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 tour has grossed $23M from 34 shows in 2015, plus $65.5M from 64 shows in 2016.[2][3]
A live video of the tour entitled Muse: Drones World Tour, was released in cinemas worldwide on 12 July 2018.[4]
Rehearsals
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
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
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.
"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".
^Phantogram was supposed to play but were cut due to technical difficulties.[9]
^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]
^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]
^ abcdThe score data is representative of the two shows at the Centre Videotron on 18 and 23 January 2016 respectively.
^Nothing But Thieves were supposed to play but got replaced by The Van Jets after one of the members got sick.[12]
^ abcdThe score data is combined from the shows held at The O2 Arena from 3, 11, 12, 14 & 15 April 2016 respectively.
