A year or so ago, Muse's vision for their 7th album seemed to indicate a more stripped down tour than their recent jaunts.
In recent years, Muse have bought with them satellites, antenna, skyscrapers, pyramids, upside down revolving pyramids, mock power stations, pyro, actors, acrobats and even more to the world's stadiums and arenas.
By contrast, the campaign to back 7th album Drones began in a much more restrained fashion, to fit in with Muse's announcement this was a "back to 3-piece rock" record. So, it began with six intimate theatre concerts in the UK, then a festival tour with video screens - a production that was kept for South America & Asian touring commitments.
So, its quite a contrast to the moment about 80-90 minutes into the third of their fifth night run at the London O2 Arena. Here, as the 10 minute prog-rock nightmare of The Globalist reaches its enormous Drop A crescendo, a giant inflatable shaped like a Reaper drone - but looking a bit like Thunderbird 2 - orbits around the stage via its own AI program looking menacing.
Least that's the theory. In reality it looks a little bit silly - the moment when Muse may well have pushed their prog-rock box of tricks a bit too far - and that's before it veers off course and attempts to land either on top of Matt Bellamy, his piano and the audience.
Such moments are perhaps the unexpected side to this evening's entertainment, which sees the band take on a very ambitious production. The band's stage sits in a 360 configuration, with a circular light-studded rotating stage plonked in the middle of the O2, while a circular screen, cylindrical lighting rig, retractable projection scrims and a whoppingly huge lighting rig provide extra visual touch.
And that's before the flying centrepieces. As well as the aforementioned drone, there is also a collection of 16 spherical drones that descend from a rig above the stage. Indeed, this is just the beginning, as the drones descend to the choral refrains of the title track, and gracefully hover over the GA pit of the venue.
As the choir sing their last, the band rise onto the stage, and kick straight into Reapers. This is then followed in a Drop D one-two with Psycho, the duo of which are loud and boisterous and packed full of riffs that get the crowd bouncing immediately - almost in sync to the thuds of Dom Howard's bass drum. As a start to the gig, its top notch.
The bounce continues for a trip back to 2001 with Plug in Baby - a tune that, even with overprocessed FX pedals saturating Bellamy's guitar, still has in its corner the brute force of one of 21st century rock's most loved riffs. This may not be its best performance, but it is still delightful.
Its obviously one thing to focus on the visual aspect of the gig, which is an outstanding array of styles and tropes. A visual shows a creation of puppeteers during World War Z theme Isolated System, before morphing into visuals that depict Bellamy and bassist Chris Wolstenholme as puppets on string during The Handler. For Supermassive Black Hole, the drones orbit the centre-stage like planets orbiting a sun, while encore opener Take a Bow sees the band members lit up against the scrims in orange fire.
As a visual show, it is outstanding, even if taking a misstep with that errant inflatable Reaper, and lacking the conceptual narrative of The Wall tour that Bellamy had as inspiration. London is also at least greeted to it all working properly, as opposed to the inadvertant spectacle in Detroit when the spherical drones fell into the audience. But a high-quality visual extravaganza would be nothing without a performance to match, and Muse are more than capable of living up to it.
Yes, there are a few moments that aren't as good - Starlight maybe a pretty pop song and gets a nice singalong, but it loses something when Bellamy leaves the guitar to auxiliary musician Morgan Nicholls, and the same can also be said when it happens again for the first half of Uprising. It could also be longer, with a shorter set as far as songs played than previous tours and the dubiousness of a 45 minute gap between support and headliner - although long queues getting into the O2 and the assorted last minute checking of all manner of gear may not have helped.
But as for what is performed, there is a top drawer performance. The band give it their all throughout, and there's very little here tonight to keep people bored as far as the musicianship goes. Map of the Problematique surges with throbbing, electro-infused paranoid energy, and is followed up the earth-shaking delights of Absolution duo Hysteria & Time is Running Out.
Even the less heralded moments sparkle, with the pretty piano work of debut album opener Sunburn and throbbing electronics of politician-baiting Take a Bow sounding at home in the set despite not being regulars in the last few years.
Lack of regulars is obviously a major complaint, and while these are good old friends, it is something that Muse can afford to rotate previous big hitters like Bliss, Citizen Erased, Stockholm Syndrome and the rest.
The only other major complaint as well as length is faff - two goes of the choral Drones track, the Isolated System video link, a heavy rock drum & bass jam, a sweeping string and piano intro to Starlight, a JFK monologue - but at the very least, there's very little in the show's 1hr50+ run time that induces boredom.
It all ends in suitably ludicrous fashion, with the pop-rock Mercy surging through the speakers as a veritable hurricane of confetti and streamers rains down on the venue, before the seemingly now-traditional Knights of Cydonia finale brings the curtain down in suitably melodramatic style.
At the end of it all, what is mainly apparent is wondering if this is the culmination of many of Bellamy's prog-rock stage show fantasies, and what, if anything, he may have in mind to try and top this for future tours - indeed, in a recent Q magazine feature, some of Muse's road crew have said he has ideas prepared.
As far a the 2015/16 Drones World Tour goes, this stage production is a two-pronged and impressive attack. Muse could certainly have played for longer, but what they do put on is an excellent show backed by a visual extravaganza that justifies what is no doubt the vast expenditure spent on this undertaking.
It may well be they've reached the end of the prog-rock epic stage show capable of plenty of Spinal Tap-style moments of embarrassment, but if this is the end, then what an end.
7.5/10
Opening for Muse were New York electronic rock band Phantogram, whose set sees core duo of co-vocalists Sarah Barthel and Josh Cartel supported by a second guitarist and live drummer. The intricate mix of electronic melody, spaced out vocals and spindly guitar takes a while to really make itself home in the gargantuan surroundings of The O2, but after a little while, it adjusts, and by the closing rush of When I'm Small, the band look at home, and will have no doubt done themselves a favour in attracted extra fans outside of the States with this slot.
