2019-11-08

Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"New Year's Day"
"Bad"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"With or Without You"
"Bullet the Blue Sky"
"Running to Stand Still"
"Red Hill Mining Town"
"In God's Country"
"Trip Through Your Wires"
"One Tree Hill"
"Exit"
"Mothers of the Disappeared"
"Angel of Harlem"

Encore:

"Elevation"
"Vertigo"
"Even Better Than the Real Thing"
"Every Breaking Wave"
"Beautiful Day"
"Ultra Violet (Light My Way)"
"Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way"
"One"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "The Whole of the Moon" - The Waterboys
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Fall At Your Feet" - Crowded House

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

West Side Story

Show Details:

U2 returns to New Zealand for the first time since the U2360 tour in 2010. This show was announced on May 31, 2019 after a series of rumours, leaks and pushed back announcements. Ticket sales for the show started on June 5, 2019 for fan club members, and general sales started on June 11. Initially only one show for Auckland was announced, and that show was quickly announced as a sell out. A second show for Auckland was announced on June 11, 2019. This show in Auckland was the first show of the tour, and U2 did rehearse in Auckland for a number of days in advance of the tour. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds was the opening act for the show.

“New Year’s Day” includes the “golden age” verse that U2 started playing in 2017. While introducing “Bad” Bono commented on how long it took the band to get back to New Zealand, “Thank you for waiting. Thank you for letting us back in your country. Thank you for letting us back in your lives.” and later told the fans “Tonight our prayer is that we have one of those epic nights of rock and roll. A night we won’t forget. A night to let go of some things and hold on to others.” He includes a snippet of “America” in the song and talks about the ideal of America during “Bad,” “All around the world, the word freedom is being weighed and measured. Even in America — a country that was born of a dream of freedom and equality.”

“Where the Streets Have No Name” makes a return to U2’s live show after being dropped during the 2018 Experience + Innocence tour. Tonight Bono includes a snippet of “California (There is No End to Love)” as the song is performed. Introducing “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” Bono gives a shoutout to Shawn Mendes who is in the audience, and he finishes the song by letting the crowd belt out the lyrics.

During “One Tree Hill” Bono introduces the song and tells the audience about meeting Greg Carroll, who would work for the band, and become a close friend to them. “On our first trip to NZ a young man from the local crew told us there was something missing from our band. When we asked him what that was, he said me. And that’s where we began our relationship with Greg Carroll. We sort of adopted him or perhaps it was the other way around…” “Angel of Harlem” was played at the end of the songs from The Joshua Tree with Bono saying “That was the Joshua Tree, this is what happened next…” The song was last performed last summer at the Apollo Theater in New York on the very stage that the video for the song had been shot on.

“Elevation” opens the encore. It is accompanied from videos that had been shown with the song during the 2018 shows (the band walking out of the “barricage” video.) Mullen turns around to the camera and gives it a big thumbs up in a moment that harkens back to the 2017 tour. “Even Better Than the Real Thing” includes the 2018 introduction as well, including Bono’s declaration that Paul is dead, “I’m fucking Bono!” “Every Breaking Wave” starts out with just Bono and the Edge but Mullen and Clayton join in for the back half. “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” is accompanied by the video of luminous icons that were featured in 2017 as well.

“Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” features the band on the big screen while the song is played. “One” closes the show. The song had not been rehearsed on the outdoor stage this last week and was a bit of a surprise when it appeared on the set list early today. Before playing “One” Bono speaks about the terror attack in Christchurch earlier in the year, and mentions some of the people that were there were with them at the show tonight. He also speaks highly of how New Zealand handled itself with such grace in the face of that attack. The names of the victims appear on the screen behind U2 as they perform.

Throughout the night U2 posted short video clips for every song from different vantage points around the stadium on their Instagram Stories.

Entrance to the venue was delayed as the band completed a sound check in the afternoon before the crowd was allowed in. Like 2017, when the fans were allowed into the stadium there is poetry on display on the right hand side of the screen. We’ve been able to identify a few, and most have appeared in the 2017 show, such as “Puerto Rican Obituary” written by Pedro Pietri, “America iv” by Kate Hoyle, and “Powwow at the End of the World” by Sherman Alexie. Two new poems spotted tonight are Briar Wood’s “One World” and “Ahakoa he iti he pounamu” by Louise Wallace. Wood and Wallace are both New Zealand based writers and poets.

Merchandise is similar to 2017 offerings as well, but updated for the new tour. The “I Want to Run 1987” / “I Want to Hide 2019” shirt is a slight update on one offered before. The “Love is Bigger” T-shirt for women that appeared in 2018 is also for sale, as is an Innocence / Experience shirt with the full band standing with the words in blue and white. One beautiful new addition is a T-shirt that has a “painted silhouette” of The Joshua Tree in front of a red moon. On the back is the name of the tour, and the name of the city and the date. Unlike tour shirts on recent tours, the date does not list both shows in Auckland, only the show on November 8, 2019. It is not yet known if a shirt will be made available for each stop of the tour or if this is special just for the first show. Prices on merchandise run $45 for the tour hat, $55 for most T-shirts, and $35 for a childs T-shirt. (New Zealand dollars of course.) There was also a beer holder and a tour program for sale.

Officially Released Tracks