Muse in Los Angeles 2007

The next day we got up fairly early and Alice took myself, Helen and Liron to the airport to get our flight to L.A. I was sad to say goodbye to Alice. She had been a total star all the way through our trip. Booking our tickets for both shows and driving us around. Thanks again Alice, see you in June!

So we were sat at the airport and I couldn’t help looking over my shoulder every 5 minutes (just incase we had a repeat of the airport episode!)

We arrived in L.A early afternoon and got a taxi to the hotel. We checked in, got ready and went straight back out again to go to Inglewood for show number 2.

We got to the venue around 4.30ish and there was already quite a queue forming. We got on the end of it but then Helen and I decided we were hungry so went off to get some food. We decided that although it would be nice to be at the front for the show, we weren’t too bothered about it, we were just going to enjoy being there!

We went into a food place just across the road and saw some of the guys from immigrant in there.

By the time we had our food, it was 6pm. By this time the queue to get in the venue was huge! We got on the end of it and waited. Towards the front, the queue was split into 3. Where we were the queue had merged into one. When the doors opened, the queue moved down and we joined one of the 3 front queues. It was SO unorganised and the security people were too busy shouting at people to organise anything properly. This actually worked to our advantage, although it wasn’t fair at all. We were lucky enough to have joined the right queue. They were letting all of us in, before the people at the front of the other 2 queues who had been waiting all day!

We got in and couldn’t believe our luck as we were in the second row! We were asked to sit down. The people around us were really friendly. They asked us where we were from and I said England and that we came over especially for the shows. A little while later, Liron came over and joined us. She was (understandably) annoyed that we had arrived the same time as her but went off for food but still ended up going in before her. It didn’t seem fair to me either but I was very pleased with getting to the front!

When we stood up I felt bad about the people who were on the barrier (who had all been queueing from the early hours of the morning!) and the fact that I would probably end up squashing them. I was having a conversation with Helen about how to stay upright in the second row without losing your spot or injuring the people in front. I was telling her we need to try to keep our elbows tucked in so as they don’t end up in the back of the person in front. I was saying one of the most painful things when on the barrier is when someone in the second row grabs hold of the barrier and then you get their elbow in your ribs. It really hurts!

Immigrant came on and were really good again! I wanted to get their CD after the show but there was a huge queue at the Merch stand.

Then Muse came onstage. When they opened with Knights Of Cydinia, I was expecting a massive crush. I had my elbows tucked in well away from the back of the girl in front and braced myself. But it didn’t happen! It was quite civilised in there all the way through the show. We were all jumping around and there were a few pushes but nothing like the night before. This made the show even more enjoyable and I was able to get some amazing photos! The set list was much the same as the night before, just a slightly different order. I enjoyed that show so much. It looked like the band were enjoying it too. It has to be my third favourite Muse show (First is still Reading, second was Wembley 3).

After the show we met up with a bunch of people outside. As we were all talking, the couple who were standing in front of me walked past and said how much they enjoyed the show and thanked me for trying not to hurt them. See, it is possible to be polite at the front!

Helen and I decided not to wait around afterwards as we couldn’t work out where the back exit was. Also, more importantly, the taxi driver had told us to give them a call an hour before we needed picking up. But luckily, a taxi just appeared out of nowhere so we took that as a sign to call it a night. Liron decided to stay though and ended up in the aftershow.

We spent the whole taxi ride back admiring our photos and grinning from ear to ear after a fantastic show!

So that was it Muse wise. We spent a couple of days exploring L.A and sleeping a lot before returning home.

I just had such an amazing time on this trip. I’m so glad I went. I met some really lovely people, most of whom I hope to catch up with at the Wembley shows in June. Also, it was fantastic spending time with Helen. She’s the perfect travelling companion and I hope we do many more trips together!

