Simulation Theory World Tour

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Original promo poster with tour dates
Summer EU tour poster
Entire tour crew, with the band



Simulation Theory World Tour was a headlining world tour, in support of Simulation Theory, that began on 22nd February of 2019 in Houston, Texas and ended on October 15th, 2019 in Lima, Peru. The tour was one of their biggest, if not the biggest tour yet, with over 1 million tickets sold. Howard admitted they've gone "too far" with this tour.

Information

This was the first Muse tour in which the open-air shows and the festival shows were the same as the arena shows (excluding occasional song additions for open-air shows). It was also the first full headlining tour to not feature song rotations. Despite the tour originally planned to be a global stadium-only tour, the entire first portion of the tour in USA took place in arenas, with the stadium shows starting with the Prague gig on May 26th, 2019. According to George Reeves, Muse's production manager, the initial planning conversations about the tour took place all the way back in 2017.

Before the rehearsals or the tour production itself started, Bellamy talked about two hour sets. He also mentioned playing a "15-minute-or-so metal medley", featuring short bits of heavy songs (not just riffs). He said he'd "like to play that because they would like to fit in as many songs in setlists as they can", without surpassing two hours too much (due to fatigue). This medley was played and tested for the first time at the London Royal Albert Hall gig, and later again at the Chicago Aragon Ballroom gig, both in late 2018. The Royal Albert Hall version of the medley was the only one to include Dead Star and the Micro Cuts outro.

Propaganda and the Alternate reality version of Algorithm made their debut on the tour, and the acoustic gospel version of Dig Down made it's return after the 2018 Jools Holland performance. Algorithm's AR version has been shortened, and a short transitional segment into Pressure has been added to it.

Pray, a song written by Bellamy for Game of Thrones's compilation album, made it's debut on the tour as an intro to The Dark Side. It featured Chris and Dom playing custom-made concert drums. The song was shortened and played as an instrumental, featuring no Valyrian spoken word. Three short instrumental segues, titled "STT Interstitial 1", "STT Interstitial 2" and "STT Interstitial 3" also appeared during the show. All three were instrumental bits taken off of two Bellamy solo pieces called Behold, The Glove (STT Interstitial 2) and Simulation Theory Theme (STT Interstitials 1 & 3). All of these songs, including the instrumental version of Pray, were later included in Matt's solo album, Cryosleep, released in 2021. This was the first tour on which Chris played bass, guitar, drums and a keyboard, all in one set.

Supporting acts

The US shows supporting bands were Walk the Moon and SWMRS (whose only US performances were the at the Washington and Philadelphia gigs - with the band later performing at a few European gigs aswell).

For the European tour, the two were joined by a combination of known local bands, aswell as well-established artists. These were Tom Morello, Weezer, Pale Waves, Dinosaur Pile-Up, The Atavists, Imodium, Kiefer Sutherland, Tiger Cave, Allusinlove, Andy Burrows, The Amazons, Mini Mansions, Nic Cester and Miles Kane, all of which supported Muse at various places during the European legs. For the autumn leg of the EU tour, Nothing But Thieves joined the support line-up again after their tour with Muse in 2015/16 together with Des Rocs.

For the final leg in South America, The Ruse were supporting Muse again after 2013 and 2015, joined by Airbag, which were playing at the Buenos Aires gig in October, and, lastly, Kaiser Chiefs, which supported Muse between the São Paulo and Lima gigs, in October.

Production

The creative director behind the production was Jesse Lee Stout. Prior to this, he worked with Muse on the Drones 360 World Tour, on which he directed video content and interactive elements of the tour. He also worked with Muse later, between the 2016 Drones Festivals Tour, the Summer Amphitheatre Tour|2017 Amphitheatre Tour and the 2018 Summer Festivals Tour, where he took over the role of the production designer. Throughout Simulation Theory's writing process, Bellamy kept Stout up to date with ideas and his fascination with metamodernism. These conversations with Matt led him to work on getting the looks right on the album packaging, the album's promo photography and later becoming the creative director for the tour. Stout said, that various references to 80s and 90s pop culture made appearances throughout the show (hints such as Gremlins, E.T., Terminator, Aliens, Back to the Future etc.).

