2015-07-11

TD Garden, Boston, MA, 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"
"Desire"
"Angel of Harlem"
"Every Breaking Wave"
"Bad"
"With or Without You"
"City Of Blinding Lights"
"Bullet the Blue Sky"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Beautiful Day"

Encore:

"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) / "God Save the Queen" (Sex Pistols) / "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Patrick Gilmore) / "No More Heroes" (The Stranglers) / "Burning Down the House" (Talking Heads) / "Love Me Do" (The Beatles) / "Walk On the Wild Side" (Lou Reed) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "19" (Paul Hardcastle) / "The Hands that Built America" (U2) / "Satellite of Love" (Lou Reed) / "Mother and Child Reunion" (Paul Simon) / "California (There is no End to Love)" (U2) /

Show Details:

U2 are performing their second of four shows in Boston, the second to last American city on the Innocence and Experience tour. There are tweaks going on during these shows in Boston, preparations for an upcoming longer run in New York, or getting ready for the second leg which will start in Europe soon. Bono shares “Last night we had a great time, but it turns out that it was just a warm up for tonight, cause we are in Boston, more Irish than any city in Ireland!”

The show tonight sees the set list being changed about. “Every Breaking Wave” has been leading into “Bullet the Blue Sky” on most nights of the tour. Tonight, “Bullet” comes after “City of Blinding Lights”, which is in the main set for the first time on this tour, usually it has opened the encore. Even though “City of Blinding Lights” doesn’t open the encore, it still includes the introduction by Stephen Hawking being used this tour. For “Mysterious Ways” a girl is brought on stage to dance, and later take care of the Meerkat video for “Desire”. After “Desire” Bono pulls a young guy from the audience to join the band for “Angel of Harlem”, he is gifted with the acoustic guitar he plays at the show.

“Bad” is played tonight after “Every Breaking Wave”. This week is the 30th anniversary of Live Aid, and U2’s performance there, and Bono speaks about the concerts. “We found ourselves on stage, at Wembley Stadium, in London, Live Aid. We played this song, we never got to finish our set. Lou Reed was watching the television that day, he heard us singing. That concert went on to save many lives and gave us extra purpose as a band.” The song itself is done in a style that instantly brings back memories of that Live Aid performance, complete with a snippet of “Walk on the Wild Side” as the band had done 30 years previous. Tonight, like the previous night, U2 shares the hashtag “#BostonStrong” on the screen during “Pride (In the Name Of Love)”

The show ends tonight with “Streets” and then “One”, but at least two different set lists are seen that suggest other songs were possibilities but not played. An early set list had “The Troubles” listed to follow “One” but was later replaced with a set list that listed “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” before “One” and no “The Troubles”. In the end neither “I Still Haven’t Found”, nor “The Troubles” are played this evening.

Larry starts “Vertigo” early tonight, before remembering he’s got to do “Out of Control” first, so there’s a brief hint of the other early in the set. “Vertigo” itself includes “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?” (The Ramones) and “God Save the Queen” (Sex Pistols). “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” is present in “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Until The End of the World” includes “No More Heroes”. “Burning Down the House” makes an appearance in “Mysterious Ways” and Bono includes “Love Me Do” in “Desire”. “Walk On the Wild Side” and “Moment of Surrender” are both included in “Bad” tonight. “19” is included in “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “The Hands that Built America” has its usual spot between “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”. A snippet of “Satellite of Love” is heard during “Beautiful Day” to round out the main set. “Mother and Child Reunion” has its usual spot in the intro to “Where the Streets Have No Name” which also includes a lyric from U2’s own“California (There is no End to Love)”. “One” tonight includes the “There is no them” lyric which is also used in “Invisible” but originated live as part of “One”.

Bono’s brother Norman is once again present at tonight’s show, and Bono once again shares with the crowd that it was Norman who gave him his first guitar.

The first two shows in Boston are part of the initial announcement of the Innocence + Experience tour on December 3, 2014. Pre-sales start for U2.com members on December 4, and the general sale starts on December 8, 2014. All shows use credit card entry, and you enter by scanning the credit card used to purchase the tickets.

Officially Released Tracks