2010-09-03

Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

  • "Return of the Stingray Guitar"
  • "Beautiful Day"
  • "I Will Follow"
  • "Get On Your Boots"
  • "Magnificent"
  • "Mysterious Ways"
  • "Elevation"
  • "Until the End of the World"
  • "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
  • "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
  • "In a Little While"
  • "Miss Sarajevo"
  • "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:

  • "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
  • "With or Without You"
  • "Moment of Surrender"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Space Oddity" - David Bowie
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Rocket Man" - Elton John

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

    "Movin' On Up" (Primal Scream) / "Funky Town" (Pseudo Echo) / "Discothèque" (U2) / "You'll Never Walk Alone" (from Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein) / "Amazing Grace" (John Newton and William Walker) / "All You Need is Love" (The Beatles) /

Show Details:

U2 take the U2360 tour to Athens, Greece next for a single show at the Olympic Stadium. The venue is a new one, built for the 2004 Olympics. It is only the second time the band have played Greece, the first show was in 1997 in Thessaloniki. This is the first time they have played Athens. Snow Patrol rejoins the tour tonight as the opening act. Also announced just a few days before the show as an opening act is Aviv Geffen. After a run of six shows where rain has been an issue, the band finally get a clear, beautiful day in Athens.

The show opens with Bono prancing around the stage during “Return of the Stingray Guitar”. That’s the only new song performed tonight. Like Russia, the band is favouring older material instead of playing new songs tonight.

“I Will Follow” is the third song played tonight, and it is only the second appearance of the song on U2360. The crowd are loving it and are singing and bouncing. The crowd throughout the evening is super loud, energetic and enthusiastic at both the new and the old songs.

During the introductions tonight Bono turns to Greek mythology. He introduces The Edge as Odysseus, Larry is Apollo, Adam is Zeus, and Bono says that he is “Alexander the motherfucking Great”.

Bono is handed devil horns by someone in the audience during “Vertigo”, and wears the light up horns for the performance. During “One” when the lights are lowered the stadium is lit by cell phones, lighters, flashing horns, a sea of glow sticks. It’s a beautiful sight. During “Where the Streets Have No Name” a flare is set off in the circle of fans inside the stage. Bono comments on the crowd at the end of “Where the Streets Have No Name”, sharing “Incredible people. Incredible place.” Earlier in the show he had shared “Greece is a great country because of the Greeks.”

In the encore the band has been switching back and forth between “Ultra Violet” and “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” – and tonight it is the second. Following that song is a Greek sing along to “With or Without You”. The fans are so loud at the end of the song, and continue to sing. U2 has to sit back and wait to start “Moment of Surrender” because the crowd is so loud, and Bono promises the crowd that the band will not forget the welcome they have been given.

Snippets tonight include “Movin’ On Up” at the end of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and both “Funky Town” and “Discotheque” during “I’ll Go Crazy”. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is in its usual spot at the end of “Walk On” and “Amazing Grace” and “All You Need is Love” are both part of “Where the Streets Have No Name”.

Of the show, Willie Williams shares in his diaries for U2.com, “Come show time, it was a beautiful, balmy night and the venue had filled up to (and very possibly beyond) capacity. The floor of the stadium was absolutely rammed, front to back, from bleacher to bleacher, and when U2 took the stage the place just went off. Looking down from above, the sea of bodies was heaving as the entire crowd bounced up and down in unison. People let off flares in the middle of the throng, human pyramids were being built & everyone was clearly having a very good time indeed. I felt like I was back on the Joshua Tree tour, with that festival crowd mayhem flavour. It was really great fun – we should play cities for the first time more often.”

Tickets for this show went on sale on November 2, 2009. U2.Com presales started on October 29.

Related News

Officially Released Tracks

< PREVIOUS SHOW | NEXT SHOW >