2011-07-20

New Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, NJ

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"Even Better Than the Real Thing"
"The Fly"
"Mysterious Ways"
"Until the End of the World"
"I Will Follow"
"Get On Your Boots"
"Magnificent"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"
"Beautiful Day"
"Elevation"
"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"
"Out of Control"

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:

"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" (U2) / "Anthem" (Leonard Cohen) / "The Promised Land" (Bruce Springsteen) / "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" (U2) / "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" (Frank Sinatra) / "Space Oddity" (David Bowie) / "Rock 'N' Roll N_____" (Patti Smith) / "Discothèque" (U2) / "Psycho Killer" (Talking Heads) / "Life During Wartime" (Talking Heads) / "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen) / "Jungleland" (Bruce Springsteen) / "Weak in the Presence of Beauty" (Floy Joy) /

Show Details:

The U2360 tour is quickly coming to an end. There are only three shows left after this one. Each show to the end of the tour is a single show in a city. Tonight they visit East Rutherford, NJ. Two previous stops on the tour in 2009 played at nearby Giants Stadium. Tonight they are at the New Meadowlands Stadium, a new stadium that has opened in the parking lot of what was known as Giants Stadium. Interpol joins U2 as the opening act for this show.

Although the tour is nearing an end, it doesn’t mean the surprises will stop. The show tonight is two and a half hours long tonight, including an extra song at the end as well as an extra song in the body of the show. Willie Williams describes the set list contemplation in his diary for U2.com, “The band members arrived in ones and twos, so I collared each of them to see what the feeling was on what they might want to put in the set list. There were some different opinions on what we might add or drop from the show so in the end the best compromise seemed to be to just play everything. This left us with the longest set list of the tour (possibly ever) but we won’t be in this neck of the woods again for a while, so why not?” The big changes are the addition of “Magnificent” back into the set list (the non-remixed version) and “Out of Control” at the end of the show. Tonight “Magnificent” is added back, without dropping “The Fly” which was done the last time it was brought back. It is the fifth time the song is performed on the U2360 tour.

Those weren’t the only surprises considered. A printed set list also showed that there were two other songs listed for after “Out of Control”, “Bad” and “40”. Neither were performed however, but both would appear at upcoming shows. Willie shares the following day why the additional two songs were not played, “Reviews of last night seem unanimously positive and feedback from our team similarly so. I actually thought Bono might die on stage it was so hot in the stadium but he made it through, even playing the bulk of the long set, until the sound curfew finally cut them off.”

The band broke out the LED jackets used earlier in the tour, but haven’t been seen frequently of late. Bono announces that another crew member has had a baby, making it 18 since the tour started. “Moment of Surrender”, near the end of the show is dedicated to Clarence Clemons who died earlier in the year. “Out of Control” is played after “Moment of Surrender” to end the show. One of only a handful of U2360 tour shows to not end with “Moment of Surrender”.

Bono also had a set list from their Asbury Park show back in 1981. He reads from the set list on stage. “So much has changed, so much hasn’t”.

Snippets include “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World” during “Mysterious Ways”, “Anthem” during “Until the End of the World” and “The Promised Land” at the end of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. Edge makes an error and starts to play “Stuck in A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” before starting in on “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” explaining why that song is in our list. “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” is also snippeted in “Stay”. “Beautiful Day” includes “Space Oddity” and “Vertigo” includes Patti Smith’s “Rock N’ Roll N**”. “I’ll Go Crazy” includes snippets of “Discotheque”, “Psycho Killer” and “Life During Wartime”. Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” appears ahead of “Where the Streets Have No Name” and during “Moment of Surrender” Bono includes a piece of “Weak in the Presence of Beauty” as well as “Jungleland”.

From his diary on U2.com, Willie Williams shares, “The show itself went well and looked fantastic in the new stadium. This is the last stadium that we’ll play which has a complete, unbroken line of high seating surround the pitch, so I was very aware that this was the last time I’d see the Claw in absolutely ideal circumstances. It’s such a beautiful thing, especially With or Without You and the mirrorball moment to end all mirrorball moments…”

In The Record Mike Kerwick shares, “Less like a concert, more like a planetarium show, U2 put on a spectacle unlike any Exit 16W has ever seen. The stage had bridges, and both guitarists used those bridges. The stage had a ring that encircled it, and the lead singer ran laps around it. The set had lights, and wow, did they use those lights. Visually, the show was a masterpiece. A more polished performance than the band’s last trip through here, the special effects wizards clearly picked up a few new tricks.” Over in the Daily News Jim Farber shares, “The new version of it’s ‘360’ show – which sprawled over the New Meadowlands Stadium last night – greatly improved the incarnation that lumbered into the defunct Giants Stadium two summers ago.”

A number of celebrities were at the show, including Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa, and author Salman Rushdie.

This show was originally planned for July 19, 2010, with Interpol. Bono’s back injury and subsequent surgery delayed the show for a year. Originally the show had been due to be the end of the North American tour, but at that time would not have been the end of the tour, as a European leg was planned to follow (which happened on schedule.) Tickets for the original 2010 date were valid for this new date in 2011.

Officially Released Tracks