2011-05-29

Canad Inns Stadium, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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"
"Happy Birthday"

Encore One:

"One"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"

Encore Two:

"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
"With or Without You"

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:

U2 return to Winnipeg, their first show in the city since a stop there in 1997 for the PopMart tour. The band are joined by The Fray. This show is one of the shows added after the 2010 dates were cancelled and rescheduled, and was not part of the original 2010 dates. The show this evening breaks an attendance record, beating out the previous record held by The Rolling Stones for a 1994 show.

The show gets an early start, with the Royal Canadian Air Force team The Snowbirds, performing a flyover of the stadium, and doing several loops around the venue. Three planes are used.

The video counting down and counting up on several facts has a spelling error tonight and Winnipeg is spelt with only one “N”. Later Mantioba is listed as a state and not a province. Bono makes mention of it when he takes the stage, “Hello Winnipeg! That’s Winnipeg with two N’s.”

During “Magnificent” there are technical issues, and the video above the stage doesn’t show the footage of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, although he can still be heard in the mix of the song.

A bouquet of flowers is given to Bono at the end of “Until the End of the World”. Bono takes the bouquet and starts throwing the flowers back into the crowd one by one, chanting “Flowers for Damascus…Flowers for Tehran…Flowers for peace”

For “Beautiful Day” Bono pulls two women from the audience and asks them to read from a paper. Tonight’s selection are lyrics from the Canadian classic song by BTO, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. BTO were formed in Winnipeg. The end of “Beautiful Day” puts the spotlight on another Winnipeg native, Neil Young, with a snippet of Young’s “Heart of Gold”.

At the end of “Walk On” Bono points out it is the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International. He asks the crowd to join him in singing “Happy Birthday” to the organization as he raises a pint of Guinness to toast them, “Fifty years ago Amnesty was formed because two Portuguese students were imprisoned for seven years for raising a toast to freedom, so in their honour tonight we raise a toast to freedom and might you join us in singing Happy Birthday to Amnesty International…”

The show is cold. The band are bundled up in layers, but still seem to be minding the cold. It is not known if this may have lead to an early evening, or if there was a curfew in place, but the last song of the evening, “Moment of Surrender” was not played, despite having been on the set list for the evening. The band did play at least 10 minutes past 11pm. (According to weather reports for the day, the temperature at the end of the show was 8-degrees Celsius.) This is only the second time “Moment of Surrender” has not been played at a U2360 show, with the first time happening in Brisbane in December 2010, in that case, the song was cut for curfew related reasons.

Snippets tonight include “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” during “Until the End of the World” and “Heart Of Gold” during “Beautiful Day”. “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” is added into “Vertigo”. “I’ll Go Crazy” is peppered with references to other songs including “Miss You”, “Discotheque”, “Life During Wartime”, “Psycho Killer” and “Please”. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” appears during “Walk On” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” is at the start of “Where the Streets Have No Name”.

The CBC writes, “Some 50,000 people packed Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg on Sunday for the much-anticipated concert by Irish rock band U2. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. stopped in the city as part of their 360-degree world tour. The unseasonably chilly May evening didn’t deter fans, who cheered, danced and sang along.”

In the Toronto Sun Darryl Sterdan writes, “Bono certainly earned his share of that accolade. Sauntering and bounding around his $35 million playground, the black leather-clad singer was the consummate frontman, energizing the crowd with every rock-star gesture, coaxing them to sing along with every soaring chorus — and winning them over by dismissing the unseasonably cool and breezy conditions.
‘We don’t feel the cold in Winnipeg,” he assured us. “You’re Canadian; we’re Irish.’ While Bono was the obvious focal point of the night, the rest of the band weren’t playing second fiddle. White-haired (and white-suited) Adam Clayton, like all great bassists, was a study in understated cool, casually strolling and posing while unspooling thick, propulsive lines. Guitarist The Edge — sporting his trademark skullcap and goatee — was only slightly more animated, focusing his concentration on picking his chiming guitar lines, manipulating them with his vast array of effects and handling backup vocal chores through his headset mic. And drummer Larry Mullen Jr. — bundled up in a scarf and sweater as he thwacked away on his rotating drum riser — was more Ringo or Charlie than Neil Peart, but efficiently effective at his role: Holding down the centre of the sound (and the centre of the stage) so Bono and Edge can roam where they want and still find their way back.”

There is some controversy surrounding the show, and the band are met by protests by local union members, protesting that the band is using non-union labour for the show at Canad Inns Stadium. The band are accused of “Union busting” by IATSE President Matthew D. Loeb. The dispute is not mentioned by the band, although in the Winnipeg Free Press, Jake Berry, U2’s road manager shared that the band would not return to Manitoba again.

Not part of the original dates, this show was announced on October 18, 2010. The tickets went on sale on October 25, with presales starting for U2.com members on October 21.

The two days prior to this show U2 have been working at the Burton Cummings theatre, filming material for From the Sky Down, a documentary by Davis Guggenheim that will be released later in the year. Ahead of the show today the crew do a soundcheck at the stadium, and then U2 rehearse the new mix of “Magnificent” three times.

Officially Released Tracks