Tuesday, October 12, 2010 02:50 AM
By Kevin Joy
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The British prog-rock trio MuseFans who bought tickets to see Muse, originally booked for Nov. 5 in Columbus, are getting their live entertainment a few weeks early.
The reason: Early next month, Chris Wolstenholme -- bass player and backup vocalist for the British rock trio -- is expecting his fifth child with his wife.
The group was thus spurred to cancel several U.S. tour dates and hasten others, including the show tonight in Value City Arena.
Offstage, the doting dad, 31, forgoes his rock-star tastes ("My daughter loves Hannah Montana, . . . which is absolute crap") to play a family man - a role with which he isn't typically associated.
"My kids didn't understand why their friends make such a fuss," Wolstenholme said recently from Minneapolis.
"Once they came along to festivals in Europe, I think they were kind of blown away."
For now, he is tending another baby: an intense, grandiose show in the midst of its North American debut.
The technical parts are numbered and so massive, Wolstenholme said, that some props had to be shipped by boat.
The elements include a round stage and three moving towers plastered with video screens, one for each musician - aesthetics long employed in Europe.
"We always felt like we were almost cheating the American audiences, doing these big, flashy shows everywhere else," Wolstenholme said. "This is definitely the most ambitious we've ever been - maybe too much."
Such visuals, though, are perfectly matched to the bombastic, prog-tinged sound - and appropriately reflect the meteoric rise from pub band to group that employs falsetto vocals, spacey synthesizers and pounding piano.
Formed in 1994, the trio first played taverns and small halls in the rural British county of Devon - where the members attended school. For every good gig, though, it had others in "little village pubs with three people telling us to turn it down," Wolstenholme said.
Several years of sweat attracted a record deal in 1998, when the Muse sound shifted from a quiet Radiohead-inspired rock outfit to an over-the-top ensemble that divided critics and listeners.
The group became an early sensation in the United Kingdom, but its stadium tours were downsized to small club dates in the United States.
By the time plans were made to tour to promote a third album, Absolution, in 2003 - the last opportunity that Muse figured it had to make American inroads - the band spawned other headlines.
It threatened legal action against superstar vocalist Celine Dion, who wanted her forthcoming Las Vegas run to be titled "Muse."
The band, which owned the name's worldwide performance rights, "didn't want to be confused as some kind of support act," Wolstenholme said.
A fourth release - Black Holes and Revelations in 2006 - solidified its stateside appeal.
Many folks consider Muse a prog-rock act.
"I think nowadays, if there are any bands slightly different from the mainstream, it's progressive rock," Wolstenholme said. "I'm not sure if I agree, but I've always liked songs that get away from tradition.
"I don't think you have to write a three-minute pop song to make something people will like."
Which is clearly evident on the latest work, The Resistance - with most of the tunes, including an orchestral three-song suite about humans abandoning Earth, exceeding the five-minute mark.
Muse tapped a priceless demographic, meanwhile, by contributing songs to all three Twilight soundtracks. American Idol contestant Adam Lambert performed the Muse tune Starlight on the show and during the cast tour. And the group sold out a pair of headlining London shows last month at Wembley Stadium (nightly capacity: 90,000).
The players in July were lauded by Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, who called the three-piece group "probably the greatest live act in the world today."
Although frontman Matt Bellamy recently told the British music press that a hiatus would follow the latest tour, Wolstenholme doesn't consider his to-do list complete.
"Obviously, once you've played in a stadium like Wembley, you've hit the peak," he said. "But there are still a lot of places in the middle of America where the band isn't well-known. We're nowhere near U2."
FUENTE
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