The Unsustainable Tour

Official promotional poster for the first leg of the tour in UK

The Unsustainable Tour, also known as '2013 Summer Stadium Tour', was Muse's second largest tour up to this day, followed only by the Simulation Theory World Tour in 2019. It included various production elements, from a giant robot patrolling the stage to a floating light bulb, to big fire balls bursting out of the stage's very own "chimneys". The tour took place during Summer of 2013.

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Information

The first gigs of the tour were announced in November of 2012. The tour started with four gigs in the UK before going on to mainland Europe and finishing in Helsinki. Not much has been known about the production and what was to come up until the very first gig.

The tour featured Dracula Mountain becoming the set staple. The shows featured an intro called the The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics or the Bomb Intro, as it was called on the setlists, which segwayed into Supremacy's elongated intro. Both of these elements were exclusive to this tour. The last show of the tour also featured debuts of Yes Please, being played for the first time since 2000 and Agitated, played for the first time since 2001. This was also the first time that Starlight closed all the sets of the tour.

Matt ditched the guitar on Starlight and, like the arena tour, shook hands of the audience during Undislosed Desires, also joined by Dom and Chris after leaving the B-Stage.

Support Bands

There was a wide rage of support bands for the tour. The UK shows featured support acts by Dizzee Rascal and The 1975 , joined by Bastille, who also went on to open for the band in mainland Europe with Biffy Clyro, You Don't Know Me, L.A., We Are The Ocean, Arcane Roots, SX, Balthazar, Fun, Polly Money and Paramore. Dizzee Rascal also returned for the second Paris night. Skip The Use, Calibro 35, Datarock, Deaf Havana, French Films and Mew were also part of the support act line-up for the tour.

Stage Setup and Production

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Stage Set-Up for The Unsustainable Tour

Stage Design

The stage for the stadium tour was completely different to that of the arena tour and was reminiscent to that of the H.A.R.P. tour, with long wings and a long cat-walk, connecting the B-Stage to the main stage. Compared to the arena tour, there was no physical moving 3D pyramid present, however, the LED screens behind the band were designed to project the pyramids' visuals onto them, vaguely mimicking the pyramid being there. The LED screen half-circle behind the band however did remain, and with it the roulette and all other elements which were projected on it during the arena tour.

The stage also featured six large chimneys lined at the back of the stage on top of the trussing, releasing big balls of fire and smoke at various points of the gig.

Charles The Robot

One of the main attractions of the tour was Charles the Robot, a large, approx. 3 metre tall robot with light-up eyes and mouth, who patrolled the stage during Unsustainable and sometimes came out in the audience before the show. The robot was operated remotely by crew members. More on Charles here.

Floating Light Bulb

During Blackout, a large floating light bulb appeared above the audience, housing an acrobat, who, when the solo kicked in, jumped out of the bottom, released some confetti and performed aerial stunts while held on ropes attached to the bulb. The act was similar to that of the floating Hullabaloon act during the H.A.A.R.P. tour. (watch)

Muso Confetti

Special confetti were to be used during Animals - The Muso. The band used a 20 Muso note, which was designed to resemble a 50 Euro bill, the most widely circulated Euro denomination. The banknotes were inspired by the Foo Fighters dollar confetti, which the band liked, so they contacted Lee Martin and Morning Breath to design their own confetti money.

The Euro-inspired confetti were replaced by the Dollar-inspired ones for the Coachella gigs in 2014.

The actors

This was the first tour to feature actors performing during certain songs. Two actors were present, one during Feeling Good and the other during Animals. The actress during Feeling Good represented an office worker who was stressed out by the job which resulted in her drinking and dying by drinking gasoline. The actor during Animals represented a "filthy" banker (who was also present in the visuals for the song during both arena and stadium shows), who went on stage during the last part and started throwing Musos in the audience, before, at the end, when confetti was released, being completely engulfed in money, resulting in a heart-attack and his death. Both characters were placed into coffins below the catwalk during Undisclosed Desires, allowing Matt and the camera to go in and show the audience the two being dead.

Typical Setlist

The setlist structure was similar to that of the arena tour, albeit longer and with a slow section played on the B-stage.

At certain gigs, the setlists were shortened and modified to fit the setting of the stage (such as at the Waldbuhne gig in Berlin) but overall, the tour featured one of the longest setlists.

Blackout returned to setlists for the first time since 2007 and Unintended for the first time since 2010. Guiding Light also made a return.

• Bomb Intro

• Supremacy (extended intro)
• Supermassive Black Hole
• Panic Station
• Bliss (extended outro) / Map of the Problematique
• Resistance / Interlude + Hysteria
• Animals
• Man With a Harmonica + Knights of Cydonia
• Montpellier Jam + Sunburn / United States of Eurasia
• Butterflies & Hurricanes / Dead Star
• Dracula Mountain + Feeling Good
• Follow Me
• Liquid State
• Madness
• Time Is Running Out
• Stockholm Syndrome + Freedom outro / New Born + Headup riff

Encore 1 (B-Stage)

• Unintended
• Blackout
• Guiding Light
• Undisclosed Desires

Encore 2

• Unsustainable
• Plug in Baby (extended outro)
• Survival

Encore 3

• Isolated System
• Uprising (extended outro)
• Starlight

Exceptions

• Explorers was played instead of Sunburn / United States Of Eurasia on two occasions, both in Italy.
• Near the middle of the tour, Butterflies & Hurricanes / Dead Star were replaced with Map of the Problematique / Interlude + Hysteria, however Butterflies & Hurricanes and Dead Star both made one more appearance in this slot.
• During the second night at Paris the roulette was used twice. On the first run, the ball landed in the green slot, but unlike previous gigs, Matt did not ask the crowd what song to play. Instead, Dead Star was already printed on screen and Micro Cuts was seen alongside as an alternate option. On the second run, the usual Stockholm Syndrome / New Born roulette was shown. This extra song being played in the main set resulted in Guiding Light being dropped later on.
• During the final gig of the tour in Helsinki, Bliss was on the setlist but wasn't played. However, after Stockholm Syndrome Muse spontaneously played Agitated and Yes Please. This was their first time being played since 2001/2000.

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