2015-07-26

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA

Set List of Show:

Act One:

"The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)"
"Gloria"
"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"
"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"
"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:

"Gloria" (Van Morrison) / "Stairway To Heaven" (Led Zeppelin) / "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Patrick Gilmore) / "Love and Peace or Else" (U2) / "Young Americans" (David Bowie) / "The Hands that Built America" (U2) / "Born This Way" (Lady Gaga) / "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 fifth of eight shows.

The big surprise tonight is a special guest who joins U2 on stage. All day long it is rumoured that Lady Gaga will be at the show. And indeed she is, she joins U2 for “Ordinary Love” tonight after Bono asks if anyone is in the crowd who can play piano. She takes the stage in lingerie, and funky shoes by McQueen, and plays piano through the song as well as providing vocals. Like the appearance of Jimmy Fallon a few nights earlier, the Lady Gaga appearance draws international media attention on the shows. Bono shares at the end of the song, “extraordinary girl, Lady Gaga, princess, queen, Wonder Woman of New York City, just incredible!” Later Gaga shared online, “Thanks for letting me sit in last night guys U2, thanks for ripping with me in the garden. That was special, plus I love Irishmen.”

During “Mysterious Ways” a fan from Japan named Mariko takes the stage, wearing a full kimono outfit and holding a fan with the Irish flag. She remains on the stage for the Meerkat segment to film the band. After a run of shows with a mixed up set list, the band returns to the flow that they had done at all of the shows up until Boston. This means “City of Blinding Lights” starts the encore again (and is complete with Stephen Hawking video).

There are a few changes through the show. For the fourth New York show U2 went back to the Johnny Cash intermission video after having used the Gavin Friday “Fly” video for four shows. Tonight they cycle back to the Gavin Friday video. There are also reports of new graphics during some of the video elements of the show.

Van Morrison’s “Gloria” makes an appearance during U2’s song of the same name. “Stairway To Heaven” makes an appearance in “Cedarwood Road” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” appears in “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. “Love and Peace or Else” is referenced during “Until the End of the World”. In the second act “Young Americans” makes an appearance in “Mysterious Ways”. “The Hands that Built America” fills in the transition between “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and Lady Gaga is quoted during “Beautiful Day” with Bono singing a bit of “Born This Way”. “Mother and Child Reunion” is used to introduce “Where the Streets Have No Name” which also includes a reference to “California (There is no End to Love)”. “One” includes the “there is no them, there’s only us” verse in “One” and also includes a bit of The Beatles’ “All You Need is 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 white with maroon coloured printing.

The fifth and sixth show for New York were announced on December 9, 2014. Pre-sales for U2.com members started on December 10, and the general sale for these started on December 10, 2014. Unlike the other shows in North America which used credit cards for entry, this show used hard tickets.

Officially Released Tracks