The Drones World Tour[1] was a worldwide concert tour by the English rock band Muse. Staged in support of the band's 2015 album Drones, the tour visited arenas and festivals throughout 2015 and is the tenth concert tour the band has carried out. It began on 23 May 2015 in Norwich, England at the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. The Drones World Tour sold over 1.2 million tickets and grossed $23M from 34 shows in 2015, plus $65.5M from 64 shows in 2016.[2][3]

Drones World Tour
Tour by Muse
Promotional poster for the band's April 2016 UK tour
Associated albumDrones
Start date23 May 2015 (2015-05-23)
End date21 August 2016
Legs8
No. of shows
  • 92 in Europe
  • 27 in North America
  • 7 in Asia
  • 6 in South America
  • Total: 132 (1 cancelled)
Box office$88.5 million (98 shows)
Muse concert chronology

A live video of the tour entitled Muse: Drones World Tour, was released in cinemas worldwide on 12 July 2018.[4]

Rehearsals

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Rehearsals for the Drones festival tour took part in late April and were held in Air Studios, where Muse previously rehearsed for the Origin of Symmetry anniversary concerts at Reading and Leeds festivals, and where Muse also recorded Absolution and parts of The 2nd Law, Drones and Simulation Theory.

European Festivals

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Muse using the LED pillars in Paris 2016

Muse played various festivals around Europe on the first leg of the tour, which started 23 May 2015. This leg of the tour also included Muse's debut performance at Download Festival, which they also headlined.

The second leg of the European Festivals tour began on 24 June 2016 at Glastonbury. The new stage set up featured 11 LED pillars which could be manually pushed back and forth by members of the crew to accommodate the show. Bellamy compared this set up to The Resistance tour on his Instagram. An updated version of this set was used for the remaining dates in 2017, complete with new lighting rigs and lasers.

Drones Arena Tour

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Drones used in the show

Matt Bellamy confirmed that Muse would be tour North America in late 2015, and Europe in 2016. The stage setup is an 'in-the-round' setup, with a circular stage in the middle, similar to U2's 360 Tour, with catwalks on either end of the stage. Bellamy has also said that they will be flying drones over the audience during the shows. This set up was first used on 17 November 2015 in Mexico City at the start of the band's North America tour. The Arena tour dates prior in South America and Asia the band used their festival production.

 
Confetti and streamers during Mercy

The show begins with spherical drones being launched from a space station-style grid at the top of arenas, and they later re-appear during the course of the concert. There are also retractable video screens using projection, a spherical 360 screen over the main central stage, and a giant inflatable device designed to look like a Reaper drone. Confetti and streamers were also shot into the audience during performances of "Mercy".

However, the show has had technical difficulties. Two concerts in San Diego & Las Vegas were rescheduled due to "technical and logistical" challenges, while the drones were not used at all in three gigs, and one gig in Detroit saw several drones fail simultaneously.

Average Setlist

 

  1. "Drones"
  2. "Psycho"
  3. "Reapers"
  4. "Dead Inside
  5. "Interlude Hysteria"
  6. "Bliss" or "Citizen Erased" or "Plug In Baby"
  7. "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" (shortened)
  8. "The Handler"
  9. "Supermassive Black Hole
  10. "Prelude" "Starlight"
  11. "Apocalypse Please" or "United States of Eurasia" or "Feeling Good"
  12. "Munich Jam" (drum and bass jam)
  13. "Madness"
  14. "Resistance" or "Undisclosed Desires"
  15. "JFK" "Revolt" or "Stockholm Syndrome" or "Reapers" (if not played earlier)
  16. "Time Is Running Out"
  17. "Uprising"
  18. "The Globalist"
  19. "Drones" (reprise)

Encore:

  1. "Mercy"
  2. "Man with A Harmonica" "Knights of Cydonia"

Exceptions:

