By Daniel Paiz
The Will of the People Tour 2023 featuring Muse, Evanescence, and Highly Suspect threw down in Denver in front of a very ready and responsive Ball Arena crowd. Each band had a different feel to them, but each played their roles to perfection. This somehow is this writer’s first rock show in which he wasn’t working it, which was a rare but nice change. The night flew by, but there are several magical moments that stood out above the rest.
The Openers
Highly Suspect and Evanescence provided plenty of support to the headliner tonight. Highly Suspect is a band I’m not familiar with in the slightest, but they gave it their all and got the crowd to headbang and sway from time to time. They sounded the most punk rock of the three acts, but they kept their show pretty tight. After thirty minutes, they thanked the crowd and wrapped it up so the stagehands could set up the next act.
Evanescence is a band that has been around for 20 years and somehow it feels like yesterday hearing their tunes in the school hallway corridors. Amy Lee is still an impeccable singer, delivering grandiose sounds that feel like a mix of rock opera that’s haunted but metal. That’s a lot of sounds going on at once, but each song has these elements intertwined. Their sound has been called “nu metal”, “gothic rock”, “alternative metal”, the list goes on. Whatever you want to call it, they rocked hard and gave the audience a myriad of emotions throughout their set.
Unfortunately, their catalogue is not something this listener is familiar with, but after some scrambling this week to listen to more stuff, it sounded like they played from nearly every album. For some reason “Part of Me” seems like it was played, but it’s hard to disconnect from three particular moments. “Going Under” was the second or third song played to get the set going, “My Immortal” was just past the halfway point and was a singalong, and “Bring Me To Life” was at the end.
If you were a casual fan like me prior to tonight, you likely have heard this career-defining songs. Hearing them plus other portions of their catalogue made this guy a fan, especially because of Amy Lee. Evanescence has been around 20 years, and she thanked the crowd for this milestone several times; her tone was very appreciative and it’s clear how important the fans are to this band.
That being said, the tone was set for the Will of the People tour to deliver its headliner.
Muse
The energy of the crowd hit another level as the band from Teignmouth, Devon stepped to the stage and begin rocking out. Their 2022 album Will of the People was around half of the set list, and they also included multiple stage changes, LED lights on their instruments and clothing, and parts of music videos from the numerous tracks. The title track of this album opened up the night, as the band members came out wearing the masks worn on the album cover (see below).
The second track on the newest album, “Compliance”, was also the second song played before the band jumped back and forth between some older tracks and some newer stuff. Their energy was pretty consistent throughout the night, and the fan response fueled them for most of their set. What was unexpected by this first-time Muse concert goer was the ever-changing stage. There was a giant masked face at the back of the stage; later on, they subtly placed one of the Bullish Egyptian god-type bad guys on stage. Then at the end of the night, another Egyptian godlike individual with hands outstretched on at least one side of the stage was illuminated for the last few songs and encore as well.
Metal and Rock shows seem like the kind of show you’d get to experience some fire, but Muse might be pyromaniacs and laser junkies. Despite those descriptors, the fire and laser usage were fantastic and consistent throughout the night. There were also several kinds of confetti fired out of confetti cannons, and the lights were also well utilized. At one point, it felt a bit toasty from all of the fire igniting the stage momentarily.
The night finished out with a combo of knockout songs. “Supermassive Black Hole”, “Hysteria”, “Uprising”, and “Starlight” were all near the end of the set; “Kill or be Killed” and “Knights of Cydonia” were mixed into the encore. The nearly two-hour set was a moment in time this music aficionado won’t soon forget, and this concert as a whole might’ve thrown its way down into my top 10 concerts of all-time list. Muse knows the will of the people, and they delivered just what the audience anticipated.
Cypher Sessions 