2009-09-17
Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
Set List of Show:
Main Set:
- "Breathe"
- "No Line on the Horizon"
- "Get On Your Boots"
- "Magnificent"
- "Mysterious Ways"
- "Beautiful Day"
- "Elevation"
- "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
- "Unknown Caller"
- "New Year's Day"
- "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"
- "The Unforgettable Fire"
- "City Of Blinding Lights"
- "Vertigo"
- "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
- "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
- "MLK"
- "Walk On"
- "One"
- "Where the Streets Have No Name"
- "Ultra Violet (Light My Way)"
- "With or Without You"
- "Moment of Surrender"
Additional Music
Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Space Oddity" - David Bowie
Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Soon" - U2
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Rocket Man" - Elton John
Pre-Recorded Intermission Song(s): "Theme from the Swan" (A Brave and Startling Truth) - Passengers with Spoken Verse by Maya Angelou
Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:
-
"Norwegian Wood" (The Beatles) /
"On Yonge Street" (Gordon Lightfoot) /
"Far Far Away" (Wilco) /
"The Maker" (Daniel Lanois) /
"Movin' On Up" (Primal Scream) /
"Two Tribes" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) /
"Rock the Casbah" (The Clash) /
"Pretty Wings" (Maxwell) /
"Amazing Grace" (John Newton and William Walker) /
"All You Need is Love" (The Beatles) /
Show Details:
U2 perform the second of two shows on the second leg of the U2360 tour in Toronto, Ontario at the Rogers Centre. Like the previous night, the concert is done with the roof open on the venue. It is only the third time the roof is opened for a show, the first being a Springsteen show in 2003, and the second being the previous night’s U2 show. Snow Patrol joins U2 for this show. Bono claims the first show was just a warm up, and “things are going to take off tonight” and he’s not wrong. It’s a great night, with an energetic crowd.
It’s a beautiful clear night. The light show of the CN Tower compliments the lights of the claw. The stage can be seen through the glass floor of the neighboring CN Tower, and U2 post footage taken from that perspective during the show, accompanied by an as-yet-unreleased mix of “Get On Your Boots.” (The remix will be released on the upcoming fan compilation Artificial Horizon announced a few days later.) Fans in surrounding high rises are out on balconies enjoying the show from a distance. At one point Bono challenges them to flick their lights on and off and become part of the show, and suddenly the lights are flickering in all the buildings peeking over the walls of the Skydome.
The set list is mixed up a bit tonight. “Mysterious Ways” is added in early in the show. “New Year’s Day” appears after “Unknown Caller”. “Desire” is on the printed set list distributed early in the day after “New Year’s Day” but is not on the final set list posted at showtime.
During “City of Blinding Lights” Bono brings an 8-year old boy, Lukas, onto the stage. Lucas walks around holding Bono’s hand, and tries on the singer’s sunglasses.
Daniel Lanois is at the show, and Bono dedicates “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” to the legendary Canadian producer who worked with the band on The Joshua Tree as well on their most recent album, No Line on the Horizon. Bono also adds a snippet of Lanois’ “The Maker” into “Beautiful Day” tonight.
Other snippets tonight include “Norwegian Wood” during “Mysterious Ways”. “On Yonge Stree” and “Far Far Away” join “The Maker” during “Beautiful Day”. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” ends with “Movin’ On Up”. Snippets of “Two Tribes” and “Rock the Casbah” appear in “I’ll Go Crazy” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” respectively. “Pretty Wings” appears during “One”. “Where the Streets Have No Name” includes “Amazing Grace” and “All You Need is Love”.
“Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” goes over well with the Toronto crowd. Willie Williams in his tour diary for U2.com reports, “I gradually made my way back down to the field and clearly it was a great night for all. Stuck in a Moment (never a huge favourite of mine, I have to confess) went off with the crowd singing it like it was Still Haven’t Found. I love the differences that local culture brings to a show.”
During the intermission, the band uses the “Space Junk” encore, which features music from Passengers / U2 (“Theme from the Swan”) with Maya Angelou reading from her poem “A Brave and Starting Truth” and singing a bit of an old slave song about rainbows. It is only the second time that it is used, having debuted at the first show on this leg in Chicago.
Willie Williams shares some thoughts on the second show in his diary on U2.com, ““What a difference a day makes. It’s funny, both the cities we’ve played on this leg have been two-night stands and on both occasions the first night audience has been dead and the second night riotous. A man could think of all kinds of reasons – heavy media presence on night one, the night of the week, the weather – but all these things are quite arbitrary when it comes down to it. Whatever the reason, tonight’s crowd were well up for it and I spent much of the gig in and amongst them.”
Ahead of this second show Edge and Bono appear at local radio station The Edge. There is one condition, the U2 appearance couldn’t be publicized until five minutes before they appeared. Larry and Adam are also out doing interviews with the local press talking about the success of the show the night before.
After tonight the band will travel back to the United States for the remainder of the leg, other than the final show of the 2009 stops, which will bring them back to Vancouver for a show.
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