  • "Drones" was very occasionally replaced with "Drill Sergeant" at the start of the show
  • The piano slot after "Starlight" was not always played; instead the band would skip straight to "Munich Jam"
  • A range of different songs have been played after "JFK", including "Assassin", "Hysteria" and "Defector"
  • "Take a Bow" was added to most setlists from 1 March 2016 onwards as the first song of the encore
  • On 18 April 2016, during the second of their shows at Glasgow's SSE Hydro, the band were joined onstage by a lone bagpiper and a group of Highland dancers to play "Glasgow Jam" (a different drum and bass jam) that replaced "Munich Jam".
Song Album
"Sunburn" Showbiz
"Muscle Museum"
"Showbiz"
"Uno"
"Agitated" Uno (single)
"Yes Please" Sunburn (single)
"New Born" Origin of Symmetry
"Bliss"
"Hyper Music"
"Plug In Baby"
"Micro Cuts"
"Citizen Erased"
"Futurism"
"Feeling Good"
"Dead Star" Dead Star/In Your World
"Apocalypse Please" Absolution
"Time Is Running Out"
"Sing For Absolution"
"Stockholm Syndrome"
"Hysteria" (paired with Interlude)
"Blackout"
"Butterflies & Hurricanes"
"Fury"
"The Groove" Time Is Running Out (single)
"Take a Bow" Black Holes and Revelations
"Starlight"
"Supermassive Black Hole"
"Map of the Problematique"
"Assassin"
"Knights of Cydonia"
"Glorious"
"Easily"
"Uprising" The Resistance
"Resistance"
"Undisclosed Desires"
"United States of Eurasia"
"Supremacy" The 2nd Law
"Madness"
"Panic Station"
"Prelude"
"The 2nd Law: Isolated System"
"Dead Inside" Drones
"[Drill Sergeant]"
"Psycho"
"Mercy"
"Reapers"
"The Handler"
"[JFK]"
"Defector"
"Revolt"
"The Globalist"
"Drones"

