2011-07-30

Magnetic Hill, Moncton, NB, Canada

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"
  • "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"
  • "40"

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:

    "Anthem" (Leonard Cohen) / "Springhill Mining Disaster" (Peggy Seeger) / "Space Oddity" (David Bowie) / "It's Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)" (Rolling Stones) / "Discothèque" (U2) / "Life During Wartime" (Talking Heads) / "Psycho Killer" (Talking Heads) / "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen) / "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division) /

Show Details:

This is the end of the U2360 tour, which had started over two years ago in Barcelona. It has set a record for the highest grossing tour of all time.

Moncton is a small city in the centre of the Maritime Provinces. It is the first time U2 have ever played a concert east of Quebec. An annual tradition is the concert at Magnetic Hill, starting with 2005, where a large act is brought in to play with a number of smaller acts. The Rolling Stones have played here, so has AC/DC, and the Eagles. The venue was built in 1984 for a visit by Pope John Paul II. A fan in the front row holds up a sign that says “Where the heck are we?!” which is a question many asked when they found out the tour would end in Moncton. The venue saw the claw stage at one end of a field, with temporary seating behind and to either side of the stage, and a large hill at the back, which served as the GA floor area for the show.

In 2011 for the first time the marketing called this the “Magnetic Hill Music Festival”. Joining U2 for the Festival were Arcade Fire, and Carney, fronted by Reeve Carney who had taken the lead role in Spider-Man Turn off the Dark, the Broadway musical Bono and The Edge have been a part of. Ahead of the show, a flyover by two CF-18 jets from the Canadian Air Force occurred as the rain cleared up that had been heavy throughout the day.

Ahead of the show, the band had a special selection of pre-show music over the PA. This featured a number of songs that suggested things were at the end, including “The Final Countdown”, “The Last Time”, “School’s Out” and “It’s the End of the World As We Know It”.

A few surprises appeared in the set list for the final show.

At the end of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” Bono sings an extended bit of “Springhill Mining Disaster” a song they are familiar with from the performances of the song done by the Dubliners. In 1987 U2 would often perform the song during The Joshua Tree tour, and even performed the song on The Late Late Show, which was later released. The song called “Springhill Mining Disaster” on Dubliners releases, was called “The Ballad of Springhill” when written by Peggy Seegar, and is about a town only an hour from car from Moncton. The song was written about a 1958 mining disaster in the town, brought on by an earthquake. The town of Springhill know the history of U2 and the song, and have invited the band to attend a U2 day in their town the next day, however the band are unable to attend.

Ahead of “Where the Streets Have No Name” Bono includes a lengthy snippet of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Until the End of the World” contains a bit of Cohen’s “Anthem”. Cohen is Canadian. “With or Without You” includes a rarely heard snippet of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division. Other snippets include “Space Oddity” during “Beautiful Day”, “It’s Only Rock And Roll (But I Like It)” during “Vertigo” and “Discotheque”, “Life During Wartime” and “Psycho Killer” during “I’ll Go Crazy”.

Although the main setlist was pretty standard it is clear at the end of the show that U2 aren’t ready to say goodnight. After “Moment of Surrender” the band launch into a high energy performance of “Out of Control”. This is the first time on the tour that it has followed “Moment of Surrender” and it is the only U2360 tour date that features both “Out of Control” and “I Will Follow”.

Ahead of the show, a fan by the name of Aaron was asked what he would like to hear, and he shared with Paul McGuinness that he would like to hear “40”. The song had not been played at any point on the U2360 tour, yet at the end of the Moncton show, the band did indeed play the song. Bono opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the end of the tour as the band launched into the show, and mid-way through the song Bono recites the Aaronic Blessing, perhaps as a nod to the fan who had made the request. The band leave the stage separately, leaving Larry alone behind the drum kit to finish the song, with a big smile on his face.

In his tour diary for U2.com, Willie Williams shares, “We had a great show, the vast audience being clearly aware that they were attending an event very significant for the band. On a tour like this some last night pranks are inevitable and there were a couple of lovely ones tonight. Many of the volunteers who carry out the Amnesty lanterns during Walk On turned out to be crew-members (I’d feared it might turn into a Zeigfeld Follies style dancing lights routine, but mercifully respect prevailed). The highlight of the night though was I’ll Go Crazy where the film of the giant band faces appears on screen, ‘head-banging’ to the rhythm. Tonight, the band’s faces appeared as usual, only to be replaced by a sequence of the faces of almost every crew-member on the tour, heads nodding, smiling, clapping, some even dancing about. It was such a joyful thing to see the faces of all these people up there, without whom this 360 structure would still be sitting in Barcelona.” He also shares, “Out of Control followed, as I’d hoped it would, and the audience took this as a cue to celebrate the end of the end. Around the back of the stage the audience thins out dramatically and in an open area a crowd of crazies were doing some whacky pogo dancing, jumping up and down, goofing off and leaping about. Despite my wearing a raincoat and having my backpack on, I was so caught up in the moment that I joined them, giving it my best John Lydon and laughing my myself silly. What joy.”

Moncton was not one of the original shows planned for 2010, when Bono’s back injury and subsequent surgery caused them to postpone a number of shows. Moncton was one of the newly added shows when those original dates were rescheduled.

Originally in 2010, New Jersey had been the final show. With the rescheduled shows, Pittsburgh was listed as the last show for a number of months. A few days ahead of the announcement of the Moncton show, Pittsburgh was changed to be listed as the “last US show” instead. The show was announced in January 2011, well after the other dates for the tour had been put on sale.

Special guests at the show included Pierce Brosnan. Local politicians in attendance included the premier of New Brunswick, David Alward and the mayor of Moncton, George Leblanc. Bono’s wife Ali is at the show as well, as is manager Paul McGuiness, it will be the last regular tour show done while Paul still manages the band, he retires before the next tour happens.

The crowd left the venue, tromping through the muddy hill to get out of the venue and back to civilization having witnessed the last show of the biggest tour of all time.

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