Trying to make sense of Muse at Voodoo Fest

It can be difficult for the uninitiated to find the proper approach for appreciating Muse. Even after witnessing the trio shut down Voodoo Fest's opening night with an hour-and-20-minute spectacle on the main stage, I still can't conjure the proper context for faux-revolutionary glam-rock.

The knowledge that Muse fills stadiums in its native England while, until recently, remaining relatively unknown state-side – Friday was the apparently the first-ever New Orleans concert in the band’s 15 year history – is disconcerting.

Singer/guitarist Matthew Bellamy and his unflappable rhythm section of bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard, augmented by auxiliary keyboardist Morgan Nicholls, raised a mighty racket. Muse is not an arena rock band in the traditional sense; electronic club beats intruded too frequently. Yet neither are they a techno band; Bellamy bulldozed through enormous, metallic riffs. His guitar heroics included the national anthem (America’s, not England’s), detouring into the signature riffage of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” and teasing epic bouts of feedback.

His tenor and falsetto voices, when sustained, recalled Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. Also like Yorke, Bellamy isn’t much of a talker onstage. But where Radiohead paints abstractions in muted hues, Muse prefers bold strokes in primary colors. With lyrics about an “Uprising,” about surviving and not being taken alive, Bellamy and company come across with all the subtlety of a cavalry charge. They trafficked in anthems, but only a couple stuck in my head.

So it went for Muse at Voodoo, against a dazzling backdrop of lights, video, lasers and smoke. Bellamy eventually ditched his blue window-shade glasses and sparkling silver jacket, but stuck with the musical dramatics. At a grand piano with a clear top, he traversed “Feeling Good,” previously covered by the likes of Nina Simone, Sammy Davis Jr., Bobby Darin and Michael Buble. Muse found swinging heart of the song, even while pumping it up.

Tellingly, this most memorable song of the night was written by someone else. I respect the spectacle, but despite all its precise firepower, Muse ultimately left me cold.