Concert" from Tim Finn, Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga (2000)
- "Lve at the Greek" from Black Crowes and Jimmy Page (2000)
- "Live Scenes from New York" from Dream Theater (2000)
- "Hullabaloo" from Muse (2002)
- "Live in Rio" from Rush (2002).
- "Out West" from Gomez (2005)
- "Instant Delivery" from Flower Kings (2006).
- "Score - 20th Anniversary" from Dream Theater (2006)
- "Freak 'n' Roll - into the fog" from Black Crowes (2006)
- "Okonokos" from My Morning Jacket (2006).
- "HAARP" from Muse (2007).
"
New Muse Fan -- this album is a great introduction
Monica Horvath | Raleigh, NC | 06/26/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I am incredibly impressed with a band that can sound so great live. The vocals are incredible, the lyrics amusing, and the riffs energetic. Muse is somewhat like a peppier Radiohead-- if you are a Thom Yorke fan I suggest you give it a try. I run to this album, and it gets me going for almost an extra mile :) Amazon's mp3 downloader thingy kicks the pants off of itunes. No DRM!"