Muse at o2 Academy Brixton, London, April 2026

It says a lot about the popularity of a band when a show at the o2 Academy Brixton is being touted as an “intimate” show, with every fan of the band desperate to get that sought after ticket safely in their hands but then Muse would usually be found selling out stadiums and arenas so, relatively, this is about as intimate an opportunity as they come. It’s been twenty-five years since they last played the venue, last time they were about to release 2001’s Origin Of Symmetry, this time it’s for the forthcoming release of The Wow! Signal – in that time they’ve put out seven more albums, so tonight’s surely going to be a strong mix from the last two and half decades.

From the very first bass note in Hysteria I’m thrown back to my teenage years – I was obsessed with Absolution when it came out and, as an aspiring bass player at the time, I’ve probably spent more time with this song on a loop working out the intricate lines than any other. Unsurprisingly, it sounds phenomenal; the fuzzy bass line, Matt’s falsetto vocals, the lead parts, all note perfect just with the additional feeling in your rib cage that can only really be achieved in a live setting – they’ve played this song live near a thousand times at this point, they’ve perfected it. Map of the Problematique ends with the riff from Who Knows Who, keeping with something that Muse have always done live, breaking songs out into extended jams, throwing in riffs that are sometimes their own, sometimes iconic cover sections (later in the set they throw in a bit of Headup by Deftones to keep the audience on their toes) – they’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, the songs changing over time, and I really feel like it’s just a band having as much fun as they can playing together.

With The Wow! Signal coming out in a couple of months they’re obviously going to be showing off some new material and, alongside already release singles Unravelling and Be With You, they show off a new, unplayed, song early in the set, Cryogen. It’s classic Muse in many respects, the faster pace and the fuzz driven lead part was in a similar vain to Plug In Baby. It goes down incredibly well live and, if the rest of the album sounds like this then it’ll easily appeal to both old and new fans alike. They do a great job appealing to fans from the length of their career with tonight’s setlist too, somehow covering all but one of their ten albums into the set – most bands who’ve been around as long as Muse have inevitably end up dropping earlier records but here we are in 2026, with Muse hammering out the song that got me into them in the first place, New Born, twenty-five years later. Glorious.