2023-04-28

Beacon Theatre, New York, NY

Set List of Show:

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"
Non-Bono Performances / Instrumentals:

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

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Empire State Human" - The Human League

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by Bono:

    "Piece of My Heart" (Janis Joplin) / "Miracle Drug" (U2) / "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen) / "Glad to See You Go" (The Ramones) / "Crumbs from Your Table" (U2) / "Money Money" (from Cabaret) /

Show Details:

This was the sixth night of Bono’s run of 11 shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The theatre, capacity 2894, was also where the first leg of the tour started, and Bono will return to the theatre the day after the final show to film a performance. Bono performed with Kate Ellis on cello and backing vocal, Jacknife Lee on keyboard and percussion and Gemma Doherty on backing vocals, harp and keyboard.

The show like others on the tour, started around 8:30 and ran for approximately two hours. The show is advertised as sold out, but there was a large drop of orchestra tickets in the afternoon and these could still be seen as available a half-hour prior to the show.

The show continues to be similar to the ones from last fall, although even now they continue to make tweaks and small changes throughout. Tonight some additional lighting elements are noticed, and Bono embellishes his stories a little more. The songs are the same as other nights on this leg, and “City of Blinding Lights” appears only once in the show. Throughout the night Bono seems looser than earlier shows on this leg, it looks like he’s finding his groove, and starting to really enjoy these performances.

Tonight when speaking about U2’s outsized props he amends the list to include “a giant claw, space stations, mirror ball lemons and spheres” referring to the upcoming Las Vegas shows starting in September. The crowd tonight are very animated, and after “With or Without You” someone interrupts Bono with a shout of “I love you”, Bono responds, “I love you too. That’s surreal, to fall in love with strangers, it’s kind of beautiful, also surreal.” The snippet of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart” includes Bono singing “I love that oxycontin feeling baby”.

Snippets of other songs are sprinkled throughout the presentation. Bono recites some of the lyrics from “Miracle Drug” as well. There’s a brief reference to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” ahead as Bono introduces Gemma Doherty on the harp, which Bono does in an imitation of Cohen’s deep voice. Bono also sings along to the Ramones’ “Glad to See You Go” ahead of “Out of Control”. Bono quotes the line “Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die” from “Crumbs from Your Table” as the music builds for “Where the Streets Have No Name”. “Money, Money” from Cabaret appears in “Desire” as it had during other shows on the tour.

There are other moments of U2 music in the show “Into the Heart” can be heard on harp at one point under Bono’s story, although Bono does not reference the song or sing it at all. “Gloria” can be heard in the backing with vocals by Gemma Doherty. “October” can also be heard as an instrumental. But Bono isn’t performing on these.

The event was a phones free event, and phones were collected as people entered the theatre and placed into locked pouches. Your phone is with you during the performance but can only be unlocked in certain areas of the theatre lobby, and is unlocked upon ending.

The theatre, located on the Upper West Side of New York opened in 1929. It was originally built as a movie theatre, and these days is used as an entertainment venue by Madison Square Garden Entertainment. The theatre is a New York City interior landmark and is also on the National Register of Historic Places. The Beacon makes use of a new audio system, Sphere Immersive Sound (yes, the same Sphere as Las Vegas) to provide state-of-the-art sound to each seat in the venue.

These additional shows were announced on December 12, 2022. A pre-sale for U2.com subscribers was held on December 13, 2022 for these added shows, starting at 10am local time. For the pre-sale tickets were limited. Tickets ranged from $105 (upper balcony) including fees, and went to $441 (orchestra). Additional tickets were available at $162 for the loge and lower balcony, and $313 for the loge and orchestra back seats. There was a four ticket limit for the presale. Tickets do not include a copy of Bono’s book. The main ticket sale happened on December 15, at 10am local time. Unlike the pre-sale, platinum priced tickets were available throughout most of the venue, with the exception of some upper balcony seats. These platinum priced tickets were priced well above the prices seen during the pre-sale.

A big thank you to Kelly and Harry for assistance with the above.

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Officially Released Tracks

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