Drones Festivals Tour 2015
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The Drones Festivals Tour 2015 (also reffered to as the Drones Tour 2015) began on May 23rd, 2015, with the performance at Norwich's Earlham Park in the UK, at Radio 1's Big Weekend festival. The entirety of the tour was set in Europe, with one exception being the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. The tour ended with the show at the first installment of Lollapalooza Berlin.
Information
As mentioned, the tour began with BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend gig in the UK and ending with the gig on the first edition of the famous Lollapalooza Festival, in Berlin. The tour also included Muse's first performance and headlining of Download Festival in the UK.
The first shows of the tour were announced and confirmed on November 5th, 2014, via Muse's Facebook. The first announced gigs were at Munich's Rockavaria, Nürburg's Der Ring - Grüne Hölle Rock (the festival was relocated and renamed after the announcement) and Vienna's Rock in Vienna.
First band rehearsals for the tour took part in late April of 2015, and were held at London's Air Studios. Main production rehearsals, including lighting and stage design, began and took part in late May of 2015, at an unknown rehearsal facility in the UK, as shown on Tom's Twitter post.
Dominic Howard on the tour shows: "The summer shows are pretty kind of raw and have dynamic lighting. It is not overblown. It is really kind of mean looking, I think."
Stage Setup and Production
The stage design kept the minimal basis of the Psycho Tours, while bringing the gigs up a level, in terms of lighting and show. It had the same set up as on the Psycho Tours, with the Marshall stack and the drum riser. Instead of Morgan's keyboard on a regular stand, the light-show keyboard station, used during The 2nd Law tours, was brought back. The side covers of the drum riser were made out of aluminium, with the front sporting cut outs of the drone-men silhouettes, as seen on the album cover.
Behind the band was a big LED screen displaying visuals and camera feed, covering up the entire back scene. Five black lighting trusses with moving fixtures and LED strips were put infront of the LED screen, providing light shows when the screen didn't display any visuals, or adding an additional elements to the existing visuals displayed on the screen.
Red confetti and red/white streamers were used for Mercy. For the Download Festival gig, flame machines were also used during certain songs.
In terms of costumes, the band wore the same all-black suits used during the Psycho US Tour, exception being Howard, who ditched the jumpsuit but wore a satin black sleeveless shirt (the design of which was based around the jupmsuits), and black pants, for easier mobility when drumming.
Average setlist
On the tour setlists, Muse combined older, heavier, less-known deep cuts, with more known and popular songs. Off of Drones, Mercy and The Handler made their debut appearances. Munich Jam made it's debut also, as did JFK. Apocalypse Please was played on the tour for the first time since 2008. Micro Cuts and Citizen Erased were played for the first time since 2013. All tour setlists had 16-17 songs with many modifications, replacements and rotations happening as the tour went on, allthough the basis of the set remained the same. The only shorter set with 12 songs was played at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend.
Regular setlist
- Plug in Baby (extended outro)
- Stockholm Syndrome / Plug in Baby (extended outro) (if not played earlier)
- Stockholm Syndrome (if not played earlier)
Encore
Notes
- New Born was played in the second and third slots during the first 7 gigs, exception being Rockavaria, where it was replaced with Stockholm Syndrome. New Born was also played in the second slot at Download Festival where Stockholm Syndrome was also played.
- Supermassive Black Hole and Dead Inside were played before Mercy at Download Festival. Micro Cuts and Dead Star, a Download Festival one-off, replaced them in their usual earlier slots. Micro Cuts also made three other festival appearances.
- Agitated was played after Dead Star at Download Festival.
- Animals was sometimes played before or after Munich Jam.
- Citizen Erased was sometimes played after Munich Jam and once after Hysteria.
- At Vieilles Charrues Festival, Rock in Roma and Fuji Rock Festival, Uprising was played before Hysteria. Madness or Mercy were played in the Uprising slot. JFK was dropped from the setlists.
- Supremacy was sometimes played after Apocalypse Please and once before it.
- Bliss was played before Mercy at Rockavaria and Sonisphere and in slot four at Tuborg GreenFest.
- Resistance, Map of the Problematique and Uno were sometimes played before Hysteria or Munich Jam.
- The Groove was played after Plug in Baby at Vieilles Charrues Festival.
