U2 360 North America

U2 tour producer/promoter Arthur Fogel, CEO of Live Nation Global Touring, said, ‘Although we understand the disappointment to U2 fans, first and foremost comes the recovery of Bono.’

Additional details on rescheduled dates will follow shortly and fans are encouraged to hold on to their tickets. We’ll have all the information on U2.com as soon as it’s confirmed.

http://www.u2.com

By Alex Young on February 20th, 2010

U2 taps Interpol, Kravitz, The Fray as 2010 tour openers

In addition to the giant claw and the massive red, U2’s still ongoing 360 world tour will also likely be remembered for its heavyweight openers. This trend will continue when Bono and co. embark on the second leg of the 360 tour next June, as the legendary band has chosen to followup leg #1 openers Muse, the Black Eyed Peas, and Snow Patrol with the likes of Interpol, Lenny Kravtiz, and The Fray.

As Slicing Up Eyeballs points out, Kravitz will open the band’s initial three dates in the west coast, The Fray will handle then handle the slot for Oakland, Seattle, and Edmonton, and Interpol, who will likely be supporting a new album by then, will hit the road with U2 for six dates. An opener has not yet been announced for the final three nights in Montreal and New York City. David Byrne would be fun.

We should also note that U2 has been rumored to be playing this year’s Ottawa Bluesfest, set to take place from July 7-18 at LeBreton Flats Park. Maybe the Imagine Music & Arts Festival as well?

Find all of U2’s confirmed tour dates below. Tickets for N. American concerts are still available via Ticketmaster.com.

U2 2010 Tour Dates:
06/03 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Rice Eccles Stadium *
06/06 – Anaheim, CA @ Angel Stadium *
06/12 – Denver, CO @ Invesco Field *
06/16 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Coliseum #
06/20 – Seattle, WA @ Qwest Field #
06/23 – Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium #
06/25 – Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Music Festival
06/27 – Minneapolis, MN @ TCF Bank Stadium ^
06/30 – E. Lansing, MI @ Spartan Stadium ^
07/03 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre ^
07/06 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field ^
07/09 – Miami, FL @ Land Shark Stadium ^
07/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field ^
07/16 – Montreal, QC @ Hippodrome
07/17 – Montreal, QC @ Hippodrome
07/19 – New York, NY @ New Meadowlands Stadium
08/06 – Turin, IT @ Stadio Olimpico
08/10 – Frankfurt, DE @ Commerzbank Arena
08/12 – Hannover, DE @ AWD Stadium
08/15 – Horsens, DK @ Casa Arena
08/16 – Horsens, DK @ Casa Arena
08/20 – Helsinki, FI @ Olympic Stadium
08/21 – Helsinki, FI @ Olympic Stadium
08/25 – Moscow, RU @ Luzhniki
08/30 – Vienna, AT @ Ernst Happel Stadium
09/03 – Athens, GR @ Olypmic Stadium
09/06 – Istanbul, TR @ Ataturk Olympic Stadium
09/11 – Zurich, CH @ Letzigrund Stadium
09/12 – Zurich, CH @ Letzigrund Stadium
09/15 – Munich, DE @ Olympic Stadium
09/18 – Paris, FR @ Stade de France
09/22 – Brussels, BE @ Stade Roi Boudoin
09/23 – Brussels, BE @ Stade Roi Boudoin
09/26 – San Sebastian, ES @ Anoeta Stadium
09/29 – Seville, ES @ Olympic Stadium
10/02 – Colmbra, PT @ Stadium
10/03 – Colmbra, PT @ Stadium
10/08 – Rome, IT @ Olympic Stadium

* = w/ Lenny Kravitz
# = w/ The Fray
^ = w/ Interpol

http://consequenceofsound.net

Venue: Rose Bowl

Opening Act(s): Black Eyed Peas

Breathe
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day / In God’s Country (snippet)
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)
Stuck In A Moment
No Line On The Horizon
Elevation
In A Little While
Unknown Caller
Until The End Of The World
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo / It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)(snippet)
Crazy Tonight / Two Tribes (snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

Encore(s):

One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

How was it for you in Phoenix, Arizona ? Tell us what it was like and post your photos in our comments area.

Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stuck In A Moment
No Line on the Horizon
Elevation
In A Little While
Unknown Caller
Until The End of the World
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy – Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name

Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

http://www.u2.com/

Luke Holwerda

?There’s something inherently incongruous about the serene, relentlessly thoughtful music U2 made at its creative peak and the stadium-sized spectacle that came to Glendale last night. Sure, the band has been one of the few extant rock acts capable of (nearly) selling-out football fields for two decades, but I still say something about seeing such personal songs sung to crowds that large just feels weird. And I know I’m not the only one who noticed.

“Believe it or not we built this spaceship to get closer to you,” a black-leather clad Bono said, gesturing up at the towering four-footed contraption supporting the band’s massive, circular stage. “We’re looking for intimacy.”

“Intimacy on a grand scale” he quickly added, self-aware enough to chuckle at the irony of his words, given the situation.

Surprisingly, there were moments when Bono and his band found what they were looking for. Yes, there really were special, intimate moments at this stadium show.

Not when the slow expansion of a giant LCD sculpture more or less stole the show while Bono and Edge sang to each other behind the drum riser. Not when drummer Larry Mullen lugged a bongo around the outer ring of the stage while a backing track provided the only meaningful percussion during the ridiculously awful new single “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.” Not when it became obvious just how much playback was used during “Mysterious Ways.” Not in an ill-conceived bit where 100 or so members of the audience strolled on stage holding up masks of imprisoned Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi during “Walk On.” Definitely not when you realized just how many “BlackBerry Loves U2″ ads had been stuck up around the stadium.

But, considering this is very likely the largest crowd gathered for the purpose of listening to rock music in Arizona this year, U2 did an excellent job of shrinking things to a relateable scale at points. The audience really did seem to sway “as one” for a moment during “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” I’m sure he’s played it 10,000 times, but The Edge’s brilliantly understated solo in “One” certainly felt extemporaneous. One zoom-in from the appropriately over-sized LED screen showed The Edge was singing along to “Where The Streets Have No Name” with almost unnatural intensity — especially considering he was barely mic’d.

No, it wasn’t the show songs from the band’s magnum opus, The Joshua Tree, deserved, but it wasn’t the Godforsaken PopMart Tour either.

Here’s my intimate thought: I still prefer to associate U2 with speeding across the California desert, imagining what a forest of Joshua trees looked like to a young indie band from Ireland. Or the walk I took through a bombed-out street in Belfast, Northern Ireland, realizing how brilliant and important “Where The Streets Have No Names” really is.

Bottom line: U2’s best music is personal music, and personal music doesn’t fit in basketball arenas, let alone football stadiums.

The effort is appreciated nevertheless.

Critic’s Notebook:

Last Night: U2 and Black Eyed Peas at University of Phoenix Stadium

Better Than: Billy Joel and Elton John, to be sure. It’s obvious U2 is not mailing it in.

Personal Bias: Pro Joshua Tree. Anti Pop, Achtung Baby and Zooropa.

Random Detail: What was up with that light-up coat Bono came out in for the last encore? And why did he put it on a hanger, hang the hanger on a light-up microphone suspended from the top of the stage setup and send it skyward only to take out another microphone? Weird.

Further Listening: Rattle and Hum really is a greatest hits record.

By The Way: Follow my twitter, where I’m doing some live updates from show’s I’m seeing. twitter.com/martincizmar

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com

The Irish rock band U2 performs under a huge video screen during the North American leg of their 360 Tour at Soldier Field on Sept. 12 in Chicago. Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

Published: 10/18/2009 2:29 AM
Last Modified: 10/18/2009 6:02 AM

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It’s a name that doesn’t take up much space. Yet it says a mouthful.

Two figures — one alphabetic, one numeric — combine to form an iconic statement, conveying welcome and acceptance. It might have started out just as U2, but now, those two figures carry more impact, inspiration and influence than anyone could have imagined from four lads out of Ireland.

And that very big band with a very small name will be in Norman on Sunday.

It all started in 1976 in Dublin, when drummer Larry Mullen Jr. posted an ad seeking band mates. Seven guys showed up, and they formed a band called Feedback. That group dwindled to four and they took the name U2. The final lineup was set in 1978 — it was Mullen, Paul Hewson (now and forever Bono), Dave Evans (The Edge) and Adam Clayton.

They began as emulators of post-punk: Sex Pistols, Clash, Joy Division — that English sound that blossomed after the bloodbath of the hippie music — and they’ve bloomed, shrank near death through a brief period of experimental, misunderstood music, and regenerated so many times that they no longer really have a genre. They don’t identify with an epoch. And their fans certainly have no age limit.

U2 has remained relevant, keeping in touch with styles and trends in music, while maintaining a sound exclusively theirs. They’ve had some bummer albums, experimental attempts that didn’t wow fans, such as 1997’s “Pop,” panned by many loyal fans but praised by critics.

Still, you compare “Pop” to some of the music coming out of the birth of the death of grunge, and it’s still a U2 record. It’s still deliberate and good, intelligent and relevant.
Yes, he’s still running
Despite a possession of marijuana charge Clayton collected in 1989, you aren’t likely to read about them in the tabloids. They don’t beat up their spouses (Bono’s been married to his high school sweetheart Alison since 1982); they don’t curse grandly.

They’ve even been called a religious band. They sum up their beliefs in short, they are all Christians, according to their well-informed fan site, .u2faqs.com. It’s also evident in many songs, such as “40,” an interpretation of Psalm 40 in the Bible:

“I waited patiently for the Lord

He inclined and heard my cry

He brought me up out of the pit

Out of the miry clay”

You can see it again in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For:”

“You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it.”

In 2002, Bono said on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “I’m a believer, but religion is the thing when God, like Elvis, has left the building. But when God is in the house, you get something else. I’m happy in a Catholic cathedral or a tent show down in the South with gospel music.”

Out of that religious bedrock, the band has formed a Teflon shell of protection while firing out missiles of hope, peace and understanding. They’ve always been revolutionaries, even when Americans didn’t know anything about them.
‘War’ of the worlds
“War,” U2’s third full-length album, was a self-proclaimed “crusade of pacifism.” It’s a constant tightly wound thread that has stitched together a band that can give its opinions and still maintain respect, a band that has put its money where its hope is. They became associated — without need for fanfare or applause — with Amnesty International, Greenpeace and a multitude of humane coalitions and causes. They’ve lent their voices and cash to HIV/AIDS awareness, Hurricane Katrina and political campaigns, to name just a small fragment.

U2 played the inaugural celebration for President Obama, and during a performance of “Pride,” Bono said: “This is not just an American dream, but also an Irish dream, a European dream, an African dream an Israeli dream and a Palestinian dream.”

Early fans of MTV, the network that at one time showed videos, might remember Bono as a mullet-sporting, flag waving, exuberant singer when the video for “Sunday Bloody Sunday” began getting airplay, a live video recorded at Red Rocks. That song — with a riff so strong it commands respect and revolution-inspiring lyrics — spoke of the long-fought war raging in Ireland and carried the refrain “How long? How long must we sing this song? How long? Tonight, we can be as one.”

Fans of 1980s new wave might remember them being on Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” a fledgling effort led by fellow activist Bob Geldof, and the jumping off point for Live Aid. But they weren’t big-time. Not yet.
Band of the ’80s
They started establishing a sound around 1984, with the help of legendary producers and music legends Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. Their political leanings, obvious to those who’d been paying attention all along, came into full view with a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., “Pride (In the Name of Love).” The lyrics: “That morning, April 4, shots ring out, in the Memphis sky — ‘Free at Last!’ They took your life, but they could not take your pride” were a badge of their politics, a cry against terrorism, a call for peace. And they gained more and more respect.

They performed at Live Aid before they were superstars, at London’s Wembley Stadium. Oddly enough, they were named The Band of the 80s by Rolling Stone magazine after that performance.

That launched their fame. And when you consider the time, it really makes no sense.

“Sunday Bloody Sunday” was up against Van Halen’s “Jump,” Duran Duran’s “The Reflex,” and the early days of light-spirited hair metal (Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi ), and still, somehow, they caught on with their anthems of hope, peace, strife and change.

But it wasn’t until 1987 that they became gods of rock. They looked back to their roots and polished off a bluesy style that didn’t quite fit the decade, yet fit hand in glove.

The band again branched, giving the world “Achtung Baby” in 1991, and then they stopped being rock musicians and started being legends. This album looked inward, though it still contained the poetry infused in so many of their other albums.

After “Achtung Baby,” U2’s only known rough patch began. From 1994 to the end of the millennium, they were somewhat out of the music picture, seemingly gearing up for a time when the world needed them.

