Muse at Hammerstein or the Magic Umbrella
I saw Muse at Hammerstein Ballroom on August 3rd. With Muse, everything is epic, and they pull it off brilliantly.
It was drizzling on the way to the show so I ducked into one of those generic women’s clothing and accesory places that are scaterred throughout midtown. The manager looking guy was in the entrance, so I asked him if they had any umbrellas. “No.” So I started to leave but overheard one of the cashier girls say that they had one. I turned around to re-inquire. “Yep, right over there” she said, pointing to a pile of random objects on a shelf to the side of the checkout. They apparently had one umbrella, likely one that another customer had left there by mistake. This isn’t usually my preferred style of consuming goods, but it was raining, and I wasn’t feeling particularly picky. “How much?” I ask, and proceeded to buy the umbrella for $5.
The opening act was a brooklyn-based band that sounded fairly uninspired. After a pretty long wait, the show was about to start. A unique audience was packed on the general admission floor, where I happened to be. Every now and then someone would still try to squeeze their way through, and I’d make room to let them go by. I did this for this hippie/jock looking guy who then stop right in front of me. Not cool, but whatever, it happens.
So Muse comes out and I quickly realize the hippie/jock is more into Muse than Muse. With choreographed moves for every bar of music he gyrated about from head to toe. He’d squat down to the floor and then at a climax he would reach both arms into the air as he stood up, whipping his ponytail towards my head. Don’t forget, the floor was completely packed. I tried talking to him, but he was too stoned (from taking hits off of everyone else’s pot) to comprehend how annoying his dancing was getting. I managed to dodge a few more potential slays from his whipping ponytail and looked for refuge in among the bodies behind me. After I escaped I realized that the guy had cleared a 5 foot radius around him. He was annoying everyone. Eventually he made his way to the front and I could focus more on the show, which was amazing.
