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Review: U2 Revisits ‘The Joshua Tree’ in the Here and Now

By Jon Pareles

• May 15, 2017

SEATTLE — U2 doesn’t want to become an oldies act. But that Irish band couldn’t resist booking a tour of quickly sold-out stadium concerts featuring all the songs from its 1987 album, “The Joshua Tree” — songs that were still both brash and high-minded when U2 performed them here on Sunday night at CenturyLink Field. It was the first United States show, after a premiere in Vancouver, of an extensive world tour . The band will also release elaborate, expanded 30th-anniversary editions of the album.

U2 has been laboring over new songs. According to Bono, U2’s lead singer, the band had finished recording “Songs of Experience” — the sequel to its 2014 album, “Songs of Innocence” — but the 2016 elections sent the tracks back for further rewrites. At least one new song is finished; the concert included it, “The Little Things That Give You Away.”

“The Joshua Tree” was worth revisiting. It was a pivotal album for U2, one that announced and then fulfilled grand aspirations. The songs pondered 1980s America as both myth and presence: its landscape, its ideals of freedom and openness, its culture, its sensuality, its violence. The lyrics addressed spiritual and romantic quests along with political and economic predicaments, connecting them with language that drew on the Bible and Beat poetry.

Meanwhile, the music on “The Joshua Tree” decisively expanded U2’s scope with a new influx of American sounds, a growing assurance in layering rhythms and textures, and a recognition of rock’s history before punk, back to Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground. With “The Joshua Tree,” U2 assumed the mantle of a generationally important band.

“The Joshua Tree” was also a worldwide hit album that propelled U2 onto the stadium and arena circuit, where it has remained. It included U2’s only two No. 1 singles in the United States, “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”: songs about seeking love, faith and answers.

U2 started the concert on a small stage, lighted simply as if it were playing a club and performing songs from albums before “The Joshua Tree”: thoughts on terror (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”), displacement (“A Sort of Homecoming”), longing (“New Year’s Day”) and transcendence (“Bad”), full of arm-waving, chorus-singing audience participation.

During “Pride (In the Name of Love),” the 1984 song about the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a towering video screen showed words from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Then, for the performance of “The Joshua Tree,” the whole screen lit up and the band members took places on the full-sized stadium stage. They were ascending the way their career did.

“The Joshua Tree” was performed against that video backdrop, often with starkly beautiful desert scenes by Anton Corbijn, the photographer for the “Joshua Tree” album cover and many other U2 graphics. The band was dwarfed, but the music wasn’t. Larry Mullen Jr. on drums, Adam Clayton on bass and the Edge on guitar tore into the urgent rhythmic flux of “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Against the craggy postpunk groove of “Bullet the Blue Sky,” both Bono’s falsetto and the Edge’s guitar leads were keening sirens.

“The Joshua Tree” was a high-water mark of an era when leading rockers were eager to be role models and do-gooders, giving benefit concerts like Live Aid and Amnesty International’s Conspiracy of Hope tour , which both included U2. A backlash would dismiss similar efforts as naïve or pretentious, but U2 has persisted. It doesn’t write scolding protests; it strives for empathy, hope and, ultimately, exaltation.

One reason to revive “The Joshua Tree” is that its concerns — personal, societal, mystical — haven’t disappeared. Some of its songs hold eerie resonances with present American problems. “Running to Stand Still” is a portrait of an addict, while “Red Hill Mining Town” contemplates vanishing mining jobs. For “Mothers of the Disappeared,” an elegy for political prisoners, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam sang a verse, and U2 was also joined by Ben Harper and the concert’s openers, Mumford & Sons.

Before “Exit,” the screen showed a clip from a 1950s television show, “Trackdown,” about a con-man character named Walter Trump who promised to build a wall for safety. Then, after showing Robert Mitchum’s hands tattooed “Love” and “Hate” from his role as a fanatic preacher and killer in “The Night of the Hunter,” Bono strutted and gesticulated, declaiming the song in a black suit and preacher’s hat.