We did have one more Muse moment, when we were on the plane home. We were both wearing Muse T-shirts (again!) and the stewardess said that she had been on a flight with them recently when they were coming back from Japan. She said they were really chatty and friendly. I looked at her. She was pretty and blonde. I thought ‘I bet they were. It’s a long flight from Japan…!! :-) ‘

Muse in San Francisco 2007

We slept in until midday again. For the second day in a row, I woke up with a headache. I had the same problem when I went to Las Vegas. I think it was dehydration where I’m not drinking enough water. That and not enough sleep. But at least I was in a better mood.

During the afternoon, Alice took Helen and I back to pier 39 where we took a boat trip around the bay. It took us under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alkatras.

When we had finished Alice came and picked us up again and we went back to the hotel and got ready to see Muse!

We got to the venue just before 6. We bumped into Liron who had been waiting outside the venue all day trying to speak to one of the band so she could give them a card, which had messages in from a load of the Israeli Muse fans. We chatted to her for a bit, then wished her luck (she did give it to Dom in the end) and went to join the end of what was by now a huge queue.

The doors opened at around 7ish and we went in. Helen and I had decided before hand that we would both try to get where we wanted and would meet up again afterwards. I managed to get 2nd row just left of centre and Helen ended up in the middle somewhere with Eileen, who’s one of Cris’ friends who we had met in the club the night before.

Immigrant were really good again. I’d definitely like to see them again. I hope they make it to the UK one day soon.

Then the lights went down and it was time for Muse. It was SO good to see them again. They played a longer set that they had on the UK tour and I was delighted to hear ‘Sing For Absolution’ as I hadn’t heard them play that before. The only thing stopping that set list being perfect was, no Bliss. But we got Citizen Erased, which I love and Stockholm Syndrome is still my favourite live song. Just amazing!

It was very pushy in that crowd but I tried not to get swept into the middle. I managed to get some good pictures too which I will share when I have sorted them out.

After the show, I headed to the Merch stand where I had arranged to meet Helen. There were no T-shirts that I liked that I didn’t already have but Helen bought a couple of things. We then bumped into Patrick from Immigrant and spoke to him for a bit.

We then went outside and round to where a bus was parked where we met up with a very upset Liron. Somehow or other, her camera had decided to re-format itself and she had lost all her photos from the night before, including the one with Matt! She was understandably devastated. (She did however mange to get another one after the Houston show with MCR, thankfully!)

We then met up with a couple of other message board people, Including Mary (Gocanaux) who I was really pleased to meet finally!

There was quite a few people waiting around by this bus, but a small group of us decided to wait by the other door, thinking they would probably leave in cars.

We waited there a while, then someone came out with 3 set lists and handed them out to us. Mary and I both got the third one at the same time but she, very graciously, let me have it as she had already got one from another show (Thanks so much for that Mary). I was so pleased as I didn’t manage to get one from any of the previous shows and it was a great souvenir of my trip! When I looked at the set list I had, it looked different to the others. It wasn’t in the bold font, just in normal type. I also noticed that after City Of Delusion it had (Dom A please print name of trumpet player here on my set list) typed on it. So who introduced the trumpet player? Matt. I seems I got the original set list!

A bit later, a car pulled up outside the door. It seemed the band was about to leave. Morgan came out and Mary was speaking to him for a while. While they were talking, Matt and Dom came out and got straight into the car (Chris had left straight after the show as he was ill). They looked behind, saw us all there and waved to us. By that, I don’t mean just sticking a hand up to acknowledge us, I mean really waving! So of course we all waved back. They were still waving when the car pulled away. So even though we didn’t actually get to speak to them, that meant a lot to us as there was so few of us there!

So we were all very happy by the time we headed back to the hotel. All in all it was a fantastic night!

Muse DJ Set/Immigrant - San Francisco 2007

We had a nice long, well needed lie in on the Sunday morning. Just as we were getting up there was a knock at the door. We answered it and were greeted by a very excited Cris (Allsoarty from the message board) who had just arrived. After chatting to her for a bit we got ready and met up with Alice in the very conveniently placed starbucks in the hotel lobby. She had managed to meet up with 2 other boardies Aaron and Miles from Hawaii.

