U2's concert in Phoenix, 19/09/17
Today, U2 were back on the road after the unfortunate cancellation of their concert in St Louis. They performed in Arizona, one of the states whose landscape and environment proved so influential on The Joshua Tree, and where the original Joshua Tree Tour began and ended. That tour's first two shows were at Arizona State University's Activity Center on 2 and 4 April 1987, while the last two shows were at the same university's Sun Devil Stadium on 19 and 20 December 1987. So it is only fitting that the band managed to fit an Arizona gig into the anniversary tour.
Those 1987 shows were in Tempe; this time around, U2 are at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, the same venue they played on 20 October 2009. Both Glendale and Tempe are part of greater Phoenix; only one U2 show in Arizona has ever been elsewhere, when they visited Tucson on 5 April 1987.
Miss Sarajevo returned to the setlist for the first time this leg, having not been performed since the end of the European leg in August. Like in Europe, it opened the encore. No songs were removed from the set to make room for it, which meant new single The Best Thing stuck around and the whole show had 22 songs rather than the 21 that have become fairly standard.
At the end of One, Bono turned the Drowning Man snippet into a tribute to Mexico City, singing "don't let go, Mexico; viva Mexico!" He ended the concert by saying that the band's prayers are with the people affected by the earthquake.
On an amusing note, U2's official Twitter account today asked their followers if they were going to "tonight's show in New Orleans". If anybody did have that in their diary, they're almost a week late!
The full setlist was:
- Sunday Bloody Sunday
- New Year's Day
- Bad / America (snippet)
- Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Where the Streets Have No Name / California (There Is No End To Love) (snippet)
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- With or Without You
- Bullet the Blue Sky / War (snippet) / America (snippet)
- Running To Stand Still
- Red Hill Mining Town
- In God's Country
- Trip Through Your Wires
- One Tree Hill
- Exit / Wise Blood (snippet) / Eeny Meeny Miny Moe (snippet)
- Mothers Of The Disappeared
- Miss Sarajevo / The New Colossus (snippet)
- Beautiful Day / Starman (snippet)
- Elevation
- Vertigo / It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) (snippet)
- You're The Best Thing About Me
- Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
- One / Drowning Man (snippet)
encore(s):
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