2010-09-23

King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

  • "Return of the Stingray Guitar"
  • "Beautiful Day"
  • "New Year's Day"
  • "Get On Your Boots"
  • "Magnificent"
  • "Mysterious Ways"
  • "Elevation"
  • "Until the End of the World"
  • "Singin' In the Rain"
  • "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
  • "Angel of Harlem"
  • "Bad"
  • "In a Little While"
  • "Miss Sarajevo"
  • "City Of Blinding Lights"
  • "Vertigo"
  • "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
  • "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
  • "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"
  • "Singin' In the Rain"

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:

    "Rain" (The Beatles) / "Private Dancer" (Tina Turner) / "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (R.E.M.) / "Many Rivers to Cross" (Jimmy Cliff) / "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (Michael Jackson) / "Singin' In the Rain" (Gene Kelly) / "It's Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)" (Rolling Stones) / "I Can't Stand the Rain" (Tina Turner) / "Relax" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) / "Life During Wartime" (Talking Heads) / "You'll Never Walk Alone" (from Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein) /

Show Details:

U2 play the second of two shows in King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. Interpol is opening the show for them.

It rains in the afternoon but clears up a bit before showtime, but during “Until the End of the World” the skies open up and it rains hard. Bono sings a little bit of “Singin’ in the Rain” after he finishes “Until the End of the World”. He’ll later add a snippet of it into “Bad”, and at the end of the show Bono and The Edge will sing it again. This leg of the tour has been plagued with bad weather. Ten of the last fifteen shows have had rainy or wet conditions on the day of the show, and some like Zurich 2 and Moscow are torrential rain events. It has rained so much that there’s a new item spotted at merchandise stands in Brussels, a rain poncho being sold for 10 Euro with the tour logo.

The show tonight has a bit of a party atmosphere despite the rain. Bono explains that it was 32 years ago this evening that Joe O’Herlihy first did sound for the band. He was working at the Arcadia doing sound for bands as they passed through Cork, and it was the first time that U2 worked with him. Bono is a little early in celebrations, as it appears that U2 first played the Arcadia on September 30, 1978. O’Herlihy’s image is shown on the screen ahead of the band introductions. The celebrations continue after “Vertigo” when Bono opens a bottle of champagne to celebrate, spraying the audience in the front rows.

During the show Bono pulls a girl from the audience to join him on stage during “Mysterious Ways”. Later, during “Until the End of the World” Bono jumps down and goes to the barrier to get close to the crowd. He borrows a camera from a fan who is in front of him and takes a selfie before returning to the stage.

Although three new songs were played at the first show in Brussels, tonight only one new show is present, the opening instrumental, “Return of the Stingray Guitar”. Instead of the new material that usually appears mid-set, tonight the band dust off two classics. “Angel of Harlem” is played for the first time since the first leg of the U2360 tour. “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” makes an appearance during “Angel of Harlem”, like it did on earlier legs of the tour. And after “Angel of Harlem” U2 play “Bad” for the first time since the opening shows of the second leg of the tour.

Snippets tonight include “Rain” during “Beautiful Day” and “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “Private Dancer” during “Mysterious Ways”, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I feel Fine)” during “Until the End of the World”. “Many Rivers to Cross” makes an appearance during “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. “Bad” includes more “Singin’ in the Rain”. “Vertigo” includes “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)”, “I’ll Go Crazy” includes “I Can’t Stand the Rain”, “Relax” and “Life During Wartime” and “Walk On” includes “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Also during “With or Without You” Bono sings the extended verse, “Shine Like Stars”, usually a sign of a pretty special night.

To make the evening even more special, Bono includes the “Shine Like Stars” lines during “With or Without You” – usually a sign the show has been somewhat special. The band seems to have found their groove in recent shows, and the crowds have been enthusiastic and loving what the band have been doing.

In his diary for U2.com, Willie Williams shares, “Yesterday’s good weather seems to have deserted us and a steady drizzle had settled in by the time the band came in to sound check. We thought we might get another brand new song in the show tonight, but in the end we were defeated by the elements, cold and damp not being conducive to outdoor creative breakthroughs.”

Present at the show tonight was Frank De Winne, who is featured on the screen from the International Space Station during “In A Little While”. Also present were Dirk van Saene and Walter van Beirendonck, who had designed stage clothing for the band for the PopMart tour.

The band had soundchecked in the venue earlier in the day but did so with the PA off, so the work could not be heard outside the stadium. They were succesful in keeping the surprise underwraps, but likely worked on “Bad” and “Angel of Harlem” as well as others.

Tickets for this show went on sale October 24, with a U2.com presale that had started October 20.

Related News

Officially Released Tracks

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