2015-07-30

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"
"Satellite of 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"
"Mother and Child Reunion"
"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:

A Little Night Music

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 seventh of eight shows.

It’s an odd night for the band on stage tonight with a lot of people joining the band on stage throughout the night. The guests start with Mark (U2Brothr), a Canadian fan, who was on stage in Montreal and again on Toronto with his band Acrobat. He is brought up to do the Meerkat filming of the band tonight.

Bono then speaks about his accident and shares that the woman who called 911 after his bike accident is with them in the arena. She is on the floor with two fire fighters who responded to the call. Bono speaks with them from the stage and shares a shot of Jameson with the firefighters when they offer it. Bono introduces the woman as being from Denver, and when she gets to speak, she corrects Bono sharing that she’s from Washington DC. And continues to speak about how she had to be the one to call 911 because no one from New York wanted to do anything about it. Further comments perceived as insults about New York draw boos from the crowd. It’s the first time we can remember hearing loud sustained boos at a U2 show since the U2360 crowd booed Bono because of a political statement made in Istanbul.

A final guest is there to perform. Paul Simon joins the band on stage during the encore to perform “Mother and Child Reunion” in person with the band. The song has been used in the show since the tour started as an introduction to “Where the Streets Have No Name” and we get to hear it with Simon on vocals and a more complete version of the song.

Although not present on stage, the late Lou Reed makes an appearance tonight as well, via a pre-recorded video that had been used on the Zoo TV tour. On that tour, Reed sang on the screens as Bono dueted live. Bono speaks about Lou Reed, a New York resident and also speaks about recently meeting with Laurie Anderson was was married to Reed. Anderson was at the show this evening. “It’s 30 years ago last week that our band played Live Aid in London at Wembley Arena. On that occasion, we sent a signal to somebody we loved, in his apartment here in New York. Lou Reed, like everybody else, was watching television and Lou Reed found this message that we sent via satellite and we became friends. He was the poet laureate of New York City, can we agree? And we have the privilege of having his partner here, Laurie Anderson who’s another extraordinary, gifted friend of ours. So we want to play for her, and all of you, a song of his that speaks of that moment when friendships begin in those random, extraordinary moments.”

Once again tonight, like the previous show in New York, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is on the set list, but the band chooses to play “One” instead.

“Send in the Clowns”, “Helter Skelter” and “I Can See for Miles” all make appearances in “The Electric Co.” and “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?” pops up in “Vertigo”. “Love and Peace or Else” and “Words” by the Bee Gees appear in “Until the End of the World”. Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” is included in “Mysterious Ways” as is Bowie’s “Young Americans”. “19” appears during Bono’s monologue in “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “The Hands that Built America” is in the transition between that song and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”. “I Remember You” by The Ramones is included in “Beautiful Day” and “Satellite of Love” by Lou Reed is included in “With or Without You”. “California (There is no End to Love)” is referenced in “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “All You Need is Love” is included in “One”.

Spotted at the show tonight are musicians Julian Lennon, Simon LeBon, lead singer of Duran Duran, and Mike Peters, lead singer of The Alarm. Actress Jessica Chastain and former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton are also at the show, as is Jann Wenner from Rolling Stone magazine.

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 light grey.

An additional show for New York was first announced on January 26, but no information on dates were given at that time. The seventh show for New York was fully announced on February 3, 2015. Pre-sales started for U2.com members on February 4, and the general sale for this show started on February 10, 2014. Unlike the other shows in North America which used credit cards for entry, this show used hard tickets.

Officially Released Tracks