Muse, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow ****

A typical Muse setlist reads like a series of Black Mirror episodes – Compliance, Thought Contagion, Uprising – in all its wild dystopian imagination. Frontman and songwriter Matt Bellamy seems perpetually torn – does mankind resist or embrace the rise of the machines? Their current Will of the People tour features a flaming W logo encasing the anarchist symbol but also the latest in wearable technology.

The band appeared, shrouded in leather hoodies and metal masks, just as a biblical rain shower threatened to wash away their excitable audience. Bassist Chris Wolstenholme wasted little time in getting out among the crowd, delivering the chunky bass riff which opens Hysteria from the end of a walkway.

Muse at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow PIC: Calum Buchan

Next, it was Bellamy’s turn to get drenched with the proles. Despite huge jets of fire and accompanying animations of future cityscapes and armies of metal minotaurs, this was a relatively modest presentation from a band who always push the spaceship out when itcomes to stagecraft – until a curtain dropped to reveal a gigantic metallic mask looming blankly over the stage.

Their maximalist music requires no additional stimuli anyway, operating on the cusp of mania with Gothic operatic flourishes to spare.

Ironically, Madness was a controlled croon, demonstrating they could do understatement just as effectively. At the other end of the scale, the blunt We Are F***ing F***ed was punk Grand Guignol with a classic metal riffola outro.

Old favourites – such as the anthemic Time is Running Out, the chunky, funky Supermassive Black Hole and the super hooky Plug in Baby – were delivered with phasers on stun.

However, Bellamy had one more trick on his sleeve – a playable cyber glove from which to deliver the synth prog odyssey Behold, the Glove.

The only way to top that was with their traditional set closer, the turbo Morricone-Crazy Horses gallop that is Knights of Cydonia.

Music review: Muse, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow