U2 performed the penultimate night of their five-night stand in Chicago today. After yesterday's surprises, there were more in store today. The band in soundcheck ran through Two Hearts Beat As One, Sweetest Thing, and The Crystal Ballroom, and Bono and Edge also did Stevie Wonder's version of Happy Birthday. Previous rehearsals of Crystal Ballroom have not included Bono, but today he participated. You can watch a brief video of it here.

This soundcheck, finally, was a harbinger of things to come for The Crystal Ballroom. It made its live debut tonight as the 13th new song to be played this tour (9 from the main Songs Of Innocence album, Invisible, Ordinary Love, Lucifer's Hands, and now Crystal Ballroom). The Innocence + Experience Tour is now level with 360 for new songs: 360 had seven from No Line On The Horizon and six then-unreleased songs. (It is, however, worth noting that one of the current tour's thirteen is Every Breaking Wave, which although a new song now was also played as an unreleased song on 360.) The last tour to have more than thirteen new songs was ZooTV, with a total of eighteen from Achtung Baby and Zooropa - or nineteen if you count Slow Dancing, which debuted on Lovetown, was also played on ZooTV, and was finally released in late 1993 as a b-side to Stay.

Here's footage of Crystal Ballroom:
Sweetest Thing returned to the set after an absence of over a month; it had missed thirteen shows. Bono dedicated it to his wife Ali, who like last night was in attendance at this show. The Electric Co. and I Still Haven't Found returned after missing two shows each. Before I Still Haven't Found, Bono led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday for John Cusack. This is the first time this tour that Bono has led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday; he did it 14 times across 360.

The setlist was:

1. The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)
2. The Electric Co. / Send in the Clowns (snippet) / I Can See For Miles (snippet) / Smells Like Teen Spirit (snippet)
3. Vertigo
4. I Will Follow
5. Iris (Hold Me Close)
6. Cedarwood Road
7. Song For Someone
8. Sunday Bloody Sunday / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet)
9. Raised By Wolves / Psalm 23 (snippet)
10. Until the End of the World
(Intermission)
11. Invisible
12. Even Better Than The Real Thing Fish Out of Water Mix
13. Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet)
14. The Crystal Ballroom
15. Sweetest Thing
16. Every Breaking Wave
17. Bullet the Blue Sky / 19 (snippet)
18. The Hands That Built America (snippet) / Pride (In the Name of Love)
19. Beautiful Day / I Remember You (snippet)
20. With or Without You / My Kind Of Town (snippet)

encore(s):

21. City of Blinding Lights
22. Mother And Child Reunion (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name / California (There Is No End To Love) (snippet)
Happy Birthday
23. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / People Have The Power (snippet)

All details for this show including reviews, videos and photos can be found here.

If you attended the show we ask you to share your concert review or photos with other site visitors. You can post your review of the show here and upload your pictures here.

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Axver