1980-12-13

Paradise Theater, Boston, MA, USA

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
"An Cat Dubh"
"Into the Heart"
"Another Time, Another Place"
"The Electric Co."
"Things to Make and Do"
"Twilight"
"I Will Follow"

Encore:

"11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
"Out of Control"

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

"Cry" (U2) / "Give Peace A Chance" (The Plastic Ono Band) /

Show Details:

U2’s first show in Boston is opening for a band called Barooga Bandit at the Paradise Theater. The event is sponsored by Capitol Records (Barooga Bandit’s label) and WBCN Radio, a local Boston station. U2 played to about 150 people that night. But after U2 left the stage, so did most of the crowd, leaving about 40 people to watch the headlining act. U2 and their manager, Paul McGuinness stayed behind to watch the show. The rest of the crowd staying behind were made up of a number of WBCN staffers, as well as one representative from Capitol Records.

Carter Alan, a DJ from Boston’s WBCN spoke about the Boston show and how it lead to more airplay for U2 on the station in his book Radio Free Boston: “On 20 October, U2 released its first album, Boy, in Europe, and one of the few import copies in Boston got into my hands within the week. The album featured U2’s brand-new single, ‘I Will Follow,’ which seemed even more accessible than the previous one. At the same time, WBCN signed on to host a promotional event for Capitol Records and one of their new acts, a Detroit boogie band named Barooga Bandit, at the Paradise Theater. Capitol would rent the club, and ‘BCN would give away discount tickets on the air or sell them on the night of the show. After only a week or so of promotion for the event, U2 suddenly appeared on the bill as a warm-up act, an unexpected development given the total dissimilarity of the young Irish band’s musical style. Tony Berardini now wanted to bump up ‘BCN’s exposure of U2 to complement the attention being given Barooga, so I donated my import copy of Boy to the station. Within days, the airplay of “I Will Follow,” and another cut, “Out of Control,” ramped up as all the jocks eagerly featured the songs. Alan had previously gotten “A Day Without Me” highlighted on the station which he discovered in his job as a part-time record store clerk. The early show in Boston was the start of a long relationship between U2 and WBCN, and in many ways, that station is seen as one of the reasons U2 broke in North America as quickly as they did.

In U2 by U2 The Edge remembers the show: “Our show in Boston was a real surprise for us because we opened for a band called Barooga Bandit in a cramped little club and noticed we were getting a particularly good reaction. We left the stage feeling incredible because the audience was so enthusiastic. Then we went back down to check out Barooga Bandit, only to find that everyone had left. It was then we realized that they had come to see us.” Carter Alan remembers that the band were “an innocent bunch, with a raw live attack, yet their fledgling set quite impressed the audience.”

The band included a snippet of “Give Peace a Chance” at the end of “The Electric Co.” and opened that song with “The Cry”. Recordings of the show do exist.

After the performance by Barooga Bandit, U2 went on to chat with some fans that had stuck around, and eventually Edge, Adam and Larry headed to a house party after the show with one of the locals.

Officially Released Tracks