In 2000, the band declared it was “reapplying for the job of the best band in the world.” They released “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” reconnecting with old engineers and producers (Lanois and Eno) and reseeding their garden of peace and hope. They have ruled the 2000s since, releasing “How to Dismantle the Atomic Bomb” and becoming synonymous with iPods with the song “Vertigo.” They hooked the next generation of fans, who’ve immersed themselves in the past recordings without thought to it being out-of-date or old.

And Sunday, when the Irish invasion begins in Norman, Oklahomans will be privy to the U2 Effect. Stand still and soak it all in — you’re witnesssing legend.

360 degrees of U2
U2 is coming to Oklahoma, and they’re bringing one crazy stage.

I went to the U2 concert in Arlington, Texas, on Monday and was impressed, if not confused, by the stage. It was a tall, insect/spaceship structure with a video board hanging beneath it.

The stage for the tour is designed to give everyone a good look at the stage from any angle. The cylindrical video board was one of the coolest parts of the show. The flexible honeycomb design let it descend close to the floor for a couple of songs.

U2 played many of their greatest hits, including “Mysterious Ways” and “Beautiful Day.” (U2 let the crowd sing the first part of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” They saved “One” for the first encore and “With or Without You” for the second.)

They also played some unfamiliar, tougher-sounding songs (what I presumed to be the newer ones), but those songs got a much less enthusiastic response than the hits. Use that time to get some nachos.

Bono was his usually mobile self, fully utilizing the circular stage and the bridges that connected it to the outer ring. At one point he was atop the speakers behind the drummer.

The latter part of the show was more globally political. I admit I later had to look up some of what they were even talking about. Apparently, “Walk On” was a tribute to a Burmese politician.

The opening act, Muse, was enjoyable, but I also would have liked to have seen the Black-Eyed Peas, who open in Norman.

I’m not necessarily a huge U2 fan, but I still had a blast. After so many years, the band is still relevant and popular around the world. And they know how to put on a grand show.

— Stacey Dickens, World Staff Writer
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Sarah Hart 581-8480
sarah.hart@tulsaworld.com
By SARAH HART Assistant Scene Editor

http://www.tulsaworld.com/

by Matt Patterson

OK, first things first: U2 put on a great show in FedEx Field in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

This was a relief, because the previous Saturday they had turned in a dismal, oddly disjointed performance on “Saturday Night Live.” But three days later the boys were back in fighting shape; it was, in fact, one of the hardest rocking shows I’ve ever seen them give — and I have seen my share of U2 shows (my lifetime total is now somewhere in the double digits).

The show opened with several numbers from the woefully under-appreciated new album No Line On The Horizon; the thrilling and unique “Breathe,” segued into “Magnificent,” a tune which doesn’t quite soar as as high as it wants to, but comes closer live than on record. The lackluster “Get On Your Boots” was followed by Zoo-era favorite “Mysterious Ways,” bringing the stadium down and prompting Bono to remark, “Well, it’s a warm night after all!” He then gave a preview of the rest of the set: “We have old songs; we have new songs; we have songs we can barely play!”

Next was, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which they can definitely play, and with verve and passion, even after what must be hundreds of performances. The end of the song dissolves into “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King. As Bono sings the lyrics, “…and the moon is the only light we’ll see,” he motions upwards to the gorgeous, engorging gibbous moon suspended overhead; it was the kind of beautiful, unscripted moment that makes it still worth going to live shows.

Other highlights: “Vertigo” pummeled the audience with it’s rusty razor riff, sped up and compressed to the point of insanity. A retooled, club-trippy, “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight,” featuring drummer Larry Muller on bongos and a giddy The Edge jumping up and down in delight at the marvelous noise swirling around him. A stripped down, acoustic “Stuck In A Moment.” And rarely played gems like “The Unforgettable Fire” and “Your Blue Room.”

Things dragged towards the end of the main set during the (inevitable) political segment. “New Year’s Day” was head-scratchingly dedicated to Ted Kennedy; “Walk On” to Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. Still, the political set was — thankfully– far shorter than similar segments have been in previous U2 shows. And it was not one sided: Bono, to his great credit, actually uttered the words: “God bless George Bush,” in acknowledgment of the former president’s criminally under-reported efforts at AIDS relief in Africa, which, Bono graciously reminds the packed stadium, have saved countless lives.