Stage Design

Arena, Stadium & Festival/Regular Stage Setups

The stage design is similar to The Unsustainable Tour with a long catwalk, a big B-Stage and a big LED screen - but it still includes unique elements.

The main stage is designed to look like three basic diamond squares, blending into each other. The stage then includes three more diamonds, which are smaller and are risen above the main stage. The center diamond acts as a drum riser, while the side diamonds act as tech bunkers, as well as platforms, on which you can access the final seventh and eighth diamonds, one on each side of the main stage, which are risen up even more, and are bigger in diameter, representing stage wings. A large B-stage, also in the shape of a diamond, is connected to the main stage via a long catwalk. The outer edges of the entire stage, including the B-stage, are all lit up with thin solid light strips.

A big LED screen was present behind the stage, with the sides of it being slightly bent outwards, while above the stage, is where lighting trussing is. The whole trussing is designed to look vaguely similar, in overall shape, to the space ship, featured on the Simulation Theory album cover art. Like the stage, the trussing is also lit up with light strips around the edges, which emphasize the shape of the space ship when it's dark and all lit up.

For the stadium gigs the set up was tweaked sightly. The catwalk and the LED screen were more than doubled in size, as well as a large centralized LED speaker tower being added. In addition, extra lasers and floodlights were added around the stadium.

The tour also took place on a few more regular stages, on the Werchter Festival, the IndyCar Classic Festival, the Singapore F1 gig and the South American gigs. For these shows, the basis of the stage design was kept the same as with the regular tour shows, however, the band used regular stage risers instead of the diamond-shaped podiums of the stage construction, with no additional lighting on the edge or the risers. A B-Stage with the catwalk was however present on all gigs, exception being the IndyCar Classic gig, where it was limited to not having the riser, thus forcing the band to modify the setlist a little bit (e.g. the show starting with Pressure as Matt wasn't able to rise from underneath the B-Stage). The above-stage spaceship trussing was also present on all gigs, only being abscent on the Rock in Rio show.

Murph the Skeleton Robot

Murph

According to Stout, "Murph" was meant to be the center piece of the show, through both visuals and the inflatable puppet. He is based on the "Creator", AKA the large extraterrestrial skeleton from The Dark Side music video. The nickname "Murph" is a homage to Murphy from RoboCop, as it bears visual similarities with it.

Throughout the entire show, the viewer could see Murph originating as one of the performers, which is injected with a flesh-eating pathogen and enchanced with robotic prosthetics, outfitted with a VR mask. He is then confined into a glass prison cell, which he escapes and later manifests physically into the venue - as a puppet. Stout wanted the puppet to appear, in the context of the show, as a video game end boss that the band defeats at the end of Metal Medley and rejoices with the final song, Knights of Cydonia.

Murph also appeared in the first teaser video for the tour on the band's Instagram. According to Howard, they initially didn't want to unveil Murph and wanted to surprise fans on the first show, but once they got it going at rehearsals, they couldn't resist posting content with it on their Instagram. Additionally, Murph The Robot, as a character, also had its own Instagram made, which can be seen here.

The Power Glove

Matt wearing The Power Glove

Featured at the beginning of the show, The Power Glove is a sci-fi glove, vaguely similar in looks to the Infinity Glove from Marvel's "The Avengers".

Not much has been said about it from official sources, allthough, as the name suggests, in the context of the tour story, the glove gave Matt the power to enter the simulation and defeat Murph. The glove is made out of shiny metallic plastic with some LED lights installed on it, and was also used as a laser reflector, as Bellamy rose up from the B-stage at the beginning of the show. The glove made its appearance during both versions of Algorithm (Alternate Reality and regular version). Alike Murph, the power glove also has its own Instagram. Together with pictures of Matt wearing the glove, the admin of the account also posted various bits and pieces from the backstage, while wearing the glove.

