The huge international success of Black Holes & Revelations has seen Muse play a series of landmark gigs over the past couple of years. With them every step of the way has been their Irish live sound engineer, Marc Carolan. When Hot Press catches up with Marc he is in Buenos Aires, which is the latest stop on Muse’s first ever South American tour. Over the years, bands such as U2 and Coldplay have noted that the intensity and passion of South American audiences can be quite extraordinary. Has Marc found this to be the case?

“We've only done the Mexico and Colombia gigs so far, but already they’re completely off the scale,” he enthuses. “If they’re anything to go by, then the answer has to be yes. The gig in Colombia last night was mega, it was an absolutely fucking mental crowd. We’ve had similar experiences in other places we’ve played that are off the beaten-track, in terms of the usual tour itineraries, such as Indonesia and Taiwan. Those gigs tend to be brilliant, the crowds are totally up for it.”
The band first played Mexico last year, when Marc says there was a rather disconcerting occurrence whilst the equipment was being packed away after the show.
“We had an earthquake on the load-out,” he recalls. “About 100 miles away from us, a few people were killed. It didn’t damage anything on our end, but me being Irish, I’m used to the ground staying solid!”
There was another hair-raising moment during Muse’s tour of Eastern Europe and Russia last year.
“The drive from Kiev to Moscow was one of the most interesting drives I’ve ever been on. We travelled overnight, and the crew convoy – which consists of three massive sleeper buses – ended up in the middle of a field on the Russian/Ukraine border. You’re just waiting for the 4x4s to come over the horizon and kidnap you! It was quite mad.”
The top ten success of Black Holes & Revelations in the US has also seen Muse play sold-out dates in ginormodomes like Madison Square Garden.
“What’s interesting about Muse’s career in the States is that it’s only relatively recently that they’ve made a commercial breakthrough there,” says Marc. “They did a bit of touring in the early days of Showbiz, maybe supporting the Chili Peppers, but we did a lot of work there promoting Absolution. It was interesting, because we were back playing tiny clubs.
“I remember we played a club in Cincinnati, which was 200 people rammed into a backroom, and then we flew back and did two nights in Earl’s Court. It was a bizarre period. It was great seeing the full-on effect of word-of-mouth, because every time we went back to America, the band was getting bigger. And it was kind of cool seeing that spiral all the way up to Madison Square Garden and the Forum in LA.”
Has Marc found that the group’s guestlists in New York and LA have become increasingly star-studded?
“There’s elements of that,” he nods. “Paris Hilton has popped up a few times and there are always a few movie stars knocking around at the LA shows.”
Perhaps Muse’s biggest shows to date were their two gigs at the newly reopened Wembley Stadium last summer. How did Marc find the experience?
“It was equal parts terrifying and a huge challenge,” he ventures. “I wanted to do my absolute best. Once the show kicked off, after the first few minutes, you start to be able to actually enjoy it. You can concentrate on doing what you do, as opposed to letting it completely overwhelm you. Overall, it was absolutely mega.”