Songs from U2’s post-1980s catalog were linked to causes. Graphics turned “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” into a celebration of present and historical — make that herstorical — female achievers. “One” was dedicated to the battle against H.I.V./AIDS and to Bono’s antipoverty organization, ONE . In “Miss Sarajevo” by Passengers, a U2 side project, images of wartime devastation, refugees and a 15-year-old Syrian girl dreaming of immigrating to the United States were shown as Bono sang, “Is there a time for keeping your distance/A time to turn your eyes away,” and later recited the Emma Lazarus poem “The New Colossus,” from the Statue of Liberty.

Still, U2 refused to rest entirely on its past. Its new song, “The Little Things That Give You Away,” has lyrics about anxieties and a creative crisis: “So far away from believing/That any song will reappear,” Bono sang. The music started out as a moody piano ballad, but before the end the momentum had multiplied, with a doubletime beat and even faster rhythm guitar.

The band couldn’t let that energy go; Bono impulsively called for an oldie, “I Will Follow,” U2’s first single. Bono urged the crowd to take the roof off, but this was U2’s longtime habitat, a stadium. There was no roof.

U2’s ‘The Joshua Tree’ Tour Through Aug. 1; comes to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on June 28-29; www.u2.com/tour.

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The Joshua Tree Tour

Leg one: united states.

• 1987-04-02: Arizona State University Activity Center, Tempe, AZ, USA
• 1987-04-04: Arizona State University Activity Center, Tempe, AZ, USA
• 1987-04-05: Tucson Community Center, Tucson, AZ, USA
• 1987-04-07: Summit, Houston, TX, USA
• 1987-04-08: Summit, Houston, TX, USA
• 1987-04-10: Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM, USA
• 1987-04-12: Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV, USA
• 1987-04-13: San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA, USA
• 1987-04-14: San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA, USA
• 1987-04-17: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California
• 1987-04-18: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• 1987-04-20: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• 1987-04-21: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena , Los Angeles, CA, USA
• 1987-04-22: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena , Los Angeles, CA, USA
• 1987-04-24: Cow Palace, San Francisco, California
• 1987-04-25: Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA, USA
• 1987-04-29: Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, IL, USA
• 1987-04-30: Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, MI, USA
• 1987-05-02: Centrum in Worcester, Worcester, MA, USA
• 1987-05-03: Centrum in Worcester, Worcester, MA, USA
• 1987-05-04: Centrum in Worcester, Worcester, MA, USA
• 1987-05-07: Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT, USA
• 1987-05-08: Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT, USA
• 1987-05-09: Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT, USA
• 1987-05-11: Brenden Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA
• 1987-05-12: Brenden Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA
• 1987-05-13: Brenden Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA
• 1987-05-15: Brenden Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA
• 1987-05-16: Brenden Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA

Leg Two: Europe

• 1987-05-27: Stadio Flaminio, Rome, Italy
• 1987-05-29: Stadio Alberto Braglia, Modena, Italy
• 1987-05-30: Stadio Alberto Braglia, Modena, Italy
• 1987-06-02: Wembley Arena, London, England
• 1987-06-03: National Exhibition Centre Arena, Birmingham, England
• 1987-06-06: Eriksberg Shipyard Docks, Gothenburg, Sweden
• 1987-06-12: Wembley Stadium, London, England
• 1987-06-13: Wembley Stadium, London, England
• 1987-06-15: Le Zénith, Paris, France
• 1987-06-17: Müngersdorfer Stadion, Cologne, Germany
• 1987-06-21: St. Jakob Stadium, Basel, Switzerland
• 1987-06-24: King's Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
• 1987-06-27: Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland
• 1987-06-28: Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland
• 1987-07-01: Elland Road Stadium, Leeds, England
• 1987-07-04: Hippodrome de Vincennes, Paris, France
• 1987-07-08: Vorst National, Brussels, Belgium
• 1987-07-10: Stadion Feijenoord, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• 1987-07-11: Stadion Feijenoord, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• 1987-07-15: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain
• 1987-07-18: Espace Richter, Montpellier, France
• 1987-07-21: Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany
• 1987-07-22: Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany
• 1987-07-25: Arms Park, Cardiff, Wales
• 1987-07-29: Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
• 1987-07-30: Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
• 1987-08-01: Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland
• 1987-08-03: National Exhibition Centre Arena, Birmingham, England
• 1987-08-04: National Exhibition Centre Arena, Birmingham, England
• 1987-08-08: Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork, Ireland

