2019-12-04

Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"I Will Follow"
"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: "Never Tear Us Apart" - INXS

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

West Side Story

Show Details:

The band return to Tokyo for the first time since 2006. They are playing two nights at the Saitama Super Arena, an indoors venue, which because of the smaller size has the stage adjusted to fit with a shorter distance from the main stage to the tree. The show kicks off in an interesting way with a moderate earthquake at 4.7 on the Richter scale being felt just as Larry started to play “Sunday Bloody Sunday”.

The show is changed up for a bit during “Elevation” which is streamed live on the internet via Facebook as part of U2’s announcement of a new SiriusXM station which will also be available through the streaming service Pandora. The new images include mention of the station, U2X, as well additional writing at the start on the screen which said “I remember radio keeping me company under the sheets, I remember pirate radio out at sea rocking me to sleep, I think of radio as being air you can be on, I think of radio of bringing me to song” followed by the logo.

Other graphics are updated throughout the show, including writing in Japanese on the screen during the chorus of “Love is Bigger Than Anything In its Way”, during the “Trump film”, in the banner after “Ultra Violet” as well as the names of several females added for the Japan shows in the HerStory presentation which included Yoko Ono, and also at the end of “One”, as Japanese turned into the flag.

On the merchandise front, there is a new small towel available with a Joshua Tree print all over. The city t-shirt for the first night is the blue shirt with the moon design seen in previous cities. And as a gift to those seated in the venues higher priced seats, fans received an additional gift which was a cardboard holder with the tour name which included guitar picks similar to those that had been available in previous VIP books. Other new merchandise seen promoted as online only, is not at the shows, and is available for Asian residents to order.

The Fans at the show sing loudly and surprise Bono early in the show with their voices. They have missed the band and they certainly showed their love for them at this show.

Both shows in Saitama were announced with the initial announcement of the tour on May 30, 2019. This is due to the complexity of the ticketing process in Japan, and it was the only city where two shows were announced from the start of the tour. Unlike other shows, a VIP package is not made available for Japan. As an alternate, the majority of seats are labeled “SS Seats” and come with an exclusive gift, a package of guitar picks and a piece of drum head for the tour. Two other priced seats did not come with the gift. General admission, which is split into a rear and a front GA with two pricing levels also does not come with the gift. Red Zone, also did not get the gift, although they did get a collectors souvenir ticket.

Sales for the Japan market involve applying for tickets in advance and then a process of lottos assigning tickets. The U2 fan club sale was prior to this process and operated like a straightforward sale. The presale for U2.Com members started on June 4 with Red Hill members, with Wires members entering on the following day. The first presale for tickets through Ticket PIA started on June 14. The general on sale with any materials left over after the presales started on July 20, 2019.

Additional tickets were put on sale on November 20 for both shows when the production and layout of the show was finalized. Tickets were also put on sale at the venue on the day of both concerts.

General Admission was organized with ticket holders being lined up at 4:30pm by ticket number. They were held in numbered areas until the door opened, at which point each number was called starting out. One could arrive just before the doors open and enter in the order assigned to them. On the other hand, due to Red Zone tickets being distributed at the venue and the number given at the time of pick up, a line formed overnight to pick up these tickets.

Officially Released Tracks