Still, the political rally portion was the anti-climatic low-point of the show- – people actually sitting down during the closing songs is most assuredly not what you want.

Thankfully, redemption comes with the encore, starting with “Ultraviolet Light,” a deep album cut from their 90’s masterpiece, Achtung Baby!, featuring Bono singing into a glowing red microphone with red laser beams shooting out from his body (don’t ask me how). “With Or Without You” followed, always a joy to hear live, not least because they often change up the arrangement. For “With Or Without You,” Bono asks the house lights to be shut off and for everyone to hold up their cell phones. “Let’s turn this place into the Milky Way!” he intones, and sure enough, thousands of little points of light flicker into life throughout the black bowl of the stadium, now looking for all the world like a miniature galaxy. For all of the millions of dollars the band must have spent on their state-of-the-art light show, this low tech moment was by far the most affecting.

“Moment of Surrender” from the new album closed the show. It is possibly their best song, and fit perfectly with the rest of the encore. The packed house gave them rapturous, well deserved applause as the band took their bows.

It was a deeply gratifying, heartening night. For all of Bono’s politicking, for the long three decades they have been together, these four men from Dublin have neither lost the need, nor the talent, for the one thing that initially brought them together, and which brought thousands of us to FedEx Field that night:

Rock and Roll. Thank God.

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/

Photos by Groovehouse

Aftermath: U2 at Reliant Stadium – One Love, We Get to Share It
By Chris Gray in Live ShotsThu., Oct. 15 2009

Photos by Groovehouse

?A day or two before U2 (and love) came to town, a friend emailed us a joke. At least we think it’s a joke. It really doesn’t have anything to do with U2, except that it has everything to do with U2.

“I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, terrorism attacks, World War III, global warming, my retirement savings, Social Security, my job, national health care and my credit card debt that I called Lifeline.

“Got a freakin’ call center somewhere in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal. They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.”

In a concert that stretched from the International Space Station to the strife-torn streets of Tehran to a would-be martyr under house arrest in Myanmar, but never left Houston for a second, U2 owned the 60K-strong crowd at Reliant Stadium Wednesday night before (we’d wager) 80 to 90 percent of them even knew exactly what they were hearing.

?After Muse’s hour of smoky starlight, and an extended set of TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cold War Kids, the Dead Weather, MGMT, etc., caught the hordes of Mix, Eagle and Arrow listeners up on what they’ve been missing, a lone spotlight caught Larry Mullen Jr. strolling across the catwalk to his drummer’s stool. No other timekeeper in rock and roll can tap his sticks with such agility and grace while completely tanning his kit’s hide like Mullen, and his his brief intro/solo to new album No Line on the Horizon’s jagged waltz “Breathe” lifted U2’s entire 180-ton “Claw” contraption off the Reliant Stadium turf all by itself, abandoning a resting position to which it would never return.

People call U2 arrogant. Maybe they are, for making a stadium full of people from Houston, Baytown, Sugar Land (the two area suburbs Bono mentioned by name), Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Lufkin, Tyler, Austin and San Antonio wait through 15 minutes and three songs of new material.

We don’t think so. “Breathe,” ticking six-string IED “Get On Your Boots” and heaven-paging “Magnificent” are new in name only, the latest variations of power-cable guitar, muscle-bound rhythms and cockeyed spiritualism (”Satan loves a bomb scare, but he won’t scare you”) that stretch back to the days of “Gloria” and “Out of Control.”
?
Those songs opened up a wormhole at Reliant Park, slipping through the atomic funk of “Mysterious Ways” and astral gospel of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” skirting the beautiful day of the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” on its way to the acoustic Trenchtown soul of “Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” There were many rivers to cross Wednesday night, and U2 crossed them all.

?Further explorations: “Your Blue Room,” mingling a live feed from outer space with Procol Harum hot smoke and sassafras; Bono, needlessly encouraging “Let’s make some noise” before the Ministry/Jesus and Mary Chain grind of No Line’s title track; requesting “liftoff” as Edge flogged the ghost of Billy Gibbons out of his guitar during “Elevation”; concealing life-or-death subject matter in the rumbling roil and forbidden-fruit arpeggios of “Until the End of the World”; becoming just another awestruck onlooker at the communal cell-phone spectacle of “City of Blinding Light.”

