2015-07-22

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 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"
"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 Wanderer" - U2 with Johnny Cash

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

"40" (U2) / "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Patrick Gilmore) / "19" (Paul Hardcastle) / "The Hands that Built America" (U2) / "Summer in the City" (The Lovin' Spoonful) / "I Remember You" (The Ramones) / "Mother and Child Reunion" (Paul Simon) / "California (There is no End to Love)" (U2) / "All You Need is Love" (The Beatles) /

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 third of eight shows.

“Out of Control” appears early in the set list tonight, and Bono includes what appears to be a reference to “40” singing “How long” repeatedly during the song.

Bono is looking for someone to join them on stage tonight. Tonight, there’s a fan in the audience holding up a sign saying “Singer with a Broken Finger”. Bono pulls him up on the stage for the show, and it turns out it is late night host Jimmy Fallon, who joins the band for a version of “Desire” singing on the track with Bono. After “Desire” he asks “how great is tonight? This is one of the best shows I’ve every seen in the history of any concert” as Bono holds the phone for Meerkat. Fallon then introduces The Roots who join in to play “Angel of Harlem”. Questlove takes over on drums for Larry, who moves over to tambourine for the song. It’s clear that the whole thing has been rehearsed ahead of time, and is likely the surprise that Steve Lillywhite was teasing ahead of the show. Fallon is wearing bandages on his hand due to a recent accident. The appearance on stage with U2 gets international attention from the entertainment press.

During “One” Bono mentions another guest in the house tonight. Paul McCartney is in the house, and Bono adds a bit of “All You Need is Love” to “One” to celebrate him being there and calls him an “activist of the heart, soul and mind”.

The video with Stephen Hawking that preceded “Miracle Drug” and later “City of Blinding Lights” has now been moved to the start of “Beautiful Day”. The intermission video continues to be the Gavin Friday version of “The Fly” which was introduced during the last show in Boston.

“When Johnny Comes Marching Home” appears during “Sunday Bloody Sunday” as it has most shows. “Bullet the Blue Sky” contains “19” (Paul Hardcastle) and “The Hands that Built America” still fills the space between “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”. “Summer in the City” by The Lovin’ Spoonful makes an appearance in “Beautiful Day” which also includes “I Remember You”. “Mother and Child Reunion” is used at the start of “Where the Streets Have No Name” which includes a reference to U2’s “California (There is no End to Love)”. “One” includes “All You Need is Love”.

Others in the house tonight include musicians Angelique Kidjo, Alicia Keys and Nile Rodgers. Mario Batali is back for another show, having attended one of the earlier shows, and Helena Christensen and Christy Turlington are there as well. Steve Lillywhite, long time producer of the band is present as well. And US politicans Nita Lowey and Rick Santorum are both reported to be at the show.

In the rehearsals ahead of the show, a surprise is heard, “Two Hearts Beat As One” is being worked on, but does not appear in the show this evening.

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 navy 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.

Officially Released Tracks