Shorter setlist (BBCR1's Big Weekend only)
- Bliss (extended outro)
- Uprising (extended outro)
- Plug in Baby (extended outro)
Stats
| Album | # of songs | Songs played |
|---|---|---|
| Showbiz | 1 | Uno |
| Origin of Symmetry | 5 | New Born, Bliss, Plug in Baby, Citizen Erased, Micro Cuts |
| Absolution | 5 | Apocalypse Please, Time Is Running Out, Stockholm Syndrome, Interlude, Hysteria |
| Black Holes and Revelations | 4 | Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique, Knights of Cydonia |
| The Resistance | 2 | Uprising, Resistance |
| The 2nd Law | 3 | Supremacy, Madness, Animals |
| Drones | 7 | Dead Inside, [Drill Sergeant], Psycho, Mercy, Reapers, The Handler, [JFK] |
| Other | 4 | Agitated, Dead Star, The Groove, Munich Jam |
Gigs
| Date | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2015-09-13 | Flughafen Tempelhof (Lollapalooza Berlin) | Berlin, Germany |
| 2015-07-25 | Naeba Ski Resort (Fuji Rock Festival) | Yuzawa-machi, Japan |
| 2015-07-18 | Ippodromo delle Capannelle (Rock in Roma) | Rome, Italy |
| 2015-07-16 | Site de Kerampuilh (Vieilles Charrues Festival) | Carhaix, France |
| 2015-07-13 | Esplanade du Lac (Musilac) | Aix-les-Bains, France |
| 2015-07-11 | Kobetamendi (Bilbao BBK Live) | Bilbao, Spain |
| 2015-07-09 | Passeio Marítimo de Alges (NOS Alive) | Lisbon, Portugal |
| 2015-07-05 | Herchesfield (Rock-A-Field) | Roeser, Luxembourg |
| 2015-07-04 | La Citadelle Vauban d'Arras (Main Square Festival) | Arras, France |
| 2015-07-02 | Roskilde Dyrskueplats (Roskilde Festival) | Roskilde, Denmark |
| 2015-06-28 | Festivalpark Werchter (Rock Werchter) | Werchter, Belgium |
| 2015-06-26 | Bråvalla Air Field (Bråvalla Festival) | Norrköping, Sweden |
| 2015-06-24 | Törnävänsaari Park (Provinssirock) | Seinäjoki, Finland |
| 2015-06-21 | Petrovsky Stadium (Tuborg GreenFest Russia) | St. Petersburg, Russia |
| 2015-06-19 | Otkrytie Arena (Park Live) | Moscow, Russia |
| 2015-06-14 | Sluzewiec Racetrack (Orange Warsaw Festival) | Warsaw, Poland |
| 2015-06-13 | Donington Park (Download Festival) | Derby, England |
| 2015-06-12 | Megaland (Pinkpop Festival) | Landgraaf, Netherlands |
| 2015-06-06 | ExpoPark Nidau-Biel (Sonisphere Switzerland) | Biel, Switzerland |
| 2015-06-05 | Donauinsel (Rock in Vienna) | Vienna, Austria |
| 2015-05-30 | Veltins Arena (Rock im Revier) | Gelsenkirchen, Germany |
| 2015-05-29 | Olympiapark (Rockavaria) | Munich, Germany |
| 2015-05-23 | Earlham Park (BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend) | Norwich, England |
Special concerts
Small gigs and TV show performances that took place outside of the main tour.
| Date | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2015-09-16 | Ancienne Belgique (Music For Life 2015) | Brussels, Belgium |
| 2015-09-15 | Studios Rive Gauche (Le Grand Journal) | Paris, France |
| 2015-09-11 | Electric Ballroom | London, UK |
| 2015-09-11 | Maida Vale Studios (BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge) | London, UK |
| 2015-07-24 | Makuhari Messe Event Hall (Music Station) | Chiba , Japan |
| 2015-06-30 | Gloria Theater | Cologne, Germany |
| 2015-06-08 | Studios Rive Gauche (Le Grand Journal) | Paris, France |
| 2015-06-04 | The London Studios (The Graham Norton Show) | London, UK |
| 2015-05-26 | The Maidstone Studios (Later... with Jools Holland) | Maidstone, UK |