While most current bands seem content to mine the past for little retro rocks of style from 20 years ago, Devon's explosive trio Muse unashamedly stargaze into the future.

Their performance on Thursday night turned the Brighton Centre into a huge spaceship of sound, with the band flying the sold-out crowd on a fantastical musical journey miles above terra firma.

A group clearly at the peak of their powers, tracks from their latest album, Absolution, blended effortlessly into a set full of grand, operatic showmanship and gloriously powerful tunes.

Muse sounded simply out of this world, as if they arrived on this planet after a headline gig at the cantina in the first Star Wars film.

Singer Matt Bellamy has a beautiful, theremin-like quality to his voice, frequently pitching and rising from low growl into squealing falsetto in a way which seemed not quite human.

Bouncing between guitar and piano with the energy of a laser beam, the spiky frontman had the perfect foil in no-frills bassist Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard's pounding drums.

Hits such as Hysteria, Plug In Baby and New Born offered a pummelling of blows wrapped in a lavishly embroidered velvet glove.

Sadly, Muse's 2003 space odyssey came to an end all too quickly and the audience bumped back down to Earth, disappointed their trip was over.

But they heard the soundtrack to the stars and they will never forget that.