KEY POINTS:
Only three songs in and they were already dragging bodies out. No argument, Muse's party faithful were primed for a huge night.
They screamed for the dry ice, chanted for some bloke with a torch, then went ape over their first glimpse of vocalist/guitarist/pianist/conspiracist, Matthew Bellamy.
If he felt any pressure from their "best live band in the world" tag, he wasn't showing it.
From the get go of Take A Bow, the Teignmouth trio tore into an assured, spacious set that drew liberally on their last three albums, including a relative rarity, Fury (B Flat), for good measure. No sign of Uno though.
All the expected Muse ingredients were on show: heroic climaxes, dynamism, virtuosity and bombast, each set off by a quite beautiful light show.
The anticipated video screens were absent, but the confetti butterflies, massive, fragile balloons and huge blasts of CO2 were great theatre.
Bellamy barely said boo the entire show, leaving drummer Dominic Howard to jump up and scream "Auckland" whenever the pace threatened to falter, but his musicality was often stunning.
Every inch of his fret board and vocal chords got a going over, while his piano, with sound-activated LCDs built into its clear top, allowed a few touches of 21st century-Liberace showmanship.
Muse have clearly evolved past the old "Tonight Matthew I'm going to be Radiohead" accusations into a style which draws heavily on the likes of Queen and the more aggressive classical tomes, but for those who just wanted to jump about, the lengthy build-ups and break-downs became frustrating.
One mad-eyed geezer was screaming "Rock on. Come on, rock on" every time the decibels dropped below jumbo levels while the background chatter rose markedly during the downbeat Citizen Erased as many took the chance to take photos of each other.
But from their rock opera take on Nina Simone's Feelin' Good it was back on track, gradually rebuilding to triumphant takes on Time is Running Out and Stockholm Syndrome, which featured more endings than The Lord of the Rings as they riffed through slices of Dead Star and Hyper Music.
After a quick breather, they were back to roar through Plug In Baby and, appropriate given the location, the sci-fi western, Knights of Cydonia before the sweaty, leaping mass was bought back down to earth by the rain awaiting them outside.
