2001-03-24

National Car Rental Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

  • "Elevation"
  • "Beautiful Day"
  • "Until the End of the World"
  • "New Year's Day"
  • "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"
  • "Gone"
  • "Discothèque"
  • "New York"
  • "I Will Follow"
  • "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
  • "Sweetest Thing"
  • "In a Little While"
  • "The Ground Beneath Her Feet"
  • "Bad"
  • "Where the Streets Have No Name"
  • "Mysterious Ways"
  • "The Fly"
Encore:

  • "Bullet the Blue Sky"
  • "With or Without You"
  • "One"
  • "Walk On"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Elevation" (Influx Mix) - U2
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Satisfy My Soul" - Bob Marley

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

    "Creep" (Radiohead) / "Devil Inside" (INXS) / "Love to Love You Baby" (Donna Summer) / "Staring at the Sun" (U2) / "My Mammy" (Al Jolson) / "New York, New York" (Frank Sinatra) / "Could You Be Loved" (Bob Marley) / "Get Up Stand Up" (Bob Marley) / "Walk On the Wild Side" (Lou Reed) / "Sexual Healing" (Marvin Gaye) / "Whole Lotta Love" (Led Zeppelin) / "Young Americans" (David Bowie) / "40" (U2) /

Show Details:

This show was the opening night of the Elevation tour, and the first of two nights the band would play at the venue. The band have been rehearsing for the show for a few weeks in Miami, but relocate to the venue in Sunrise for the first show of the tour. PJ Harvey was initially supposed to open the show, and indeed play the entire first leg of the tour, but due to illness, The Corrs are a last minute substitute. PJ Harvey will miss a handful of shows at the start of the tour. The show is attended by fans from around the world.

The show was announced on January 9, 2001, with tickets going on sale shortly after the announcement.

The band opens the show with a new remix of “Elevation”, the Influx Mix. The song is played on the PA during the opening of the show and the band come out with the house lights on as they break into their own version of the song. The stage is pretty bare compared to the previous PopMart tour. Four black and white screens above the stage allow those at the back to get a better view of the action. Neil McCormick reviewing the show for The Telegraph shares, “Of course, given the budget and audience expectation, this is “back to basics” in only a relative sense. Halfway through the opening song, the auditorium plunges into darkness and the stage suddenly flashes, giving notice of the spectacle to come. But restraint is the order of the day, with imaginative and technologically impressive changes in lighting effects and stage setting that maintain visual stimulation throughout, while never distracting from the band.”

The Edge is wearing a T-shirt for the local team, the Miami Dolphins during the show.

During “Until the End of the World” Bono near the end of the stage, takes a tumble into the audience. He’s unhurt, and gets back up quickly and continues the show. Later in the set he also jumps off the stage and runs through the crowd during “The Fly”, but this time it is a planned trip into the crowd.

During “New York” semi-transparent curtains fall from the sky, which makes the atmosphere inside the heart shaped enclosure feel even more like a small club. During “Sunday Bloody Sunday” an audience member throws the Irish flag on the stage, and Bono cradles the flag as he performs.

At the end of “In A Little While” Bono wishes Ali a happy birthday. Her birthday had been the previous day. As part of the show the band had also played “Sweetest Thing” which is a song that Bono wrote one year when he missed Ali’s birthday. Bono was on piano for “Sweetest Thing”. The stage has platforms that rise during “Mysterious Ways”. These light up with silhouettes of dancing figures while the band play in front of them.

During “Walk On” images of lyrics and of a heart in a suitcase are projected into the audience.

Bono works several snippets into the show. Radiohead’s “Creep” makes an appearance during “Elevation.” Both “Devil Inside” and “Love to Love You Baby” appear in “Discotheque” as well as the band’s own “Staring at the Sun”. “Could You Be Loved” appears in “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Walk on the Wild Side” appears in “Bad”. Other snippets include “Sexual Healing” (“Mysterious Ways”), “Whole Lotta Love (“Bullet the Blue Sky”), “Young Americans” (“Bullet the Blue Sky”) and “40” is included during “Walk On” at the end of the show. Bono also adds a bit of Psalm 116 ahead of “Where the Streets Have No Name” and includes the “Hear Us Coming” verse during “One”.

Celebrities present for the show include Tiger Woods, Lenny Kravitz, Daniel Lanois, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Helena Christiansen. The show happens while a Music Conference is in town, celebrating electronic music, and Howie B is in town to perform, and also attends the opening of U2’s tour. Also present at the show are a contingent of Irish press, including Dave Fanning and Neil McCormick.

The show had been subject to intense media coverage, as it is the first mainstream tour in years in North America to have a general admission floor. The Daily Herald share, “When U2 announced it was planning to use festival seating (‘these shows are going to be very exciting,’ said band manager Paul McGuinness), a fan Web site, atU2.com, posted an open letter to the band asking them to rethink the decision.” In the end the GA floor arrangement proved to be successful, and the band have continued to use GA tickets since that tour. The show is set up to ensure the safety of those present, including a special heart shaped area inside the stage which holds about 300 fans. (Fans are given a special wristband to allow them to return to the heart if they have to leave.)

In his tour diary, Willie Williams notes, “And what a vibe… by now you’ll have read the reviews so will know that the gig was, in short, a triumph. I read that Bono fell off the stage, but I have to say I didn’t notice at the time. Then again, I don’t really remember that much about the gig at all, as my mind seems to have done pretty much a clean erase of that two hour period. No doubt it’ll all come back to me during the next gig on Monday. That will probably be a harder affair, as second shows always are, but there is a relief and a certainty that we are on to a winner. Overall I’m very pleased. You never really know what you’ve got until you see a whole show play out in front of an audience, and I like what we have here. Its a curious show, and it may take a while for me to understand quite what it is that we are making.”

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