Muse brings The Wow! Signal Tour to West Valley City
Muse will perform at Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City on August 20, 2026, with the program scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM. The concert is part of the North American leg of The Wow! Signal Tour, connected with the band's tenth studio album, released in late June. Portugal. The Man and The Temper Trap are listed alongside Muse for this tour stop, meaning the audience can expect an evening with several performers rather than just a single headline act.
For Muse, this is a period in which the catalog from the past two and a half decades is once again meeting completely new material. The band still relies on its recognizable combination of alternative rock, progressive elements, electronics, massive guitar riffs and Matt Bellamy's dramatic vocals, but The Wow! Signal once again strongly emphasizes the space and futuristic motifs that have often accompanied their sound and visual identity through different phases of their career.
West Valley City comes at an interesting point in the schedule: Muse plays in Greenwood Village, Colorado, on August 18, then arrives in Utah on August 20, before continuing to Ridgefield, Washington, on August 22. In other words, this is a full summer run of North American shows rather than an isolated festival appearance.
It is worth securing tickets in good time, especially if the concert also requires organizing a flight, accommodation or transportation to the amphitheater.
The new album takes Muse deep into space rock again
The Wow! Signal was released on June 26, 2026, and is Muse's tenth studio album. The album contains 10 songs, and material released ahead of it included "Unravelling", "Be With You", "Cryogen" and "Hexagons". The title was inspired by the famous Wow! signal recorded in 1977, while the entire album era uses space, the unknown and the idea of contact as a framework for themes that are simultaneously personal and grandiose.
This is territory that comes naturally to Muse. Throughout its career, the band has often connected dystopia, technology, science fiction and paranoid or apocalyptic motifs with a highly physical rock sound. On the new album, heavy riffs, synthesizers, piano, orchestral layers, choral elements and distinctly melodic choruses all appear within the same picture.
Critical reviews of The Wow! Signal have particularly highlighted the return to a more lavish sound reminiscent of the Black Holes and Revelations era, but with electronic and pop details that prevent the new material from sounding like a simple repetition of older records. "The Dark Forest" immediately establishes a broad, dramatic framework, while "Nightshift Superstar" moves toward more dance-oriented electronics. "Shimmering Scars" shows the band's softer, more melodic side, while "Cryogen" and "Hexagons" are more easily connected with the part of the audience that expects tension, riffs and futuristic rock from Muse.
What matters for the concert is precisely that the new album is not separated from the rest of the catalog. Shows on this tour so far indicate that the new songs are inserted between very familiar tracks, so the evening does not turn into a presentation of the album from beginning to end.
What the shows so far reveal about the setlist
The first concert of the current tour took place in Milwaukee in early July. The show lasted almost two hours and included five songs from The Wow! Signal alongside a broad selection of older material. "Hexagons" received its live premiere that night, while "Cryogen", "Unravelling", "Be With You" and "Nightshift Superstar" were also performed.
At the same time, the program included titles such as "Hysteria", "Supermassive Black Hole", "Stockholm Syndrome", "Psycho", "Plug In Baby", "Time Is Running Out", "Uprising", "Knights of Cydonia", "Undisclosed Desires" and "Starlight". That is no guarantee that West Valley City will receive an identical selection or the same running order. Setlists can change during tours, and the complete repertoire for the Utah concert has not been confirmed in advance.
Still, the shows so far provide a fairly clear picture of the tour's philosophy: Muse does not expect the audience to know only the new album. The new material serves as the backbone of the current era, while songs from different decades provide much of the sing-along appeal and familiarity.
That makes the concert attractive to several types of audiences. Longtime fans get an opportunity to hear the band's new phase alongside songs that have held an important place in the live repertoire for decades. Visitors who know Muse primarily through radio and its biggest hits will not necessarily feel lost among the new songs. For fans of alternative, progressive and electronically tinged rock, meanwhile, the new album offers enough fresh material to keep this from feeling like a nostalgia tour.
Portugal. The Man and The Temper Trap broaden the evening
Portugal. The Man and The Temper Trap are listed alongside Muse for West Valley City. That combination broadens the musical range of the evening nicely. Portugal. The Man comes from the American indie and alternative rock scene, with a catalog that can move from psychedelic rock to highly accessible pop choruses. The Temper Trap brings a more melodic indie rock approach and is particularly recognizable to a wider audience for the song "Sweet Disposition".
