2015-05-23

US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Set List of Show:

Act One:

"The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)"
"Out of Control"
"Vertigo"
"I Will Follow"
"Iris (Hold Me Close)"
"Cedarwood Road"
"Song for Someone"
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"Raised by Wolves"
"Until the End of the World"

Act Two:

"Invisible"
"Even Better Than the Real Thing"
"Mysterious Ways"
"Angel of Harlem"
"When Love Comes to Town"
"Every Breaking Wave"
"Bullet the Blue Sky"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Beautiful Day"
"With or Without You"

Encore:

"Miracle Drug"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"One"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "People Have the Power" - Patti Smith
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Same Love" - Macklemore and Lewis ft. Mary Lambert
Pre-Recorded Intermission Song(s): "The Wanderer" - U2 with Johnny Cash

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

"Vertigo" (U2) / "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" (The Ramones) / "Young Americans" (David Bowie) / "Whole Lotta Love" (Led Zeppelin) / "19" (Paul Hardcastle) / "The Hands that Built America" (U2) / "One" (U2) / "Mother and Child Reunion" (Paul Simon) / "California (There is no End to Love)" (U2) /

Show Details:

After two shows in a row that were very similar for set, tonight in Phoenix the band returns to the alternate set list, with “Out of Control”, “Angel of Harlem” and “When Love Comes to Town” all returning to the set after two shows without. “Miracle Drug” and “One” return as well. The band keep with the changes made last night, and the show is introduced by Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power”, and Bono enters from the smaller round stage while the rest of the band enter from the main stage.

Between “Raised by Wolves” and “Until the End of the World” Bono is ripping up books that are placed around the stage, and throwing the pieces into the crowd. It’s a new feature in the show, and books identified include The Divine Comedy by Dante (with a William Blake cover!), The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis, and The World We Live In. Bono also quotes from MacBeth tonight, shouting “out damned spot!” Following “Until the End of the World” confetti continues to fall from the sky as it has in prior shows, raining down pages from various books onto the crowd, which Bono was inspired to create hearing stories of when the library in Sarajevo was bombed.

The second show in Phoenix at the US Airways Center is a celebration of sorts. A referendum held in Ireland on the legalization of same-sex marriage has confirmed by popular vote. Gay marriage will be made legal with 62% voting in favour of the change. The results were announced earlier in the day and U2 are happy to share the joy with those gathered in Phoenix for their show.

Bono introduces “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by saying “this is a moment to thank the people who bring us peace. It is a moment for us to thank the people who brought peace to our country. We have peace in Ireland today, and in fact, on THIS VERY DAY we have true equality in Ireland. Because millions turned up to vote yesterday to say, ‘love is the highest law in the land. Love! The biggest turnout in the history of the state to say, ‘love is the highest law in the land!’ Because if God loves us, whoever we love, wherever we come from, then why can’t the state?”

Later in the song Bono changes the lyric to “Pride” to sing “Free at last, they took your life but they could not take your gay pride.” He also introduced “Beautiful Day” as “putting the gay in Gaelic”. At the end of “Beautiful Day” Bono adds in a snippet of “One”, “love is a temple, love the higher law”. One final change is the addition of “Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, with vocals by Mary Lambert as the exit song after the show ends. The song is a call to action to support same sex marriage, released a few years prior when the US was going through similar discussions. The song remains at the end of tour for most of the remaining shows on the tour.

Snippets included through the evening include a mistake at the start of “Out of Control” that sees U2 start to play “Vertigo” instead, but quickly moving to the correct song. It’s followed up with “Vertigo” which includes a snippet of “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?”. “Young Americans” pops up in “Mysterious Ways” and “Bullet the Blue Sky” includes “Whole Lotta Love” and “19”. “The Hands That Built America” is used as an introduction to “Pride”, and as mentioned above “Beautiful Day” includes a few lines from “One” which will also later be played in full. In the encore, an extended version of “Mother and Child Reunion” opens “Streets”, which itself contains a snippet of “California (There is No End to Love)”.

The tour was announced on December 3, 2014, with tickets going on sale on Monday December 8. Presales for U2.com members started on December 4, 2014 with subscribers who joined prior to September 9 being part of the Experience group, and new subscribers, who joined after September 9 being part of the Innocence group. Both Phoenix shows were announced from the start, and both went on sale at the same time.

Officially Released Tracks