Myself, Helen, Alice, Aaron and Miles spent the afternoon sightseeing. Alice very kindly drove us around. We went to pier 39 and also drove over Golden Gate Bridge.

We got back to the hotel late afternoon to find Lara (Althea on the message board) and her friend had arrived. They were having a bit of a party in their room with Liron and Cris. We had some serious catching up to do, so it was a quick trip to the off licence across the road for some beer and vodka!

Later in the evening, we made our way to the club. We started the queue outside. There are a lot of strange people in San Francisco. Not somewhere I’d like to be hanging around by myself at night. We seemed to keep some of them amused for a while, just stood there waiting for the door to open to the club!

Alice changed her mind while we were waiting and decided to go back to the hotel, as she was really tired. I didn’t really feel like clubbing either and nearly went back too but I decided I was on holiday I should make the most of it!

Finally the doors opened and we went in. I soon realised why it was called the dark room. It was a small room, which was…well…dark.

I didn’t really feel like drinking as it was making me feel tired rather than being fun so I stuck to water. We all stood at the front of the stage and waited.

After a while, Immigrant, who were the band who would be supporting Muse the following night and at the L.A show played. They were really good.

Towards the end of their set, I looked behind me just in time to see Matt and Dom arrive and make their way into the back room. Muse were in the building!

After Immigrant had finished, I saw Matt at the back of the room. I thought about going and asking for a photo but by the time I thought about it, quite a few other people had gone up to him and I didn’t think it was a good time.

Liron did go over to him. She came back and was proudly showing us all the picture she had taken with Matt. I was really pleased for her as she had come all the way from Israel and had never met him before. Also, she was so excited about it, bless her!

Time went on a bit and we wondered what was going on. Then word got around that Matt wasn’t going to come out to do the DJing. I don’t know for sure what the reasons were, but if what I heard was true, thanks for spoiling it for everyone else.

Then, at last, Dom came out and did his DJ bit. He seemed to be having great fun doing it! Don’t ask me what he played because I have no idea. I dint recognise anything except the Eagles Of Death Metal song!

After he had finished, we went outside to find it was pouring with rain. We saw Dom leave from the other door and get into a car. I was feeling a bit fed up by then. Although I really enjoyed Dom’s DJ set, I didn’t like the club at all and most of the music was not to my taste. So I was outside, wet and tired. Liron was still excitedly talking about her photo with Matt. I had to walk away (sorry Liron) because I didn’t want to spoil it for her. Although I was pleased for her, I couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous. Well, very jealous actually. Matt is the only one I haven’t had my photo taken with. I had my photo taken with Dom in Aberdeen on the UK tour and Chris in Nottingham. I had been trying for the whole tour to get one with Matt but it never happened. That was the third time where I could have approached him but didn’t because it didn’t feel like a good time. Maybe I should have, but really, when he’s checking in/out of a hotel? When he’s just got off a 10 hour flight? When there’s already a crowd of people around him? I know I wouldn’t like it if I was him.

Luckily a taxi pulled up and we went back to the hotel and out of the rain. I went to sleep that night hoping I would wake up in a better mood the next morning.

London to San Francisco April 2007

In yet another moment of madness, I decided it would be a fantastic idea to go and see Muse in America. In all my years of gig going, I have never been to see any band outside of the UK/Ireland. If it was going to be any band, it had to be Muse.

It started off as just an idea. Then Helen (Forwen on the Muse message board) sent me a message to say she was thinking of doing the same thing so shall we go together.

When the San Francisco and Los Angeles headline dates were announced, the idea suddenly became a reality. Before either of us knew it, Flights were booked, hotels were booked and our friend Alice (California Museophile on the message board) helped us out by buying our tickets for us.

