It started with a butterfly.

Okay, back up, it actually started with Catherine. Of course it did, don’t all great Muse gig stories start with Catherine?

We met her in the queue, and she was fantastic, and lovely, and had so many fun stories, and lots of inside tips and information. She was a pleasure to talk to, and it was amazing to meet her. Someone with her level of experiences with this band could easily be jaded, or smug, or stubbornly quiet about her stories, but she was none of those things, and I hope when I am on my 105^th gig, I am as wonderfully sweet and kind, and still in love with this band.

So, anyway, there was this butterfly. We had been sitting around all day in the line, and we had made up our sign, and had eaten our dinner, and had taken all our stuff back to our car across the street. They were getting ready to open the doors and we were sitting under this tree that had been like our touch point all day. It was a funny little tree, that we had joked had gotten drunk. You see, it was covered in spring blossoms. He hadn’t gotten the memo that not only was spring over, but time had sped by, and not only had he missed summer, he was two days away from the beginning of Autumn! 

There were insects and honey bees crawling all over those blossoms all day. Anyway, my son said to the tree, looks like you got drunk and passed out, tree, and all your friends decided to play a trick on you and covered you in blossoms!

So, as we were sitting there, a butterfly came by. A big, orange and black butterfly whizzed just past us, and my husband, my son, and the nice guy (Hi Jordan, if you are out there! Hope you made barrier!) all noticed it fly by, and we all had a laugh that all we needed was a good stiff breeze, and we’d have Butterflies and Hurricanes.  My son remarked that maybe it was a sign. Silly boy. Of course they were not going to play Butterflies and Hurricanes!!

So, after some minor irritation at some people who apparently saved places in line for about four people all day, but neglected to get them numbers, (which meant that we were actually more like, numbers 28 through 30, meaning, people who got there 10 minutes before the gig got better spots than the family who queued behind us all day, grrr…) we were let in, and made it to our spots at the barrier. 

Now, I had wanted Matt’s side, but part of me was conflicted, because even though I am a total Matt girl, whenever I pictured myself at the barrier, for some reason I pictured myself on Chris’s side. It turned out, by the time we got down to the floor the only part of the barrier left was Chris’s side, so we rushed over and took it.

We sat down, backs to the wall, and began watching the arena fill up. I heard a security person say they sold 1500 General Admission tickets, and I began to panic because the floor space did not look big enough to accommodate that many people. To this day, I think they oversold the floor, because we were packed in there like sardines, much more tightly than either of the other arenas I had been to this tour.

I am writing this days later, and the details have become a bit sketchy, but I will do the best I can. We quickly made friends with the people who were squished against our backs. Great people all around us, except for one guy who began pushing and shoving trying to start a pit with people who were not interested. He eventually left.

I don’t remember a lot from the first few songs of the set, because I was just in utter amazement of the visuals, and the pyramid, and the fact that Chris Wolstenholme is one sexy mofo, even more so in person. Like, pictures do not do this man justice. I could wax on here, but suffice it to say: He’s hot.

I remember dancing my ass off to Panic Station. I remember being a bit perplexed about the placement of Super Massive Black Hole. I remember also, watching Chris and singing the backing vocals with him for that song, and him looking down at us with this little smile. That was the first time I remember seeing him taking some pleasure in the crowd reaction. This became the theme of the night. Dom and Chris were interacting, laughing, shaking their heads in amazement at the crowd All. Night. 

During Time Is Running Out, the crowd was jumping, Matt commented twice on it. Nice bounce, I think was what he said. Plug in Baby was especially manic, with Dom taking an extended drum outro, that both Matt and Chris shook their heads laughing at.

At Knights, Jake held up his sign for the first time.  The crowd was absolutely mental for most of this song, singing the riff, jumping in time, and Chris made eye contact with us a few times. But the best part was at the end, when Dom is absolutely knackered, and doing the cymbal crashes. Jake was air drumming the cymbal crashes with him, and Dominic looked right at him, smiling, and then pointed his stick at him.

So, we got to the point of the show where we are able to chill and enjoy Monty Jam, so I knew the piano selection was next. As the piano  came up from the floor, I was searching for the megaphone, because I just knew it was going to be Feeling Good. We’d gotten a pretty standard set, and almost identical to our Vegas show, aside from having had both Map of the Problematique (Which ended with a jam: I think it was the 10100100 or whatever jam. Fabri and Kueller can correct that later I am sure, lol) and Hysteria (which was a nice surprise.) 

So, I figured Feeling Good would be up next, because they played Sunburn in Denver. When I didn’t see the megaphone, I settled in and accepted we’d get Eurasia, because come on.

But no, Matt said “This is an old one, sing if you know it” or something. In my head I was racking my brain trying to think of old piano songs they could pull out, that made sense, and my head was spinning.  It didn’t hit me that he was playing Sunburn at first.  I think the coolest part, and the part that once again, seemed to amuse Dom and Chris, was that THE CROWD KNEW IT. We were all singing along, we were all losing our minds, knowing how special it was to get this song. At the end I just started to cry. The girl next to me just patted my back and said “I know, right?”