The Power Glove was used in the music video for Matt's solo song, Behold, The Glove, released in 2020, which shows Matt wearing the glove itself. Keeping with that, the glove returned to live shows in 2022 and 2023, during the Will of the People Festivals Tour and the Will of the People World Tour. This time, the glove was re-worked to not just act as a prop, but instead be used by Matt as an instrument.

Dancers

Dancers during Algorithm AR

During 2018 interviews, Bellamy has been heavily mentioning wanting to include more performers & dancers during the shows, being inspired by David Byrne's shows, which also included choreographed performances. He also mentioned the shows being Beyonce-esque.

Subsequently, a group of 14 (or more, for stadium shows) dancers were featured on the tour, performing during a few songs in the show (Algorithm - including the regular and AR versions, Drill Sergeant, Pressure, Propaganda, Break it to Me, Thought Contagion, Dig Down Acoustic and Starlight) and accompanying the band. For certain songs, the performers were also in charge of lighting elements (spotlights during Break it to Me), pecial effects (handheld CO2 cannons during Propaganda) and throwing Hullaballoons into the crowd (Starlight).

The dancers became to be known as "Muse Dancers" through the fanbase. More can be read on this page.

Hullabaloon Posters

With Hullabaloons being an iconic part of most Muse shows ever since 2001, this was the first tour to include limited-edition handprinted signed tour posters inside some of them, on each gig. The poster art was designed by James White (Signalnoise), working with Tim Doyle (Nakatomi Inc.). More on the posters can be read about on White's official webpage here.

Enhanced Experience Package

The three VR games contained in the Enchanced Experience package

The tour's Enhanced Experience Package contained access to the "Mixed Reality Pre-Show Party", which included photo opportunities with various props from the Simulation Theory music videos, a bar service, and a station, with a series of VR-based arcade machine games. The Enchanced Experience Package has been made in cooperation with Microsoft, who also developed the arcade games.

The following VR games were included:

  • Simulation Striker - A motion controller based game - player enters a hallway (seen in Break It To Me video), a portal (seen in the Algorithm video) opens up infront of the player and various shapes fly out of it. The player has to punch them out in order to survive. The game is soundtracked by Algorithm.
  • Retrograde Racer - A racing based game - player races through a futuristic world filled with neon tunnels and a desert wasteland (based on the one in The Dark Side/Something Human videos). The player must dodge skeletons and various road blocks. The game is soundtracked by The Dark Side.
  • Spaceship Defender - Another motion controller based game - player has to pilot a spaceship whilst being attacked by critters (seen in Pressure music video). The game is soundtracked by Pressure.

Simulation Theory Film

The two London O2 shows in September were both filmed for film release. Bellamy hinted at filming the two shows in Summer of 2019 and started teasing the film's content in late Spring of 2020. The movie, which is a mix of film shots and live footage, was released in August of 2020, in cinemas and on digital platforms.

More on the film here.

Average Setlist

Encore 1

Metal medley

Encore 2

Exceptions

Stats

Album # of songs Songs played
Showbiz 1 Showbiz
Origin of Symmetry 3 Plug in Baby, New Born, Bliss
Absolution 4 Time is Running Out, Stockholm Syndrome, Interlude, Hysteria,
Black Holes and Revelations 5 Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Knights of Cydonia, Assassin, Take a Bow
The Resistance 2 Uprising, Undisclosed Desires
The 2nd Law 3 Madness, Unsustainable, Prelude
Drones 5 [Drill Sergeant], Psycho, Mercy, The Handler, Reapers
Simulation Theory 9 Dig Down, Thought Contagion, The Dark Side, Pressure, Something Human, Algorithm, Break it to Me, The Void, Propaganda
Other 1 Pray

