Muse at O2 Brixton Academy, London

Muse at O2 Brixton Academy, London — 2026-04-15

Muse returning to Brixton Academy was never really about nostalgia.

This felt more like a transmission. A deliberately staged beginning to whatever comes next. The announcement of The Wow! Signal had already arrived wrapped in all the things Muse have always done best and worst depending on your tolerance for it: cryptic messaging, space imagery, conspiracy aesthetics, complete refusal to do anything quietly. Even by their standards, launching a new era through Brixton felt deliberate.

And honestly, Brixton was the perfect place to do it.

For a band that has spent the better part of two decades disappearing behind giant productions and stadium spectacle, this felt like seeing the machinery exposed again. Not stripped back, because Muse are fundamentally incapable of restraint, but concentrated. The details hit harder in a room this size.

“Interlude” opens the night for the first time, slowly building tension while the crowd already knows exactly what is waiting on the other side of it. By the time “Hysteria” lands, the room has already tipped. The towering screens behind the band flicker between cold sci-fi graphics and fractured digital textures, while harsh white lights cut through the smoke without ever overwhelming the stage itself. The production feels precise rather than excessive.

What follows feels less like a greatest hits set and more like a statement of intent for wherever they are heading next.

“Cryogen,” played live for the first time, slips naturally into the set, all spiralling riffs and cold electronic tension. “Unravelling” leans into the heavier side of the new material, while “Be With You” arrives somewhere between emotional collapse and full theatrical melodrama, streamers dropping over the crowd as Brixton completely gives in to it.

The interesting thing is, they no longer seem remotely afraid of how dramatic they are.

Matt Bellamy especially. There was a period where Muse shows could feel like they were constantly trying to outrun themselves, bigger visuals, bigger statements, more noise, more everything. Here, there is still spectacle, obviously, but also confidence. He barely needs to pull reactions from the crowd because those reactions already exist before songs even begin.

Before “New Born,” Bellamy pauses to look out across the room. “Last time we played here was like 25 years ago, when we were little kids. Er, who was here? Was anyone here? Ah, I don’t believe you. Really? Fuck… Alright, I think we played this then.” It lands somewhere between disbelief and genuine affection, the kind of reaction that only really happens when a band realises just how long people have stayed with them. "New Born” still lands with the same sense of controlled chaos it always has.

And Brixton lets that breathe differently.

“Map of the Problematique” feels enormous in a room this size. Then “Plug In Baby” arrives, and the entire room practically plays it back at them before Bellamy fully gets there himself.

The run into “United States of Eurasia,” “Supermassive Black Hole,” “Uprising”, and “Knights of Cydonia” is where the night fully gives in to itself. No irony, no restraint, just Muse leaning completely into their own scale and the crowd meeting them there without hesitation.

Even the staging understands the room. Enough pyro to remind you who you are watching, enough lighting to keep the sci-fi atmosphere alive, but without the production swallowing the songs whole.

That’s what stood out most.

Not reinvention. Not nostalgia either.

More a reminder that underneath all the conspiracy aesthetics, space-age imagery and excessive levels of drama, Muse are still three musicians who understand tension and release better than almost anyone else.

Brixton just left nowhere for that to hide.

Setlist

Interlude + Hysteria / Map of the Problematique / Cryogen / Resistance / Unravelling / [Drill Sergeant] / Psycho / Kill or Be Killed / Be With You / New Born / Plug In Baby / Unintended / United States of Eurasia / Supermassive Black Hole / Uprising / Knights of Cydonia / The 2nd Law: Isolated System / Undisclosed Desires / Prelude / Starlight