For visitors, the important practical consequence of this line-up is that 7:00 PM should be understood as the start of the event program, not automatically as the time when Muse takes the stage. The exact performance time of the headliner has not been confirmed in the currently available information. Arriving only shortly before Muse is expected to perform therefore also carries the risk of missing the opening acts or part of the program.
Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre and an outdoor concert
Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre is a large outdoor concert venue in West Valley City. The venue opened on July 3, 2003, at the time under the name USANA Amphitheatre, and its capacity can reach approximately 20,000 visitors. It combines a seated area with a large lawn, meaning the experience can vary considerably depending on the section for which a visitor has a ticket.
- Location: Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre, West Valley City, Utah
- Capacity: up to approximately 20,000 visitors
- General parking and rideshare access: 5150 Upper Ridge Rd., West Valley City, UT 84118
- The venue includes reserved seating and a lawn where standard placement operates on a first-come, first-served basis
- It is an outdoor amphitheater, so weather conditions should be checked before departure
For Muse, this type of venue is interesting because the band normally has no trouble filling large stages, but the American summer leg is not conceived as an identical production to the large European arenas. Matt Bellamy spoke during the introduction of this phase of the tour about a considerably more ambitious new production planned for European indoor venues later in the year. For that reason, elements of staging, structures or effects mentioned in the context of the European leg should not automatically be attributed to the Utah show.
What can be expected is the format of a large outdoor rock concert. At a capacity of this size, the sense of proximity to the performer will differ greatly between the front sections and the lawn. Audience members who want more intense contact with the stage should pay particular attention to their section, while the lawn is better suited to those who value a broader view of the stage and a more relaxed amount of space.
Because the amphitheater is not an enclosed arena, a particular acoustic experience in every part of the venue should not be promised in advance either. Position relative to the main speakers and distance from the stage can affect the experience. For a band whose concert sound relies on powerful bass, broad synthesizer layers and highly dynamic transitions between quiet and loud sections, the choice of position can therefore matter more than it would at a smaller club show.
Ticket sales for this event are underway.
Arriving by car and what to expect around parking
For general parking and rideshare transportation, the venue lists the address 5150 Upper Ridge Rd., West Valley City, UT 84118. General parking is included with the ticket, while separate parking options are also available in other parts of the complex. Visitors using accessible parking or special parking types should use the address corresponding to their category rather than automatically following the entrance for general parking.
The most important practical advice is simple: expect traffic. Venue organizers warn that concert evenings can create serious slowdowns on the surrounding access roads and recommend arriving earlier, carpooling or using rideshare when practical.
The gate-opening time should not be guessed. The venue says that gates often open around 90 minutes before the program begins, but it also explicitly directs visitors to check the specific information for each concert. For Muse, the program start at 7:00 PM is currently reliably confirmed, but a separate gate-opening time has not been confirmed and should not be presented as final.
For travelers coming from outside the Salt Lake City area, the geographical picture is also useful. The amphitheater itself states that it is located approximately 15 miles from downtown Salt Lake City and about 11 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport. That makes it relatively accessible for visitors flying into Utah, but evening concert traffic can significantly alter the actual driving time.
Entry rules worth checking before the trip
Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre has several rules that can determine whether entry is quick or ends with a return trip to the car. Bag restrictions apply: small purses, clutch bags and waist bags may be no larger than 6 x 9 inches, while clear plastic bags may be no larger than 12 x 12 x 6 inches. All bags may be inspected at the entrance.
The venue particularly encourages arriving without a bag and has a separate line for such visitors. This is practical for a concert that attracts a large audience, because checking belongings can be one of the main causes of slower entry.
Personal lawn chairs and stadium seats are not permitted. At certain events, it may be possible to use chairs rented from the venue, but that should be checked for the specific concert before arrival. Metal and frozen water bottles are also not permitted.
Entry uses mobile tickets, so before arriving it makes sense to ensure that the ticket is already available on the phone and that the device has enough battery power. The venue operates cashlessly. For visitors who arrive with cash only, there are locations where money can be converted to a card for use within the complex.
Because the concert is outdoors, organizers state that the program goes ahead in the rain unless safety conditions such as extremely strong winds or lightning require a change. The forecast is therefore worth checking on the same day rather than planning clothing several days in advance based on a single long-range forecast.