“The Unforgettable Fire” exploded inward as a cone-shaped LED mesh descended from the Claw’s video screen, its pinks and purples raw as a fresh bruise; “Vertigo” exploded outward as Bono acknowledged our neighbors south of the border (”Viva Mexico!”), sing-skiing in Edge, Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton’s ferocious wake.

Through an alien-green fog, a sturdy “Sunday Bloody Sunday” screened digitized images of courageous (and perhaps foolhardy) Iranians taking it to the streets of their capital this past summer, and a time-freezing “Walk On” – preluded by a hymnal verse of “MLK” – brought dozens of masked One Campaign volunteers ringing the catwalk in silent vigil for Burmese political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize winner and U2 cause celebre Aung San Suu Kyi as Edge finally finished what he started on “Magnificient” and “End of the World.”

?

Encore. “Amazing Grace” and “Where the Streets Have No Name,” sending icy-hot slivers of goosebumps into the crowd and into the ether through the open Reliant roof; Achtung Baby’s “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” rebranded as a bonus-disc No Line add-on, Bono’s florescent steering-wheel microphone looking suspiciously like a target; “With or Without You” rescuing the Zoo TV disco ball as you give yourself away; “Moment of Surrender” freezing those who left early to get in the T-shirt lines in their tracks.

And one more. “One.” First out of the gate, first among equals. Again and again (and again), the song written as U2’s lives (and U2 itself) were falling apart brought band, crowd, city and cosmos together under a higher law to peer on a world apart from the one we’re all too familiar with, the one gripped by economic earthquakes, moral blackouts and wars between nations. It leaves you, baby, if you don’t care for it.

But Wednesday night, only love could leave such a mark. Magnificent.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/

Venue: Reliant Stadium

Opening Act(s): Muse

Breathe
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day / Here Comes The Sun (snippet)
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)
Stuck In A Moment
No Line On The Horizon
Elevation
Your Blue Room
Until The End Of The World
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight / Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (snippet) / Two Tribes (snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

Encore(s):

One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

NBC17, October 04, 2009

By: Jake Seaton

RALEIGH — Irish mega group U2 hit the stage Saturday night at N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium in front more than 55,000 fans.

For some, the show was the long-awaited make up date for the band’s ill-fated stop during their PopMart Tour 12 years ago. For others, it was a concert performance 27 years in the making when U2 made a stop at Keenan Stadium on April 23, 1983 during its War Tour.

Regardless of when the band was — or was supposed to be — in the Triangle last, the U2 360° Tour is unlike any performance to date. The band, along with designer Willie Williams and architect Mark Fisher, created a stage that provides little view obstruction from any angle, and puts the band in the middle of its fans.

As frontman Bono explained, the set brings the band closer than ever to its fans. An experience rivaled only by intimate club shows.

Taking the stage about 30 minutes after the show’s scheduled start time, the electricity in the stadium surmounted as Larry Mullins, Adam Clayton, The Edge and finally Bono made their way to the front of the massive spider-like structure and launched into “Breathe.”

Largely the band’s set consisted of songs from their last three albums — which some may refer to as post-millennium U2. The three albums are some of the band’s most commercially successful affairs, especially after the dismal returns from their 1997 album Pop.

However, the October 2000 release of All That You Can’t Leave Behind — an album that launched the band back into the public and critical spotlight — marked a point that polarized fans. While some accept the post-millennium U2, others — especially Gen Y-ers — view the band as becoming more pedestrian and focusing more on international affairs than on music.

For that — being that the band brought its $750,000-per-day tour to a collegiate football stadium — perhaps the set should have focused more on U2’s earlier catalog. Despite nine of U2’s 12 albums being released pre-2000, only 10 of the set’s 23 songs came from those formative years.

But in the grand scheme that was U2 360°, the set list plays little into the fact that the self-professed “best band in the world” put on one hell of a show. Bono’s political musings were tastefully delivered, and the 150-foot stage quite literally wowed the audience.

If U2 was looking to give fans the ultimate live experience in a truly unique setting: mission accomplished.

And perhaps Gen Y-ers should give those post-millennium albums a second listen; because with 15 Grammy Awards and eight Platinum certifications, they’re far from pedestrian. If anything, U2 is on the top of their game.

http://music.mync.com/