Don't Ask Muse to Mime

British rockers Muse are a favorite band of mine, but for more than just their sound. As their popularity has grown across the world over the years, Muse has appeared on many television shows throughout Europe. A lot of the time they've been asked to mimic and lip-sync their way through their performances. Bad idea, crazy random European talk show hosts. Muse, led by Matthew Bellamy, strike back when this happens. In the most amusing fashion, the guys of Muse make extreme light of the situation, and perform in absolute joke fashion, not caring what they appear like. So to show my extreme appreciation for this honest attitude from the band, I decided to collect a few of the better Muse miming moments on Youtube for your enjoyment, starting with the most recent incident.

Here first we have "The Muse" as the idiotic host refers to them "performing" Uprising off their latest album The Resistance. Here lead singer and guitarist Matthew Bellamy went to sit on the drums, wildly and randomly smacking the set in a pattern I'm sure he couldn't even follow. All the while Bellamy makes some of the most amusing faces, misses drum rolls and even carelessly loses a drum stick or two. At one point in the video he does quite the maneuver, putting his left hand behind his head before pointing at the camera. Moving up front is Dominic Howard to take over Bellamy's vocal duties and Chris Wolstenholme's bass. Wolstenholme grabs Bellamy's guitar and keyboard, and the two new front-men don darkened shades as their mimic away at their new instruments.

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Next up is the one that made me notice all this. Playing "New Born" here, Bellamy keeps his usual duties of vocals/guitar/keys but lets it all go loose. In the piano intro for the song he absolute jokes around with some of the most freeform piano playing skills in the universe, as he eventually transcends into just waving his arms up and down in a strange fashion. Be sure to notice Bellamy's over exaggerated guitar playing that turns into not even playing at all.

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Here for "Muscle Museum" the band puts tights on their heads and appear to play the song as three bank robbers. If this doesn't throw an organizer or promoter off I don't know what will. I also believe Bellamy flips the camera off for a good amount of time while pretending to sing.

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Next we have the band playing "New Born" again, but a bit different here. The focus this time should be on Bellamy's completely off the mark vocals in the intro. Hilariously not singing what is being played through the speakers. And you've gotta love Bellamy's fall on his back and shred the fuck out of that heavy part right after the low key intro. Things get absurdly funny here.

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Not much to say here. Bellamy is just the ultimate showman when it comes to this stuff. He can easily transform himself into that larger than life superstar whenever he wants to.

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This one here is just an audio clip, for no good video can be found. It's a miming performance with live vocals. "Hey you crazy kids!" Bellamy shouts at the beginning of what turns out to be a most interesting singing performance. Just wait until 1:24 and 2:24 and everything in between. Read Bellamy's take on the performance here.

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Anyways, this is just one big lesson in not asking Muse to mime. Ever. If you do, you should expect a farce, because it might be what they give you. But really, why ask one of the most exhilarating live acts to pretend to play?

And just to not forget about the rest of music history, this isn't the first time this has been done by a band. Iron Maiden made a joke out of a performance years back. Nirvana even had a more extreme pretending where Kurt Cobain just waves at the guitar during "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Check those videos out below.