1981-04-09

Sam's, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Set List of Show:

"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 in Minneapolis is at a small club called Uncle Sam’s, or just Sam’s by that point on a cold night in April. The venue is later renamed First Avenue, and U2 will return there under that name in 1982. U2 do a fourteen song set list. Tickets for the show are $4.00. U2 played the smaller room in the club, with it’s entry on 7th Street which had a capacity of 250 people.

During the day, U2 do some work on new songs as part of their sound check for this show. One of the songs developed during this time was “I Threw A Brick Through A Window.” When U2 return in 1982 and play the song on the same stage, Bono says “we put this song together in this building a year ago.” It is likely that “I Fall Down” may have also been worked on during this time as the song debuts live a week later. Reports in U2 Live say that the sound check is extensive and that they fiddle around with new melodies and snippets of lyrics. Photographer Greg Helgeson attended the sound check and shot a few portraits of the band in the club, while Sweet Potato music reporter Martin Keller interviewed the band. Keller remembers that the band were little, but they owned the stage once they got on it.

The performance that night is a strong one, and can be heard on bootleg recordings. During “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” Bono references “Frere Jacques” and during “The Electric Co.” the band include “Cry” and “Send in the Clowns” and Bono plays a whistle of some sort during the song. Bono tells the crowd he had been told to expect a very conservative crowd when he came to “your country” and he’s happy with the response that the band is getting.

Matt Wilson, drummer for The Panic who opened the show recalled the show in the Minneapolis / St. Paul City Pages in 2005. “We hadn’t been around very long, and we were so excited to play for these guys. We envisioned them standing there, taking in every note. We played this incredible set, even faster than we usually played. We were sweating when we were done; it was like the show of our lives. And then we watched them walk in through the back door next to the stage as we were tearing down our stuff.” Wilson also mentions “I don’t think I’d ever seen that much concentrated dry ice before. I just remember them moving in and out of the mist, and there was this sot of sense of a religious happening.”

Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü and Sugar was present at the show that night.

Two DJs who worked at Sam’s met U2 backstage and smoked pot, while Bono talked about chess. The DJs claimed that U2 gave them their beer as the band didn’t drink.

Officially Released Tracks