1981-03-23

Astor Park, Seattle, Washington

Set List of Show:

Known Set List: (Possibly Incomplete)

  • "The Ocean"
  • "Twilight"
  • "I Will Follow"
  • "11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
  • "An Cat Dubh"
  • "Into the Heart"
  • "Another Time, Another Place"
  • "The Electric Co."
  • "Things to Make and Do"
  • "Stories for Boys"
  • "Boy / Girl"
  • "Out of Control"

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

Show Details:

U2 moved on from Portland to Seattle Washington for a show at the Astor Park Restaurant and Club. The show was opened by a local musician by the name of Michael O’Neill, and admission was $4.00 for the show.

In remembering Bono from that time, O’Neill recalled “He was just a kid then,” ONeill recalls, “but he hugged me and told me to stay true to my heart.”

In the article “20 Clubs that came and went” by Leah Greenblatt and James Bush in the Seattle Weekly News they relate a memory of seeing a young U2 play at the club, and after playing all of the songs from the first album running out of material and having to repeat “I Will Follow” as an encore. This happened each night on the tour, but Bono made a big deal out of it each evening like it was a new thing.

A report “U2: back to basics, vital as ever” published by Patrick MacDonald in the Seattle Times in 2005 also speaks about that show, relating that the venue was packed beyond legal capacity and that the audience was packed against the stage. He relates that Bono said “This is very good. This is a nice place. Last night we were in Portland and it wasn’t like this.” He also reports that Bono launched himself from the stage and may crowd-surfed during this show. He also notes that Adam Clayton had to tie a T-shirt around his head to hold back his curls. His recollections were taken from a review of the show that he had written in 1981.

Scott Vanderpool, a DJ at KXRX was at the U2 show in 1981 and he too remembers the crowd surfing with a twist. It was Scott that held the microphone while Bono went surfing, “Me and my best buddy from high school Ron, who’s now the guitarist with Love Battery, were sitting right up in front of the stage when Bono got dragged out into the crowd. As he was getting pulled out he just dumped the mike right in my hand. The vocal line was just this chanting kind of thing, so we finished it out while he got passed around the crowd.”

The set list reported here is from a copy of the paper set list from that evening. We cannot guarantee that U2 played every song listed, but this was the intended set list prior to the show. At the time the band would often return and do an encore from songs played earlier in the evening, and these would not be listed on the set. The set list does list “Cry” as a separate song from “The Electric Co.” on the set list shared with us.

Related News

Officially Released Tracks

< PREVIOUS SHOW | NEXT SHOW >