What different types of fans can expect from the concert
For audiences who have followed Muse since the early albums, the biggest attraction of the current tour is the way the new material once again enters into direct dialogue with songs from the 2000s. "Hysteria", "Plug In Baby", "Stockholm Syndrome" or "Time Is Running Out" belong to a different phase of the band's career than The Wow! Signal, but the new album deliberately reaches for some of the same fondness for massive riffs, dramatic melodies and the feeling that a single rock song can sound almost cinematic.
For the broader audience, the main points of orientation remain songs such as "Supermassive Black Hole", "Uprising", "Starlight" and "Knights of Cydonia". The structure of the tour so far shows that Muse has not pushed these familiar titles to the margins of the program to make room for the new album. It is precisely the alternation of new and older material that keeps the concert accessible to people who may not know every song from The Wow! Signal.
New fans, on the other hand, get an interesting opportunity to see the band in a very active phase, only a few weeks after the album's release. That changes the energy of the performance: songs such as "Hexagons" and "Nightshift Superstar" are only beginning to build their own live history, while reactions to the biggest hits have already been a familiar part of Muse's concerts for years.
Why the outdoor format matters for this tour
Muse is a band known for thinking in large-scale production terms, but summer amphitheaters impose different limitations from enclosed arenas. Bellamy clearly distinguished the North American summer production from the completely new stage design being prepared for the European indoor leg when discussing the tour.
That is not so much a disadvantage as a different format. An open stage and a large crowd on the lawn can work especially well for songs built around communal singing, sudden explosions of guitar and broad finales. "Knights of Cydonia" or "Starlight", when they appear in the setlist, are exactly the type of songs where the difference between several thousand people in an indoor venue and a much larger outdoor audience is immediately noticeable.
On the other hand, new material such as "Cryogen" or "Hexagons" gives the evening a harder, more futuristic side, while the album's melodic sections create room for shifts in dynamics. Because of that, it is not necessary to know every album to understand the flow of the performance. Muse builds a concert around contrasts: riff and piano, electronics and rock trio, extremely loud peaks and calmer transitions.
Practical plan for the evening in West Valley City
If you are arriving by car, the entered location should correspond to the type of parking you are using, and you should leave enough time for the final part of the approach to the amphitheater. If you use rideshare, the venue has a designated drop-off and pickup area in the general parking zone. After the concert, the congestion will not disappear as soon as the final song ends, so transportation after the show is worth thinking through in advance.
If you have a lawn ticket, arriving earlier has additional value because the standard lawn section fills on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have an assigned seat, there is less pressure around securing a position, but traffic and security screening remain the same.
Before departure, check three things: your mobile ticket, the current weather forecast and the venue's latest information about gate-opening time. Do not carry a bag larger than the permitted dimensions or bring your own lawn chair. For an outdoor concert in August, it also makes sense to think about water, sun protection during an earlier arrival and a layer of clothing that may remain useful after sunset, without assuming exactly what the weather will be several days in advance.
For international visitors and those traveling from farther away, it is useful to plan the concert as an evening trip from the wider Salt Lake City area rather than as a location in the city center itself. The proximity of the airport makes travel easier, but combining the arrival day and concert day into an overly tight schedule is not always a good idea, especially considering the traffic that develops before major shows.
It is practical to secure the ticket before finalizing transportation and other parts of the trip.
Most important things before entering
The program is listed for 7:00 PM, with Portugal. The Man and The Temper Trap before or alongside the main part of the evening, while a separate time for Muse to take the stage has not been confirmed. Do not plan your arrival around an assumed headliner start time.
Prepare the mobile ticket on your phone in advance. If you are carrying a bag, check its dimensions before leaving. If you are using the lawn, expect the standard areas to operate on a first-come, first-served basis and do not bring your own chair. If you are driving, expect slower traffic around the complex and follow staff instructions upon arrival.
Musically, The Wow! Signal Tour currently combines roughly fifteen years of widely known live favorites with songs from the album released this summer, making West Valley City an opportunity to see Muse at a moment when the new repertoire is only beginning to establish itself alongside songs that have long been foundations of their performances.
Sources:
- Muse - West Valley City performance date, North American tour schedule and context of the current album
- Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre - capacity, venue history, addresses, parking, entry rules, bag rules, mobile tickets and cashless payments
- Pitchfork - release date, number of songs, concept and content of The Wow! Signal
- The Guardian - musical context and character of the sound of The Wow! Signal
- Setlist.fm - repertoire and progression of the first The Wow! Signal Tour concert and information about the opening acts
- Louder - context of the production differences between the North American and European legs