U2 perform at Dreamfest, 05/10
Today U2 performed at Dreamfest as part of Salesforce's annual conference and to raise funds for UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. In conjunction with this, today U2 extended their current partnership with Salesforce for another two years.
This outdoor show is using the stage left over from the Vertigo Tour's stadium legs. It is only the second time this stage has been used in the US; the first was at the very last Vertigo Tour show in Honolulu on 9 December 2006. This stage was used three times in continental North America, all in Mexico at the start of Vertigo's fourth leg in February 2006.
The band rehearsed both yesterday and today. Yesterday's soundcheck featured Beautiful Day, One, California Dreaming snippet into California, Angel of Harlem, Stuck in a Moment (full band piano version), Every Breaking Wave with the second half done twice, Bullet the blue Sky (with the Trump video from the iHeartRadio performance of Desire), a snippet of The Hands That Built America into Pride (which stopped early), Mother and Child Reunion snippet into Streets, with the intro rehearsed multiple times and the traditional red background used for the first time with the Vertigo stage. Today's rehearsal was California, Elevation, Vertigo, I Will Follow, Stuck in a Moment, Every Breaking Wave, and Angel of Harlem.
The show began with Vertigo, preceded by the usual IE Tour intro music, Patti Smith's People Have the Power. Early in the set U2 performed California in full for only the seventh time ever - and for the third time in the state of California. The end of Beautiful Day featured a short snippet of Zooropa: "dream up the world you want to live in, dream out loud". Every Breaking Wave was dedicated to Steve Jobs, who died five years ago today, and to his wife Laurene Powell.
Tonight's version of Bullet was a fiery, political version taking even firmer aim at Donald Trump than the performance of Desire at iHeart. Bono engaged in a lengthy mocking "conversation" with Trump, criticising his temperament and a range of his policies, and also accusing him of trying to steal the "American dream" and hurt many groups of people. As a result this was a very long version of the song. Note that we've had some technical difficulties adding snippets to Bullet. It included snippets of The Star-Spangled Banner and The New Colossus.
After One, the band were scheduled to take an encore break. Instead, Bono joked about the concept being silly and took the opportunity to give a speech, which emphasised the importance of charity and the Red campaign. Like on the IE Tour last year, it led into a snippet of Mother and Child Reunion and Where the Streets Have No Name. On the Vertigo Tour, Streets had an intro with national flags (usually African flags), but as in yesterday's rehearsal U2 used the red backdrop tonight.
The show concluded with a performance of 40. Bono referenced U2's recent fortieth anniversary in introducing it, remarking that 40 "feels kinda like a fortieth birthday song". The taped outro music for the evening was M83's Moonchild.
It's worth noting that tonight U2 drew predominantly on their material from the 1980s and 2000s, eight and four songs respectively, with just two from the most recent album and, even more surprisingly, just one from the 1990s. The full setlist was:
- Vertigo
- Elevation
- I Will Follow
- Beautiful Day / Zooropa (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet)
- California Dreamin' (snippet) / California (There Is No End To Love)
- Angel of Harlem
- Stuck In A Moment
- Every Breaking Wave
- Bullet the Blue Sky / The Star-Spangled Banner (snippet) / The New Colossus (snippet)
- The Hands That Built America (snippet) / Pride (In the Name of Love)
- One / My Sweet Lord (snippet)
- Mother And Child Reunion (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name
- With or Without You
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- 40
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