Tour dates

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List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, tickets sold, number of available tickets and amount of gross revenue
Date City Country Venue Opening act Attendance Revenue
Leg 1 — European Festivals (Leg 1)[5][6]
23 May 2015 Norwich England BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend
29 May 2015 Munich Germany Rockavaria
30 May 2015 Gelsenkirchen Rock Im Revier
5 June 2015 Vienna Austria Rock In Vienna
6 June 2015 Biel Switzerland Sonisphere Festival
12 June 2015 Landgraaf Netherlands Pinkpop Festival
13 June 2015 Castle Donington England Download Festival
14 June 2015 Warsaw Poland Orange Warsaw Festival
19 June 2015 Moscow Russia Park Live Festival
21 June 2015 St. Petersburg Tuborg GreenFest
24 June 2015 Seinäjoki Finland Provinssirock
26 June 2015 Norrköping Sweden Bråvalla Festival
28 June 2015 Werchter Belgium Rock Werchter
30 June 2015 Cologne Germany Gloria Theater Royal Blood
2 July 2015 Roskilde Denmark Roskilde Festival
4 July 2015 Arras France Main Square Festival
5 July 2015 Roeser Luxembourg Rock-a-Field
9 July 2015 Lisbon Portugal NOS Alive
11 July 2015 Bilbao Spain Bilbao BBK Live
13 July 2015 Aix-les-Bains France Musilac Music Festival
16 July 2015 Carhaix Vieilles Charrues Festival
18 July 2015 Rome Italy Rock in Roma
Leg 2 — Asia
25 July 2015 Naeba Japan Fuji Rock Festival
Leg 3 — Europe
11 September 2015 London England Electric Ballroom
13 September 2015 Berlin Germany Lollapalooza Berlin
16 September 2015 Brussels Belgium Ancienne Belgique
Leg 4 — Asia[7]
19 September 2015 Beijing China MasterCard Center 7,573 / 7,573 $753,180
21 September 2015 Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena Shanghai 10,122 / 10,122 $1,058,479
23 September 2015 Bangkok Thailand Impact Arena The Ruse 6,711 / 7,902 $623,301
26 September 2015 Singapore Singapore Indoor Stadium 9,558 / 9,558 $1,094,708
28 September 2015 Hong Kong China AsiaWorld–Expo 9,066 / 9,066 $894,088
30 September 2015 Seoul South Korea Olympic Gymnastics Arena 10,595 / 10,837 $974,494
Leg 5 — South America
15 October 2015 Santiago Chile Movistar Arena
17 October 2015 Buenos Aires Argentina Complejo Al Río Utopians
19 October 2015 Córdoba Orfeo Superdomo
22 October 2015 Rio de Janeiro Brazil HSBC Arena
24 October 2015 São Paulo Allianz Parque
27 October 2015 Bogotá Colombia Parque Deportivo 222 Telebit
Leg 6 — North America (First official leg of Drones World Tour)[1][8]
17 November 2015 Mexico City Mexico Palacio de los Deportes The New Regime
18 November 2015
20 November 2015
21 November 2015 Corona Capital
1 December 2015 Houston United States Toyota Center Phantogram 7,482 / 11,224 $551,820
2 December 2015 Dallas American Airlines Center [a] 9,924 /11,163 $643,334
5 December 2015 Glendale Gila River Arena Phantogram 6,714 / 11,225 $415,490
10 December 2015 Vancouver Canada Rogers Arena
12 December 2015 Seattle United States KeyArena
13 December 2015 Portland Moda Center
15 December 2015 Oakland Oracle Arena
18 December 2015 Los Angeles Staples Center
19 December 2015
7 January 2016[b] San Diego Valley View Casino Center
9 January 2016[c] Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Events Center
13 January 2016 Chicago United Center X Ambassadors 13,439 / 13,439 $819,321
14 January 2016 Detroit Joe Louis Arena 8,748 / 13,109 $518,330
16 January 2016 Toronto Canada Air Canada Centre
18 January 2016 Quebec City Centre Videotron 27,279 / 29,250[d] $1,468,520[d]
20 January 2016 Montreal Bell Centre 28,475 / 29,660 $1,315,450
21 January 2016
23 January 2016 Quebec City Centre Videotron [d] [d]
25 January 2016 Boston United States TD Garden 11,111 / 16,372 $740,815
27 January 2016 Brooklyn Barclays Center 14,916 / 14,916 $874,783
29 January 2016 Newark Prudential Center
31 January 2016 Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center 13,103 / 13,563 $586,933
1 February 2016 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center 10,865 / 17,144 $801,188
Leg 7 — Europe[1][11]
26 February 2016 Paris France AccorHotels Arena X Ambassadors 108,182 / 108,182 $7,787,807
27 February 2016
29 February 2016 Phantogram
1 March 2016
3 March 2016 Nothing But Thieves
4 March 2016
6 March 2016 Cologne Germany Lanxess Arena
7 March 2016 Amsterdam Netherlands Ziggo Dome
9 March 2016
10 March 2016
12 March 2016 Brussels Belgium Palais 12
13 March 2016
15 March 2016 The Van Jets[e]
16 March 2016
31 March 2016 Munich Germany Olympiahalle De Staat
2 April 2016 Birmingham England Barclaycard Arena Birmingham Nothing But Thieves
3 April 2016 London The O2 Arena 92,167 / 92,167[f] $8,119,590[f]
5 April 2016 Dublin Ireland 3Arena
6 April 2016 Belfast Northern Ireland SSE Arena
8 April 2016 Manchester England Manchester Arena 37,777 / 38,058 $3,214,350
9 April 2016 Phantogram
11 April 2016 London The O2 Arena [f] [f]
12 April 2016 Phantogram
My Vitriol
14 April 2016
15 April 2016 Phantogram
17 April 2016 Glasgow Scotland The SSE Hydro 22,069 / 22,760 $2,000,800
18 April 2016 Nothing But Thieves
30 April 2016 Ischgl Austria Top of the Mountain
2 May 2016 Lisbon Portugal MEO Arena De Staat
3 May 2016
5 May 2016 Madrid Spain Barclaycard Center Madrid
6 May 2016
9 May 2016 Vienna Austria Wiener Stadthalle
11 May 2016 Zürich Switzerland Hallenstadion 26,000 / 26,000 $2,869,240
12 May 2016
14 May 2016 Milan Italy Mediolanum Forum
15 May 2016
17 May 2016
18 May 2016
20 May 2016
21 May 2016
3 June 2016 Berlin Germany Mercedes-Benz Arena Berlin Jack Garratt
4 June 2016 Prague Czech Republic O2 Arena Prague
6 June 2016 Hamburg Germany Barclaycard Arena Hamburg 9,316 / 11,943 $622,544
8 June 2016 Copenhagen Denmark Forum Copenhagen
9 June 2016 The New Regime
11 June 2016 Stockholm Sweden Ericsson Globe
12 June 2016 Oslo Norway Telenor Arena
14 June 2016 Helsinki Finland Hartwall Arena
16 June 2016 Riga Latvia Arena Riga My Vitriol
17 June 2016 Kaunas Lithuania Žalgiris Arena
21 June 2016 Moscow Russia Olimpiyskiy
Leg 8 — European Festivals (Leg 2)
24 June 2016 Pilton England Glastonbury Festival
28 June 2016 Paris France Eiffel Tower X Ambassadors
30 June 2016 Marmande Garorock
2 July 2016 Montreux Switzerland Montreux Jazz Festival
8 July 2016 Kyiv Ukraine U-Park Festival
14 July 2016 Bern Switzerland Gurten Festival
16 July 2016 Benicàssim Spain Festival Internacional de Benicàssim
18 July 2016 Nîmes France Le Festival de Nîmes
19 July 2016 Nyon Switzerland Paléo Festival
23 July 2016 Athens Greece Ejekt Festival
29 July 2016 Bucharest Romania Rock The City
6 August 2016 Reykjavík Iceland Laugardalshöll
13 August 2016 Budapest Hungary Sziget Festival
19 August 2016 Biddinghuizen Netherlands Lowlands Festival
20 August 2016 Konstanz Germany Rock am See
21 August 2016 Kraków Poland Live Music Festival
Total 315,794 / 349,554
(90%)
$24,057,848