Gigs

Date Venue Location
2019-10-15 Hipódromo de Monterrico Lima, Peru
2019-10-13 Pista Atlética Santiago, Chile
2019-10-11 Hipódromo de Palermo Buenos Aires, Argentina
2019-10-09 Ginásio do Ibirapuera Sao Paulo, Brazil
2019-10-06 Parque Olímpico Cidade do Rock (Rock in Rio) Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
2019-10-03 Foro Sol Mexico City, Mexico
2019-10-02 Foro Sol Mexico City, Mexico
2019-09-21 Marina Bay Street Circuit (Formula 1 Grand Prix) Singapore, Singapore
2019-09-17 Arena Birmingham Birmingham, UK
2019-09-15 The O2 Arena London, UK
2019-09-14 The O2 Arena London, UK
2019-09-12 Ziggo Dome Amsterdam, Netherlands
2019-09-10 Mercedes-Benz Arena Berlin, Germany
2019-09-08 Royal Arena Copenhagen, Denmark
2019-09-07 Telenor Arena Oslo, Norway
2019-07-26 Wanda Metropolitano Madrid, Spain
2019-07-24 Passeio Maritimo de Alges Lisbon, Portugal
2019-07-20 Stadio Olimpico Rome, Italy
2019-07-16 Matmut Atlantique Bordeaux, France
2019-07-13 Stadio Giuseppe Meazza Milan, Italy
2019-07-12 Stadio Giuseppe Meazza Milan, Italy
2019-07-09 Stade Orange Velodrome Marseille, France
2019-07-06 Stade de France Paris, France
2019-07-05 Stade de France Paris, France
2019-07-03 Hallenstadion Zurich, Switzerland
2019-06-30 Festivalpark Werchter (Rock Werchter Festival) Werchter, Belgium
2019-06-29 RheinEnergieStadion Cologne, Germany
2019-06-27 Goffertpark Nijmegen, Netherlands
2019-06-22 Tauron Arena Krakow, Poland
2019-06-18 Suvilahti Open Air Helsinki, Finland
2019-06-15 Luzhniki Stadium Moscow, Russia
2019-06-12 Arena Riga Riga, Latvia
2019-06-08 Etihad Stadium Manchester, England
2019-06-05 Ashton Gate Stadium Bristol, England
2019-06-01 London Stadium London, England
2019-05-29 Stadthalle Graz Graz, Austria
2019-05-28 Papp László Sports Arena Budapest, Hungary
2019-05-26 Letňany Airport Prague, Czech Republic
2019-04-12 United Center Chicago, IL, USA
2019-04-10 TD Garden Boston, MA, USA
2019-04-08 Madison Square Garden New York City, NY, USA
2019-04-07 Wells Fargo Center Philadelphia, PA, USA
2019-04-04 Little Caesars Arena Detroit, MI, USA
2019-04-02 Capital One Arena Washington, DC, USA
2019-03-31 Videotron Centre Québec City, Canada
2019-03-30 Centre Bell Montreal, Canada
2019-03-28 Scotiabank Arena Toronto, Canada
2019-03-26 State Farm Arena Atlanta, GA, USA
2019-03-24 BB&T Center Sunrise, FL, USA
2019-03-23 Austin360 Amphitheater (IndyCar Classic) Austin, TX, USA
2019-03-11 The Forum Los Angeles, CA, USA
2019-03-09 Oracle Arena Oakland, CA, USA
2019-03-07 Golden 1 Center Sacramento, CA, USA
2019-03-05 Valley View Casino Center San Diego, CA, USA
2019-03-02 Mandalay Bay Events Center Las Vegas, CA, USA
2019-02-28 Vivint Smart Home Arena Salt Lake City, UT, USA
2019-02-26 Talking Stick Resort Arena Phoenix, AZ, USA
2019-02-24 American Airlines Center Dallas, TX, USA
2019-02-22 Toyota Center Houston, TX, USA

See Also

References


Go back to Tour

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