eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour

The Experience + Innocence tour was a tour of indoor arenas which visited cities in Europe and North America. The tour made use of an upgraded version of their stage that had been used for the Innocence + Experience tour in 2015, saw Bono reintroduce his Macphisto character, and saw U2 perform "Acrobat" for the first time on tour. The tour was initially announced on November 1, 2017, with the European dates being announced on January 16, 2018. Dates for Dublin and Belfast were announced on January 26.

Experience + Innocence: Leg One [North America]

The first leg of the tour opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 2, 2018, after weeks of rehearsals in Laval, Quebec. This leg of the tour ran through to July 3, 2018, where U2 played the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT to one of the smallest audiences of the tour.

Tickets for the shows went on sale on November 20, 2018, and made use of Ticketmaster's Verified Fan program, which saw many fans unable to participate in sales and was a failure when it came to ensuring tickets went to fans and not to scalpers. Presales were held in advance of these dates through U2.Com (November 14-16), and through Citi Credit Cards (November 16-18.) Each ticket purchased for the North American leg of the tour came bundled with a copy of the album, Songs of Experience.

A show for Toronto is scheduled between Atlanta and Montreal, but staff at the Air Canada Centre reveal that plans for the show are eventually cancelled due to the possibility that the venue will be needed for hockey playoffs and unavailable.

Two shows were filmed for a possible home video release, both of the shows in Washington DC. Upon review of the footage, it was felt that it was too similar to the 2015 tour footage, and the band embarked on a path to change the set list for the second leg of the tour.

Experience + Innocence: Leg Two [Europe]

The second leg of the Experience + Innocence tour got off to a rough start. At the second concert of the tour leg, in Berlin, Bono struggled with his voice only five songs in, attempted a sixth and then the band left the stage. It was later announced the show was canceled and would be rescheduled. It appears that the smoke generated for the concert may have affected his voice. It was announced the second Berlin concert would be rescheduled at the end of the tour, and the band were able to make their next appearance.

Although early shows were quite similar to the US concerts, the band were heard practicing a number of new songs at soundchecks throughout the early cities. Review of the film footage from the first leg of the tour had left the band concerned that the songs played were too similar to the Innocence + Experience home video, and worked to introduce new songs to the set prior to filming the last show in Berlin. These changes started to appear when the band were in Copenhagen, and additional work was being done on the show right up until the final show in Berlin. The band would also film Manchester as a dress rehearsal, and some filming was done at other shows along the way, including Larry Mullen wearing a set of video glasses in Dublin.

After the difficulties experienced on the first leg of sales, the Verified Ticket system was not used for these European shows.

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