2022-11-09

Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN

Set List of Show:

"City Of Blinding Lights"
"Vertigo"
"With or Without You"
"Out of Control"
"Stories for Boys"
"I Will Follow"
"Iris (Hold Me Close)"
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"Desire"
"Beautiful Day"
"Torna a Surriento"

Encore

"City Of Blinding Lights"

Other Music Used in Show (Non-Bono Performances)

"Gloria"
"October"
"Into the Heart"
"Miss Sarajevo"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Empire State Human" - The Human League
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "La Traviata Act I: Dell'invito trascorsa e gia l'ora" - Dame Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Matteo Manuguerra

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by Bono:

Cabaret

Show Details:

This is the fifth night of Bono’s “Stories of Surrender” 14-city book tour being held in small theatre settings. It is the first night that the shows have been held back to back, following a performance in Chicago the night before. This evening Bono is performing at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nasville, TN. The venue, at one time known as the Grand Ole Opry House is part of the National Register of Historic Places in the USA, and a National Historic Landmark. The building opened in 1892, but there were events held on the current site even earlier than that. At a capacity of 2362, the venue is the smallest that Bono has visited on the tour to date, but upcoming shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dublin, Berlin and Madrid will all be at smaller venues.

Bono is accompanied by Jacknife Lee on keyboards and percussion. Kate Ellis is on cello. And Gemma Doherty provides backing vocals as well as performing on harp and keyboards. The three are accompanying Bono for the full tour. Tonight in Nashville, Bono’s voice is reported to be strong with no rough spots. On the way into the venue, Bono did meet briefly with the crowd, but it was short, and Bono refrained from speaking to save his voice for the event, also claiming that he was late for rehearsals.

The songs performed were the same at all of the previous shows on the tour, and included an encore of “City of Blinding Lights” which has been done at each show except for Toronto. During “Desire” Bono did reference Elvis Presley, and got a bit of a shout out, as well as Bono adding a few Elvis moves to the show as has been done in earlier shows as well. “Pride (In the Name of Love)” got one of the biggest reactions from the crowd for the evening. He called the Ryman Auditorium “the mother church” early in the show.

Bono mentioned that Ali was there, as were some of the Stewart family (Ali’s family) and Guy Oseary. Dave Stewart of the Eurthymics was also spotted at the show, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by The Edge just days before. Chris Rock was also at the show, the actor / comedian accompanied Bono on his 2002 speaking tour, The Heart of America. Astronaut Shane Kimbrough is also in attendance. Kimbrough was also in attendance at a show in 2009, where he got to help start the show from the control room. And former Senator from Tennessee, Bill Frist is at the show, and is name-checked from the stage.

The Tennessean wrote of the show, “Decked out in black and armed with two simple backdrops adorned with hand-drawn sketches, white spotlights and a microphone, Bono’s performance art would hold the entire audience in the palm of his hands for the better part of 90 minutes by acting out, singing and reliving his life from childhood to the early days of U2 and beyond.” The full review is available here.

Tickets for the event went on sale on October 7, 2022. Tickets were sold via AXS, and were available at five prices, $57, $77, $97, $152 and $252. A U2.Com pre-sale was held for current members on October 6, 2022. The event was an all ages event, and tickets were digital, with transfers not allowed until November 6, 2022.

The day after this show Bono visited Parnassus books in Nashville, and signed copies of his book, which was then sold through the store. These are now sold out.

Many thanks to Michelle, Nicole, David, Kami and Andrew for their assistance with this report.

Officially Released Tracks