Rockin' The MUSE-um

This trip is wearing me out.

In addition to not going to bed before 3 a.m. the last three nights, I spend a majority of my time getting lost on the unforgiving streets and highways of St. Louis. If you miss an exit or, God forbid, you take the wrong exit just say goodbye to the next half hour.

So today I tried to take it easy with a trip to the St. Louis Museum of Art. It was fantastic. One of my favorite things was watching as they worked on installing an exhibit in one of their large display rooms. I loved watching the curator (in black at right) direct and change her mind and try different things out as the two gloved workers dragged pieces of art from one side of the room to another. I got one shot off before some security guard said stop, because photos of the installation process was a security risk.

They did, however, let me take pictures pretty much every where else in the museum. There were so many interesting things to see. I spent way too long in there. Unfortunately by the time I left, the zoo next door had closed. I really wanted to go to the zoo. It is, according to them, the best zoo in America. Oh well.

I particularly liked this piece, "The Mississippi," painted by artist John Steuart Curry in 1935. It seemed particularly poignant with the recent Katrina anniversary. They should move this painting over to the Oval Office.

So last night I went to the Muse concert. It was so fantastic I can't even describe. They opened with Knights of Cydonia, and they just nailed it. It was big and bold and fantastically over the top. And at the high point of the song the lights blared as they writhed on the floor hammering out the guitar riffs. By the time the first song was over I was blind and deaf and absolutely floored. It was great.

Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures there, so instead I give you a pictorial representation, courtesy of the St. Louis Museum of Art.




Me with a constant grin as I arrive. Before the show started I kept saying over and over to myself (and sometimes to people standing next to me), "I can't believe I'm at the Muse concert!"










Me after the opening act still hadn't come on 20 minutes after the show was suppose to start. "I am not amused," I thought.










"I can't hear you!"
Lead singer of the opening act, The Like, using her sexuality to trick the crowd into liking her music.










Me bored after The Likes' fourth song. They weren't bad, but the whole we're-girls-and-we-rock thing got kind of old pretty quick. And they weren't Muse.










Muse takes the stage and lead singer Matthew Bellamy stands under the bright lights ready to rock.








My reaction when Muse started playing. I was giddy with excitement.










Lead singer Matthew Bellamy wails and shrieks over the power chords in "Knights of Cydonia."










Me and the rest of the crowd start dancing as they play "Supermassive Black Hole."










Clapping along to the drum beat of "Starlight." The audience was surprisingly on beat. Usually when you get a large group of people together trying to clap to a rhythm they fail horribly.







My brain exploding in my head when they start playing "Take A Bow." It's the song I wanted to hear most, but when they had completed their set and were already in their third encore song I was afraid they weren't going to play it. But they saved the best for last.



I would really like to stay in St. Louis a little longer. I feel I haven't even cracked the surface of this city. But I should probably start heading back south if I am going to make it to Tulsa tomorrow afternoon. It's only about 5 or 6 hours I think, so I guess I could do it all tomorrow. I just don't know if I want to be in the car for that long in one day. Again. I guess I'll just play it by ear tonight.