2015-07-18

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 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"
  • "Elevation"
  • "Ordinary Love"
  • "October"
  • "Every Breaking Wave"
  • "With or Without You"
  • "City Of Blinding Lights"
  • "Bullet the Blue Sky"
  • "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
Encore:

  • "Beautiful Day"
  • "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 Fly" - Gavin Friday

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

    "Send in the Clowns" (Stephen Sondheim from A Little Night Music) / "On Broadway" (George Benson) / "I Can See for Miles" (The Who) / "God Save the Queen" (Sex Pistols) / "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Patrick Gilmore) / "Love and Peace or Else" (U2) / "Burning Down the House" (Talking Heads) / "Young Americans" (David Bowie) / "In the Garden" (Van Morrison) / "19" (Paul Hardcastle) / "The Hands that Built America" (U2) / "I Remember You" (The Ramones) / "Mother and Child Reunion" (Paul Simon) / "Summer Rain" () / "California (There is no End to Love)" (U2) /

Show Details:

U2 do their biggest run of shows at one venue in North America with eight shows in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The shows start on July 18, and run until July 31, and finish off the first leg of the Innocence + Experience tour, before the band moves to Europe. This is the first of eight shows.

As the tour rolls into New York, Bono is remembering back to the earliest days of the band and their first show in New York, “When we first played a club called The Ritz in this great city, another century ago, we thought of ourselves as a punk band…and you know what? In all the ways that matter, we still do”. He’s also remembering another punk band, The Ramones, who got their start in New York City, and Bono calls them the Kings from Queens as he opens the show with “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” and later adds a snippet of “I Remember You” to “Beautiful Day”.

“Ordinary Love” is dedicated to Nelson Mandela. Today would have been his 97th birthday. After the song, Adam and Larry leave the stage, and Bono and The Edge debut a song not played on this tour, and not played since 1989. “October” is played.

Both Harry Belafonte and Salman Rushdie were at the show tonight. “Pride” is dedicated to Belafonte, and Bono mentions that Belafonte marched with Dr. King. “One” is dedicated to Salman Rushdie, and Bono mentions it is also for the resiliant residents of New York City in the face of terrorism, allowing the crowd to take over the vocal tonight. Others identified at the show include Christy Turlington, Jon Bon Jovi, Mario Batali, U2’s longtime producer Steve Lillywhite and director Spike Jonze. Chris Christie, the Governor of nearby New Jersey is also at the show.

A few small changes are seen throughout the show. When “People Have the Power” begins on the PA at the start of the show, we go to Bono on the video screen, who is backstage, and the camera follows him as he walks to the stage. The intermission video is “The Fly” which debuted at the last show in Boston. It looks like the band are happy with it and have decided to try it again.

Bono works in “Send in the Clowns” and “I Can See for Miles” during “The Electric Co.” tonight and “God Save the Queen” pops up in “Vertigo”. “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” is used in “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Love and Peace or Else” is referenced in “Until the End of the World”. In the second act, “Burning Down the House” (Talking Heads) and “Young Americans” (David Bowie) both pop up in “Mysterious Ways”. “In the Garden” by Van Morrison pops up in “With or Without You” which also contains the “Shine Like Stars” verse tonight. “19” makes its usual appearance in “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “The Hands that Built America” appears between “Bullet” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”. “I Remember You” appears at the end of “Beautiful Day” and “Mother and Child Reunion” opens “Where the Streets Have No Name” which also has references to U2’s own “Summer Rain” and “California (There is no End to Love)”.

For each show at the Garden, a unique T-shirt and poster is sold, dated with the date of the performance. The back lists all eight dates, and has U2 over top of the symbol for protection used on the album. The front has the U2 over the symbol, surrounded with stars and listing “Madison Square Garden * NYC” in a design reminiscent of some older Ramones logos. Tonight the shirt is bright blue.

The first four New York shows were announced on December 3, 2014. Pre-sales for U2.com members started on December 4, and the general sale for these started on December 8, 2014. Unlike the other shows in North America which used credit cards for entry, this show used hard tickets.

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