2009-09-20

Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA, USA

Set List of Show:

Set List:

  • "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"
Encore One:

  • "One"
  • "Where the Streets Have No Name"
Encore Two:

  • "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:

    "Far Far Away" (Wilco) / "Blackbird" (The Beatles) / "Stand By Me" (Ben E. King) / "She Loves You" (The Beatles) / "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" (Sly and the Family Stone) / "Rock the Casbah" (The Clash) / "Amazing Grace" (John Newton and William Walker) / "All You Need is Love" (The Beatles) /

Show Details:

The third city to be visited by U2360 in North America is Foxborough, stopping at Gillette Stadium, just south of Boston. Snow Patrol joins U2 to open the show. It is the first of two shows in Foxborough.

The show is identical to the previous show in Toronto. There are few surprises, even among the snippets played this evening.

Early on in the show Bono is discussing the city, and mentions “‘Irish boy kissing on a T-train, Irish boy in Massachusetts…” It’s not known who he may be remembering at that moment, but to those unfamiliar with the city, they may not know the local rail system is referred to as “The T” – even U2.com misses that and shares his quote as “Irish boy kissing on a tea train”.

Band introductions claim that The Edge is a mix between Jimmy Page and Stephen Hawkings, calling him a test tube baby. Adam is referred to as “Experiment #2” and his “bottom end can move stadiums.” The final experiment, #3, Larry Mullen, is “not human at all, gave his body to science at 21” and is then called Robocop.

During “City of Blinding Lights” Bono picked a young girl from the audience and sang to her throughout the song, walking her around the claw stage, and sharing his glasses with her. He’s pulled children from the crowd in both previous cities on the leg as well.

The encore before “Ultra Violet” is a new piece, making its third appearance in the show, having been shown the first night in Chicago and the second night in Toronto. The video shows various space junk, backed by U2 / Passengers’ “Theme from the Swan” with Maya Angelou speaking her poem “A Brave and Starting Truth” over top of the music. At the end of the poem she sings some lyrics about a rainbow taken from a 19th century slave song. Tonight is the last time the piece is tried in the show itself. Catherine Owens refers to the piece as “Space Junk”. After tonight in Boston, they go back to the piece made up of digital voices while they develop a new piece that will debut in a couple of weeks.

Snippets tonight include “Far, Far Away” and “Blackbird” during “Beautiful Day”, “Stand By Me” in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, “She Loves You” in “Vertigo” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” during “I’ll Go Crazy”. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” has a snippet of “Rock The Casbah” and “Amazing Grace” and “All You Need is Love” are part of “Where the Streets Have No Name”. Also included tonight is the “Hear Us Coming” verse as part of “One.”

In the Providence Journal Rick Massimo shares, “The Irish rock legends brought their U2 360 Tour to Gillette Stadium for the first of two shows Sunday night, and it’s tempting to simply review the stage. Since it was impossible to ignore, it’s as good a place as any to start. The gargantuan structure, which took four days to build, resembled nothing so much as a four-legged spider with light-green skin and orange polka dots. Its legs contained dozens of speakers; smoke billowed from various portals.” He also mentions, “They also don’t think small when it comes to statements, and there was no shortage of those, mostly from Bono, whether shouting out to Marvin Minsky, author of the artificial-intelligence book Conscious Machines, or encouraging ‘freedom in the streets of Iran’ before ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ (with visual backdrops recalling that conflict, including a wash of green light) and freedom for Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi before ‘Walk On,’ complete with fans marching onto the catwalk while holding masks of her face.”

In the Boston Herald Jed Gottlieb also opens focused on the claw, “Witness the power of a fully operational U2. Last night the spaceship – as Bono called the in-the-round stage setup – landed at Gillette Stadium and four Irish aliens emerged as the biggest rock stars in the world.” He comes to the conclusion, “Not the flash of Zoo TV or the earnestness of the Joshua Tree Tour, but a middle ground that topped neither. But not bad for a band that played the Somerville Theatre six-months ago.”

Sound check today included work on “Elevation”, “Your Blue Room”, “Beautiful Day” and some work was also done on the introduction to “Ultra Violet”.

Spotted at the show were Katie Holmes and her husband Tom Cruise, actresses Cameron Diaz and Ashley Judd and actor Sam Neill. Also present is DJ Mateo of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals who opened for U2 on a number of songs in 1997. Tonight DJ Mateo will also DJ at an afterparty being held by the band.

Related News

Officially Released Tracks

< PREVIOUS SHOW | NEXT SHOW >