Cancelled shows

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List of cancelled concerts, showing date, city, country, venue and reason for cancellation
Date City Country Venue Reason
26 July 2016 Istanbul Turkey Nebula Festival 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt[13]

Notes

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  1. ^ Phantogram was supposed to play but were cut due to technical difficulties.[9]
  2. ^ The concert on 7 January 2016 in San Diego at the Valley View Casino Center was originally planned to take place on 16 December, but was rescheduled due to unforeseen logistical and technical challenges.[10]
  3. ^ The concert on 9 January 2016 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center was originally planned to take place on 6 December, but was rescheduled due to unforeseen logistical and technical challenges.[10]
  4. ^ a b c d The score data is representative of the two shows at the Centre Videotron on 18 and 23 January 2016 respectively.
  5. ^ Nothing But Thieves were supposed to play but got replaced by The Van Jets after one of the members got sick.[12]
  6. ^ a b c d The score data is combined from the shows held at The O2 Arena from 3, 11, 12, 14 & 15 April 2016 respectively.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Tour Dates". Muse.mu. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  2. ^ "Pollstar Year End Top 100 Worldwide Tours" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Year End Top 100 Worldwide Tours" (PDF). Pollstar.com. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Muse: Drones World Tour: Cinema Screenings & Ticket Booking - the Official Showtimes Destination". Archived from the original on 13 July 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  5. ^ "12 Music Festivals You Don't Want to Miss in 2015". Arcticdrones.com. 5 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Muse reveal Drones plans for upcoming tour". Gigwise.com.
  7. ^ Box score
  8. ^ Box score
  9. ^ "Attn: Dallas regarding tonight's show with @muse". 2 December 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  10. ^ a b "LAS VEGAS AND SAN DIEGO TOUR UPDATE". 4 December 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  11. ^ Box score:
  12. ^ "MUSE KIEST LAST MINUTE VOOR THE VAN JETS ALS VOORPROGRAMMA". 15 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  13. ^ Earls, John (20 July 2016). "Muse cancel Turkey gig after country's attempted coup". nme.com. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
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