2015-06-06

Pepsi Center, Denver, CO, USA

Set List of Show:

Act One:

"The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)"
"The Electric Co."
"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"
"Desire"
"Angel of Harlem"
"Every Breaking Wave"
"Bullet the Blue Sky"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Beautiful Day"
"With or Without You"

Encore:

"City Of Blinding Lights"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

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:

"Send in the Clowns" (Stephen Sondheim) / "Rocky Mountain High" (John Denver) / "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Patrick Gilmore) / "Love and Peace or Else" (U2) / "Desire" (U2) / "Love Me Do" (The Beatles) / "Black Dog" (Led Zeppelin) / "19" (Paul Hardcastle) / "The Hands that Built America" (U2) / "I Remember You" (The Ramones) / "Mother and Child Reunion" (Paul Simon) / "California (There is no End to Love)" (U2) / "Stand By Me" (Ben E. King) /

Show Details:

After a lengthy stay in California, the tour heads east, landing in Denver, Colorado tonight. The band had looked at doing additional shows in Los Angeles, but sales were sluggish, and Denver was added instead for two shows. (Los Angeles 5 went on sale on January 30, Denver was announced on March 17)

Tonight “Angel of Harlem” and “The Electric Co.” are back in the set list after taking a show off, and “Desire” also returns after a few nights away. Larry gives away the return of “Desire” by accidentally playing the opening drums before catching his mistake and moving into “Mysterious Ways”.

The show in Denver is 32 years and one day after the band played a now infamous show at Red Rocks just a few miles away. That show was filmed in the torrential rain, and became one of the band’s early home video releases. Bono references that show a number of time throughout the show, singing “32 years away, yesterday…” during “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. Later in the night he talks about how that show was almost cancelled for the weather. Bono thanks concert promoter Barry Fey for letting them continue the show. Adam is marking a different show in Denver tonight. Across his chest is printed “March 28, 1981” which is the night U2 first played in Denver.

Ahead of “Every Breaking Wave” Bono tells a joke, “how do you get fish high?” Answer? “Seaweed.” During “Bullet the Blue Sky” Bono has added a new prop. He’s now giving his speech during the song via a bullhorn which is painted to look like an American flag. Those close up notice an added touch, Macphisto is at the center of the bullhorn.

VIPs in the audience include the quarterback for the Broncos, Peyton Manning, and Bono dedicates “Desire” to him. Manning’s teammate Jordan Taylor is also at the show. Gary Hart, the US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland is also present (and former US senator), and Bono thanks him for America’s support during the Irish peace process.

Snippets through the evening include Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” during “The Electric Co.” and John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” later in the song. “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” appears in “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Love and Peace or Else” makes a brief appearance in “Until the End of the World”. “Mysterious Ways” includes a “Young Americans” appearance and “Love Me Do” makes an appearance in “Desire”. “Black Dog” and “19” appear during “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “The Hands that Built America” appears between “Bullet” and “Pride”. The Ramones’ “I Remember You” appears during “Beautiful Day”. In the encore, “Mother and Child Reunion” introduces “Streets” which also includes a line from “California (There is No End to Love)” and at the end of the night, Bono leads the crowd in a sing along to “Stand By Me” at the end of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”.

Reports say that many seats in the 300 level at either end of the arena are blocked off by curtains. Although these seats are not sold, the show is still listed as a sell out, as these tickets were removed from sale by the production ahead of the show for blocked views of the screen. (Although at earlier shows, some of these tickets were sold.)

This show, as mentioned above, was the last city announced for the tour, with an announcement on March 17. General sale for tickets was on March 23, 2015. Pre-sales started on March 19, with Experience level subscribers buying in the morning and Innocence level subscribers starting in the afternoon.

Officially Released Tracks