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| photo: Danny North / U2 |
U2 launched their Experience + Innocence Tour at the BOK Center in Tulsa, OK on May 2, and the group are streaming video from opening night online.
Following 2017’s trek celebrating the 30th anniversary of “The Joshua Tree”, Rolling Stone reports one of the biggest surprises of the evening was that the group did not perform a single song from the landmark record after being the backbone of their live shows for decades.
U2’s 27-song set began with Bono standing alone in the middle of the translucent video wall singing the live debut of "Love Is All We Have Left," the opening track from 2017’s “Songs Of Experience.” Fans were encouraged to watch the performance on their cellphones via the band's new app for an augmented reality moment that created a giant, ghostly image of the singer.
The production for the 2018 run features the same stage from the band’s 2015 Innocence + Experience tour, which separates the arena into two halves with an immersive video screen the band literally enters.
The Tulsa show delivered the live debuts of several tracks from “Songs Of Experience”, rarely-played tunes like “All Because Of You” from 2004’s “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb”, “Staring At The Sun” from 1997’s “Pop”, and a pair of songs from 1991’s “Achtung Baby” – “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” and the first-ever performance of “Acrobat.”
Prior to the tour, “Songs Of Experience” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 to earn the group their eighth US chart-topper and first since 2009’s “No Line On The Horizon.”
The North American leg of the Experience + Innocence Tour wraps up in Uncasville, CT on July 3, following which U2 will play a series of fall European dates starting in Berlin, Germany on August 31.
See also:
U2 issue Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way video
U2 nominated for four Billboard Music Awards
U2 premiere American Soul video
U2 announce trio of vinyl reissues
Search U2 at hennemusic
