Muse delivered an elaborate, high-energy performance at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, on 27 August during its The WOW! Signal tour. The review portrays the English trio as especially forceful live, combining Matt Bellamy’s guitar work and vocals with Chris Wolstenholme’s bass and Dominic Howard’s drumming. It argues that the scale of the staging and the band’s back catalogue reinforced Muse’s reputation for theatrical arena rock.

The concert featured material from nine of the band’s ten albums, including “Hysteria”, “Supermassive Black Hole”, “Madness”, “Time Is Running Out” and “Starlight”. It also showcased songs from June’s The WOW! Signal, whose science-fiction-inspired theme refers to the 1977 “Wow!” radio signal. Visual effects included lasers, confetti and illuminated costumes, while the encore closer “Take a Bow” was presented as a particularly intense and politically suggestive finale.