U2's Los Angeles #1 setlist, 15/05/18
Today, U2 performed their first of two shows in the Los Angeles area, at the Forum in Inglewood.
The new intro music, It's a Beautiful World by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, remained at the start of the show after debuting at the second Las Vegas show three nights ago.
Red Flag Day, after missing the previous show, returned to the setlist for its third performance ever. This time it slotted into the set between I Will Follow and Gloria.
Gloria, if you have been following our Twitter, is closing in on a little record—and so is The Ocean. Gloria was a regular of U2's setlists in the 1980s, but since then has been a rarity. The most consecutive shows at which it has been performed since December 1987 is six in December 2005. Today's performance brought it to five in a row, so it could equal its record tomorrow. As for The Ocean, it appeared in nine consecutive setlists during September and October 2005, but otherwise has been even more scarce. Tonight, it achieved its seventh consecutive performance; if it gets to ten, that will constitute its longest run of consecutive concerts since 1982.
Bono spoke from the heart about his daughters Jordan and Eve before The Best Thing, though he had time to include a joke: "Eve, going into show business, that's a worry!"
To introduce the last song, Bono spoke about how it can be hard sometimes to believe you're not a kid any more yourself: "I'm eleven!" He then described the rest of the band: "Adam's, like, wisdom of the ages. Larry, eternal youth. Edge, as you know, is from the future." He turned to ask Edge what the future is like, and Edge responded "it's better" to laughs and cheers from the audience.
Another lighter moment occurred at the start of Staring at the Sun. Bono missed his cue for the first line and made a light-hearted apology to Edge before they both came back in to do the line again. The band stumbled over a number of performances of Staring at the Sun on Popmart, especially when they were playing it in electric form in April and May 1997, and clearly the song is not finished yet with tricking the band and confounding their timing!
Speaking of Staring at the Sun, today it became the second-most performed song from Pop. It can now claim 119 live performances, to 118 for Please. It is still 27 performances behind the most-played song from Pop, Gone. Discotheque, in case you are wondering, is fourth on 114. Staring at the Sun and Discotheque are, however, the only two Pop songs that have been performed on more than two tours (not counting various dates). The only album more than a decade old (since it's unfair to compare with the newest albums) whose most-played song has been performed fewer times than Gone is Zooropa, where Stay can claim 104 performances. Yes, even Passengers has a song—Miss Sarajevo—that has been played live more than any song from Zooropa or Pop.
Also, you can be a part of the upcoming shows. Bono came out before One to sing along to the end of the song that plays during the encore break, Jim O'Rourke's cover of Ivor Cutler's song Women of the World. He then used the speech over One's intro to mention that you can submit your vocals to be part of the chorus, as described in detail here. But, as this was evidently Bono's night of mirth and mistakes, he could not quite remember the hashtag, quipping that there are "so many hashtags in my life!" The correct hashtag, should you wish to contribute (we will spare everybody Axver's so-called singing), is #womenoftheworldtakeover
The full setlist was:
- Love Is All We Have Left
- The Blackout
- Lights Of Home
- I Will Follow
- Red Flag Day
- Gloria / Van Morrison's Gloria (snippet) / Patti Smith's Gloria (snippet)
- Beautiful Day
- The Ocean
- Iris (Hold Me Close)
- Cedarwood Road
- Sunday Bloody Sunday / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet)
- Raised By Wolves / Psalm 23 (snippet)
- Until the End of the World / Alabama Song (snippet) / Introduction (snippet) (Intermission - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me)
- Elevation
- Vertigo / The Jean Genie (snippet)
- Desire Hollywood Mix
- Sympathy For The Devil (snippet) / Acrobat
- You're The Best Thing About Me Full band acoustic
- Staring at the Sun Bono and Edge acoustic
- Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Get Out Of Your Own Way
- American Soul
- City of Blinding Lights
- Women of the World (snippet) / One / Invisible (snippet)
- Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
- 13 (There Is A Light)
encore(s):
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