Muse. Old Trafford Cricket ground. 4/9/2010

Every now and then [son] Jono and I spot something we'd both like to go to and have a 'boys day out'. MPH at the NEC has featured heavily over the last few years. We spotted Muse were on in Manchester and thought it might be good. Neither of us knew a lot of their stuff - first contact was the FIFA07 soundtrack with Supermassive Black Hole, and since then spotting them on TV at Glastonbury, etc. The fact they successfully sued Nestle for using their version of 'Feeling Good' in a commercial commended them to me (especially as they donated most of the proceeds to Oxfam)

They're a band who defy neat categorisation - with pretty heavy guitar stuff sitting alongside synth, dance beat, some remarkable vocals and harmonies, and at times some passages showing their influences from Queen. Maybe it's 21st century prog rock.

Live on stage they certainly deliver in style. The entire cricket pitch was carefully covered - we stood on the [extra-protected] wicket area, and the stage sat in the midst of what was made to look like the corner of a large building with distorted perspective. Images then danced across the entire structure - sometimes working with the office-block look, and sometimes making the 'windows' disappear altogether.

In the midst of all this Muse delivered a huge sound (not just loud, but 'big'), which is quite an achievement for a trio [they also have a fourth low-profile member on keys live] What surprised me what how much of the 2-hour set was familiar - and not just because I downloaded a copy of the The Resistance album last week. All round they're great musicians and Matthew Bailey is probably one of the few guitarists of a more recent generation who carries the 'guitar hero' tag convincingly, using guitars of his own design. He's a decent pianist too!

All round a great gig, and despite being in the centre, we avoided cupfuls of lager (or worse) being chucked all over us!