I know for a Matt girl, this narrative is sorely lacking in Matt material. To be honest, he didn’t come over to our side very often. I was far enough down to where I had turn my head pretty far over to see him when he was on the thrust, and he rarely crossed the center of the stage over to our side. Some memorable moments from him were when he was playing the siren intro to PiB, and was dragging it out as long as possible, and when he rode the drum kit during Liquid State, and of course, the Star Spangled Banner which he also drew out as long as possible, making Chris stand and wait to hit the thrust for the beginning of Hysteria. As we were waiting for Matt to finish, the whole side of the barrier on Chris’s side began chanting, “Chris! Chris! Chris”

As you can probably tell, Chris sort of stole the show for me.

Anyway, long story short, you think that the guys are not noticing what is happening in front of them because, Chris especially doesn’t show much on his face. But the truth is, they notice a lot. More on that in the closing sentiments.

Anyway, so as the set was progressing, I realized I had no idea what to expect next. Madness got a huge reception, and I saw that it visibly moved all three of the guys. We made little hearts with our hands. But when it ended I had no idea where Muse was going to take us next so I was watching Matt carefully, and he was frantically running his fingers through his hair as he had been throughout the gig. He wiped his hands  on his pants before grabbing up his guitar. And I heard the first hints…

I knew what it was right away. I think I said “Oh my heck” (That’s my Utah Mormon coming out, lol) and Matt launched into Butterflies and Hurricanes. Jake held up his sign. Dominic saw it, acknowledged him.  It was a lovely few minutes of bliss, and I am pretty sure I was sobbing by the end of that one too.

I don’t really remember much after that until the end.

There was Starlight, ushered on by the massive amount of cell phone lights that lit up the arena like the night sky. Matt was exceptionally focused on the crowd, came over to our side, gave us some eye sex,  and was gone again. Survival was massive, pounding, Matt’s relentless grinding the guitar on outro was heavy and Chris’s bass was bone rattling. Finally, it was over.

Chris was fairly subdued for the whole  gig aside from the smiles and nods and laughing a bit with Dom, you wouldn’t think he had any strong feelings about the crowd in particular. But at the end, he was beaming at us, bowing, waving, saying thank you, walking around. He gave us a wave, and a thank you, and as he walked away he intercepted Dom who had come down as usual from his throne to say thank you in the mic. Matt was waving, and had already started walking back stage as Chris pulled Dom aside, and put his arm around his neck.

 I watched as Dom leaned in to hear what he was saying. Chris began pointing in our direction, as Jake was holding up his sign. The sign read “ Dom! Aspiring drummer seeks sticks!” I could tell he was saying “This kid right down here, with the sign” Dom was nodding as if to say “Yes, I see him.” And sure enough he jumped down, crouched at the edge of the stage and offered his stick to Jake, telling the security guard “This is for him! Okay? Got it?” Looking at Jake he said “You got it? Great!” We all screamed “Thank you!” and Dom smiled at Jake and said “Thanks, cheers!”

I looked up and saw Chris had walked to the other side of the stage, and as he turned around to walk off stage, he faced us and met my gaze. I blew him a big kiss. He put his hand up toward his heart, and cocked his head, giving me a bright big smile, and a thumbs up, and waved as he walked away.

Dom walked to the mic, told the crowd we were “fucking great” and promised that they’d be back. As he walked away, we got one more point from him and a wave, and just like that it was over.

As we were walking off the floor, and up the stairs, Jake said to us: “Oh. Mom. The Butterfly. Remember, we saw a butterfly?”

I started to tear up a bit. I thought about the tree. I thought how the silly tree didn’t even realize he wasn’t supposed to be brand new anymore, he wasn’t supposed to be bright with the freshness of spring at the end of summer, attracting the good things in life like the beautiful flutter of butterfly wings.

And I thought to myself, “What if I just decided that I don’t care that it is the proverbial autumn of my youth. What if I just decide to blossom, and attract wonderful experiences and beauty, just like that tree attracted the beautiful  Monarch that heralded the playing of Butterflies and Hurricanes tonight?”

It all sounds pretty dramatic. But you know, there’s a reason I am attracted to the drama and beauty of Muse. It helps me make sense of my life, my emotions, my experiences. I don’t play an instrument. I can barely read music. I don’t know much about the technique and theory behind the music that moves me so. But I know what touches me, and makes me feel hopeful and connected to all the good things in the world. I am blessed to have had wonderful experiences with some of the people that bring that to my life, and this is one of those moments that I will call back on when life begins to wear me down again.

And I could not have been more blessed than I was that night to have shared this wonderful experience with two of the five people I love most in the world.; the love of my life, and my amazing oldest child. Until next time, Muse, and there WILL be a next time!