Soon enough, the big day arrived and I found myself on a bus to Heathrow, about to sit through a 10 hour flight, just to see Muse.

I met an equally as excited Helen at Heathrow. As we were queuing up to check in, we were talking about the boys (as you do). We were joking around, saying wouldn’t it be funny if they were on our flight. Looking at the flight times and the location, it was a distinct possibility.

After a bit more waiting around we got on the plane. I love flying, but that flight seemed to go on forever. I spent most of it listening to music and eating. Virgin Atlantic are brilliant to fly with. But they feed you, what seemed like, every 5 minutes so if you ever do fly with them, don’t eat for a week before hand. I swear I put on 2 stone on that flight alone.

Eventually we landed in San Francisco. I started to get very excitable again at that point!

We got off the plane and went through the security checks. I didn’t feel quite as intimidated as I did when I flew to Las Vegas a couple of years back, as the guy checking my documents wasn’t as nice looking!

We arrived in the baggage hall and headed to the carousel hoping our suitcases had also made it to San Francisco in one piece.

We went to one side and Helen said ‘it’s a bit busy over here, shall we head over to the other side’ ‘No, its ok. Lets just wait here’ came my reply. So there I am, aimlessly looking at the cases going by. A couple of minutes later, Helen says ‘I don’t mean to alarm you or anything but the lads ore over there’ I looked at her disbelievingly. ‘Honestly, the band are over there’ I looked around and saw Tom Kirk in all his glory. I looked back at Helen, then looked over again and saw Matt and Chris.

Then we both did exactly the same thing at the same time. We were both wearing Muse T-shirts and we both buttoned up our jackets automatically!

We then decided actually it really was less busy on the other side or the carousel, so we went over there. This of course meant we walked straight past them. We both pretended we either didn’t know who they were or hadn’t seen them and concentrated on looking for our cases, having the occasional sneaky glance over.

Here was the dilemma. I couldn’t believe it. I was in exactly the same position as I was in the hotel in Wembley. There they were, with no one else bothering them. That would have been an ideal time to go and ask for a photo. But I really didn’t think it would be fair on them if we did. They had just got off a 10 hour flight. The last thing they needed was a couple of crazy fans bothering them before they had even stepped out of the baggage hall! So we just got our bags and made our way out of there.

Just as we started walking, they did too and they followed us out! We were trying to look cool and calm, but then we realised, Alice was meeting us. She didn’t know what we looked like so she said she would be holding a sign with MUSE on it!

As soon as we realised, we walked a bit faster, hoping we would have time to warn her before they came through behind us.

We soon saw her and instead of ‘Hi Alice, its so good to meet you’ Alice was greeted with Helen and I both flapping our hands franticly saying ‘get the sign down they are behind us’ She looked very confused, as did a lot of the other people waiting there, but did put the sign down. We then went the other side of the barrier and Alice and Helen took some photos. It was really funny because the people around us were kind of looking at us, then looking at them thinking ‘Who are they? They must be famous or something!’

After a couple of minutes, they left. About 5 minutes later, Liron (Stansfield on the message board) arrived after her even longer flight from Israel. She literally just missed them!

After all that excitement, we all piled into Alice’s car and headed to the hotel. That was quite a moment too. Driving along in the Californian sunshine with Muse blasting out of the stereo. Even more amazing was the fact that here I was with 3 other people, 2 of whom I’d only just met (I had only met Helen once before too!) from 3 different countries all brought together to see Muse!

We got to the hotel and checked in there. But there was no time for rest. We got ready straight away and headed out to get some food then went off to see The Killers, who just happened to be playing the same venue as Muse would be on Monday, that night!

The show was fantastic but I was so tired, I didn’t go too far into the crowd but stayed a safe distance at the side. It did give us a great chance to check out the venue before Monday though.

We finally got to sleep at 4am (too busy chatting!) after being awake for over 30 hours.

What an exciting start to our holiday!