2011-05-21

Invesco Field at Mile High, Denver, CO, USA

Set List of Show:

Set List:

"Even Better Than the Real Thing"
"I Will Follow"
"Get On Your Boots"
"Magnificent"
"Mysterious Ways"
"Elevation"
"Until the End of the World"
"All I Want is You"
"Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"
"Beautiful Day"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Miss Sarajevo"
"Zooropa"
"City Of Blinding Lights"
"Vertigo"
"I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"Scarlet"
"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:

Carousel

Show Details:

The tour winds its way back to the United States, starting with a single show in Denver. But U2 did take the opportunity to have a dress rehearsal the night before for a small audience in Denver, like they did previously in Brussels and Barcelona. The show tonight is at Invesco Field at Mile High. Opening the show is The Fray.

A few surprises have stayed with the show. “All I Want is You” remains in place where “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” used to be. “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” is back in the set list tonight as well, following “All I Want is You”. “Zooropa” remains in the set list, with the pre-recorded “Fez – Being Born” opening. And “Magnificent” is the newer remixed version, featuring footage from the older Desmond Tutu video used in previous legs.

Bono shares that one of the doctors from Germany who helped to patch him up when he needed back surgery last year is at the show. It’s been exactly a year since that surgery happened. It was that surgery that caused the original postponement of the show.

A Christian radio host, Harold Camping, has been publicly sharing that the rapture and Judgement Day would happen on May 21. And that the end of the world would follow in the months that followed. Bono can’t resist that news during “Until the End of the World” tonight, sharing “This is for the Reverend Harold Camping, such a disappointment” Speaking of the rapture, Bono shares “To be taken up in the air, sounds like fun to me, just as long Larry Mullen is with me…”

Ahead of “Beautiful Day” Bono brings a girl named Lisa onstage, who is wearing a “The Larry Mullen Band” T-shirt. He asks her to read a poem. The poem is “The Garden” by Susie Kerin. The poem was published in a book called Poems of Sunny Colorado which opens,

““Near the mountains is a lovely garden,
Denver beauteous, haven of the West;
Through her welcome arch the tired tourist
Finds an oasis of peace and rest.”

“Moment of Surrender” is played for Josh Green who passed away in 2009. Green was a local ONE Campaign member.

Snippets tonight included “Here Comes the Sun” during “Beautiful Day”, “Discotheque” and “Please” during “I’ll Go Crazy”, and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during “Walk On”. Instead of the usual “Amazing Grace” opening to “Where the Streets Have No Name” tonight Bono sings a bit of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and ends the song with “All You Need is Love”.

A few changes are made in the days leading up to the return to the United States. One big change is a new video introducing “One” now that the Desmond Tutu video is being incorporated into the “Magnificent” remix footage. The team have filmed Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Burma. And she speaks to the crowd via the video screens at the start of “Walk On”. It opens with “After many years I am finally able to speak to you, you who have crossed such distances to send support to Burma, we thank you!” Bono shares that the message is something “we couldn’t have even dreamed about when this tour started”.

Another piece plays ahead of the show. The piece starts off with clocks on the screen and then comes up with facts and figures that are local to each location on the tour as well as other stats that count down or count up as they display on the screen. World population, tallest building in the city you are in, and more. This piece is used through to the end of the tour, and runs for 45-minutes at each show.

Both new video pieces were tested the night before at a full dress rehearsal which was open to a small audience.

Another change tonight is the introduction of four LED jackets which the band debut during “Zooropa”. The jackets light up and are lit to match the screens during “Zooropa” with lights in blue moving up and down each jacket. For “City of Blinding Lights” and “Vertigo” the jackets turn red in colour. (Adam’s jacket is in white with the lights, Larry, Bono and the Edge are in black). Larry removes his jacket for “I’ll Go Crazy”, but the rest of the band continue to wear theirs through to the break after “Walk On”.

Of the show, Willie Williams shares with U2.com, “With all due respect we knew that a North American audience (as with a Northern European audience) was not going to match the energy level we’d just experienced in Mexico but in truth this crowd gave the Mexicans a pretty good run for their money. It’s the best part of two years since these people bought their tickets to this show and, now that the day had finally arrived, they really made the most of it. It was a great show, the band were in great form and there was the most continual and intense smell of pot wafting in the air that I think I’ve ever been exposed to at an outdoor event. The gods of technology smiled upon us, the weather stayed dry and everything worked technically, including the new jackets, the new song arrangements and the debut appearance of Aung San Suu Kyi. I was very pleased.”

Originally this show was scheduled to happen on June 12, with Lenny Kravitz as the opening act. The show was postponed due to Bono’s back surgery. It was not listed as sold out at the time of postponement. Tickets for the show originally went on sale on November 6, 2009, and tickets were good for the rescheduled date when it was announced.

Officially Released Tracks