1981-04-07

Graham Memorial Chapel , St. Louis, MO, USA

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"The Ocean"
"11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
"I Will Follow"
"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"

Encore:

"A Day Without Me"
"11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
"The Ocean"
"I Will Follow"

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

A Little Night Music

Show Details:

This show was at Washington University at the Benjamin Brown Graham Chapel. U2 take the stage with a giant stained glass window behind them. The show was sold out, and the crowd enjoy the show. A few more than were expected, as reports say a back door was opened to let a few extras in that night, letting them in out of the snow. Bono addresses the crowd to say he’s heard that a lot of people had only read about the band, and he’s happy they’ve come to check them out.

The show was promoted by Steve Schankman, and the band was paid $750 for the show. Tickets for the show were sold for $4.00 for all seats, and were sold at DialTix by phone and a number of record stores and the Washington University Bookstore.

A snippet of “Frere Jacques” appears in “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” and both “Cry” and “Send in the Clowns” are part of “The Electric Co.”

Two attendees of the show, Steve Scariano and Tom Lunt were both interviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2005 about the show. Lunt says, “Bono had a tremendous presence but I remember thinking he looked like a goat. He looked like a goat-man. There was something about him that was chimerical, you know? He kept leaping up and down and kicking his knees up like a miniature Van Morrison.” Lunt also admits leaving the show and not being a fan and telling a friend, “Those guys aren’t going to get very far on four chords.” Scariano said “They were definitely what you would call seasoned performers already, but they were still thought of as an underground band, still breaking through. I just remember them being really, really good. And Bono was a great frontman.”

Prior to the show Tony Marfisi, promotions and marketing rep for WEA Records, took the band out for drinks and a round of meet and greets at local record stores. Marfisi remembers “the show was remarkable. They were just monsters. The thing I remember most though, is just hanging out with them. I think we went to Blueberry Hill and had a few pints of Guinness. fter the show was finished Bono was interviewed by the local radio station KWMU-FM.

Mark Lasswell reviewed the show in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “By the time the band played ‘Stories for Boys,’ many people were dancing, none more than the boyish Bono. He danced and clowned throughout the set, at one point comically trying to light a cigarette, despairing, and then fanning the cigarette lighter as if it were a pistol. He threw water on the sweating crowd and then pulled a young woman onstage to dance. Bono’s vocals may have a dubious future – boys do grow up – but he already is an adept entertainer. He had completely won the audience by the last song before the encores, ‘Out of Control,’ possibly the best song in the set of twelve. The show ended with two encores, both enthusiastically demanded by a crowd chanting ‘U-2.’” Although Lasswell’s review claims about 600 people were in attendance, the venue seats more than that at 785 people, and all reports from that night suggest the show was sold out and may have been actually over capacity.

Officially Released Tracks