Simulation Theory World Tour

Promo poster with tour dates

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A world tour which Dom described as a "mental neon extravaganza dream/nightmare, everything wrapped into one"

It began in February of 2019 in Houston, Texas. It started with the US leg in late winter, which the band are currently touring, followed by the European leg in late spring (and with it the start of outdoor shows). The band will then head to Asia and South America in early Autumn. Following the constant gig announcements, the Simulation Theory tour will probably be elonged.

Information

The shows are set up for stadiums, but some gigs will also take place in arenas, using the same stage set up.

The supporting band during the American leg of the Simulation Theory Tour (except for the Washington and Philadelphia gigs) was anounced the 14 January, and they are Walk the Moon.

Before the rehearsals or the production started, Bellamy talked about two hour sets. He also mentioned playing a 15 minute-or-so "metal medley", featuring 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).

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 Jools Holland performance. Algorithm's AR version has been shortened and a transitional segment into Pressure has been added to it.

A new upcoming orchestral song, written by Bellamy for a known TV show has also made it's debut on the tour. The song's titled Pray and includes Chris and Dom on big concert drums.

This is also the first Muse tour on which Chris is playing bass and guitar, drumming and also playing a keyboard all in one set.

So far (and likely due to the scale of the production) no songs have been rotated, making it the first Muse tour with no rotation slots.

Production

Production-wise, the tour still includes a big LED screen with visuals, a big light show and lasers, but this time around, the band have also included dancers/performers.

The performers are wearing various costumes, raging from light-up hazmat suits to LED jackets, coats and LED glasses.

During certain songs, the performers are also in charge of lighting (spotlights during Break it to Me) and special effects (handheld CO2 cannons during Propaganda)

A large extraterrestrial robot skeleton puppet nicknamed "Murph" is also present. The puppet is an inflatable, with the head made from light materials with inner structure, and is held up by two cables, one attached to it's right arm and another one attached to the head. The arm cable is connected at the ceiling to a rail truss located above the lighting structure, which allows it to move it's arm up or down, forward or backward. It can also open it's mouth, which houses a spot light that illuminates the crowd and the stage during the Metal Medley. It inflates behind the stage during a piece called "Guitar Noise", which doubles as an interlude to the Metal Medley. According to Howard, the band initially didn't want to unveil Murph and wanted to surprise fans on the first show, but once they got Murph going at rehearsals, they couldn't resist posting content with it on their Instagram. Murph was made by a Dutch based company called "Airworks inflatables". They specialise in producing large-scale inflatables for various events. In they've made various inflatable objects for clients such as London 2012 Olympics, MTV Awards, Beyonce. Within Temptation, Roger Waters, Metallica, Run the Jewels, Tomorrowland, Miley Cyrus, UEFA and more, with their most notable client being Iron Maiden with their inflatable Eddie and the aeroplane.

Stage Design

The stage design is very similar to The Unsustainable Tour

The light trussing above the stage is vaguely shaped like the spaceship featured in the album cover of Simulation Theory.

Enhanced Experience Package

The three VR games contained in the enchanced experience package

The enhanced experience packages contain access to the "Mixed Reality Pre-Show Party", which will include photo opportunities with various props and whatnot from the Simulation Theory music videos, a bar service and a station with a series of VR-based arcade machine games (which have been made and produced by Microsoft and the band).

The VR games include:

• 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.

Setlist

1. Algorithm (Alternate Reality Version shortened)
2. Pressure
3. [Drill Sergeant] + Psycho
4. Break It to Me
5. Uprising (extended intro and outro)
6. Propaganda
7. Plug In Baby
8. Pray
9. The Dark Side
10. Close Encounters intro + Supermassive Black Hole
11. Thought Contagion
12. Interlude + Hysteria + Back in Black outro
13. Unsustainable
14. Dig Down (Acoustic Gospel Version)
    STT Interstitial 1
    
15. Madness
16. Mercy
17. Time is Running Out
18. Houston Jam + Take a Bow
19. Prelude + Starlight

    Encore

    STT Interstitial 2
20. Algorithm

    Metal Medley

21. Stockholm Syndrome (shortened)
22. Assassin (intro) + Reapers (shortened)
23. The Handler (shortened)
24. New Born (shortened) + Headup riff outro
25. Man With a Harmonica + Knights of Cydonia

Gigs

Date	Venue	Location
2019-10-13	Pista Atlética	Santiago, Chile
2019-10-11	Hipódromo de Palermo	Buenos Aires, Argentina
2019-10-03	Foro Sol	Mexico City, Mexico
2019-10-02	Foro Sol	Mexico City, Mexico
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	Olympic Stadium	Rome, Italy
2019-07-16	Matmut Atlantique	Bordeaux, France
2019-07-13	San Siro Stadium	Milan, Italy
2019-07-12	San Siro Stadium	Milan, Italy
2019-07-09	Stade Orange Velodrom	Marseille, France
2019-07-06	Stade de France	Paris, France
2019-07-05	Stade de France	Paris, France
2019-07-03	Hallenstadion	Zurich, Switzerland
2019-06-29	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	Bell Centre	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
2019-03-11	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	Vivent 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

References

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