Muse brought their epic stadium light show to Benicassim Festival tonight (July 22).
Headlining the closing night of the four day rock and dance festival, the Devonshire trio were spectacular, with the crowd whipped up into an even bigger frenzy than last night’s Arctic Monkeys show.
Flanked on both sides by massive screen projections – the live feed was mutilated with computer graphics that made the band look like they were melting back to the future.
Coming on to the soundtrack from ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ – they kicked off with ‘Knights Of Cydonia’ then ploughed through their back catalogue with supreme skill.
‘Supermassive Black Hole’, and ‘Invincible’ were broken up with their electric piano version of the 60s classic ‘Feeling Good’ – with Matt Bellamy hammering away at his piano.
‘Starlight’, ‘Plug In Baby’ and ‘Time Is Running Out’ all sounded superb – it’s purely evident that Bellamy’s classical training combined with his love of prog creates an overwhelming sound.
The show – a stripped down affair compared to their recent Stadium shows – no lasers, no acrobatic dancers suspended from the air or men in biohazard suits – just the space rock songs – and they still steal the Fib show.
Today at the festival also saw an incredible show from Animal Collective, who packed out the Fiberfib tent.
Also packing a punch were Kings Of Leon, Amy Winehouse, The Hives and Calexico – who’s amazing cover of Love‘s ‘Alone Again Or’ had the thousands watching swooning to trumpet solo.
Benicassim’s party hasn’t ended just yet though, UNKLE and electro outfit Datarock are still to perform and there’s the end of festival beach party still to come.
Uncut has been at Benicassim all weekend – see our reports on the festival blogs here – pic blog still to come… www.www.uncut.co.uk/festivals
We’d love to hear your experiences of this year’s festival – who did you see play? What did you get upto during the day? How many hours kip did you manage to clock up? What Spanish phrases have you learnt?
Pic credit: Guy Eppel