Leg Three: North America

• 1987-09-10: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum , Uniondale, NY, USA
• 1987-09-11: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum , Uniondale, NY, USA
• 1987-09-12: Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA, USA
• 1987-09-14: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, USA
• 1987-09-17: Boston Garden, Boston, MA, USA
• 1987-09-18: Boston Garden, Boston, MA, USA
• 1987-09-20: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium , Washington, DC, USA
• 1987-09-22: Sullivan Stadium, Foxborough, MA, USA
• 1987-09-23: New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT, USA
• 1987-09-25: John F Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, PA, USA
• 1987-09-28: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
• 1987-09-29: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
• 1987-10-01: Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• 1987-10-03: Canadian National Exhibition Stadium, Toronto, ON, Canada
• 1987-10-06: Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, OH, USA
• 1987-10-07: Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, NY, USA
• 1987-10-09: Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY, USA
• 1987-10-11: Silver Stadium, Rochester, NY, USA
• 1987-10-13: Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
• 1987-10-20: Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, IA, USA
• 1987-10-22: Assembly Hall, Champaign, IL, USA
• 1987-10-23: Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY, USA
• 1987-10-25: St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, MO, USA
• 1987-10-26: Kemper Arena, Kansas City, MO, USA
• 1987-10-28: Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, IL, USA
• 1987-10-29: Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, IL, USA
• 1987-10-30: Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, IL, USA
• 1987-11-01: Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, IN, USA
• 1987-11-03: St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, MI, USA
• 1987-11-04: St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, MI, USA
• 1987-11-07: McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, CO, USA
• 1987-11-08: McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, CO, USA
• 1987-11-12: BC Place, Vancouver, BC, Canada
• 1987-11-14: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA, USA
• 1987-11-15: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA, USA
• 1987-11-17: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• 1987-11-18: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• 1987-11-22: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, TX, USA
• 1987-11-23: Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA
• 1987-11-24: Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA
• 1987-11-26: Louisiana State University Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
• 1987-11-28: Charles M. Murphy Athletic Center, Murfreesboro, TN, USA
• 1987-12-03: Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL, USA
• 1987-12-05: Tampa Stadium, Tampa, FL, USA
• 1987-12-08: Omni Coliseum, Atlanta, Georgia
• 1987-12-09: Omni Coliseum, Atlanta, GA, USA
• 1987-12-11: Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA, USA
• 1987-12-12: Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA, USA
• 1987-12-19: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ, USA
• 1987-12-20: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ, USA

Related News: The Joshua Tree 1987 Tour

• "New Music Division At Tyne Tees" (1987-05-30)
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Massive U2 Joshua Tree 2017 Tour stage takes shape at Lucas Oil

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Setlist Playlist: Exploring Songs on U2's Joshua Tree Tour 2019

• Last updated: 22 Nov 2019, 20:07:29
• Published: 22 Nov 2019, 20:07:25
• Written by: Hannah Cotter
• Photography by: Mark Metcalfe
• Categories: Tour Guide Tagged: U2 The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 U2 at Sydney Cricket Ground

It's been 32 years since U2 released their breakthrough album, The Joshua Tree. It was their fifth studio album, following 1984's The Unforgettable Fire, and turned the band into household names.

U2 are currently on the road in support of the landmark, bringing the tour to places they promised they'd bring it to. They kicked off the 2019 Joshua Tree Tour November 8 in Auckland, New Zealand and are making their way through Australia before heading to Singapore, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and India.

Members Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. have been performing a 16-song main set with an eight-song encore, highlighting some of their greatest hits before playing The Joshua Tree in full.

Here's one of their recent setlists:

Cue up our 2019 Joshua Tree Tour Setlist Playlist on Spotify and keep reading for a closer look at some of the songs on U2's seminal album that they're bringing back on tour.

"Where The Streets Have No Name"

This fan-favorite is the opening track to Joshua Tree, and was released as the album's third single in August 1987.

The music for "Where The Streets Have No Name" originated from a demo that The Edge composed the night before the band resumed their Joshua Tree sessions. He said he wanted to "conjure up the ultimate U2 live song."

It's the group's fourth most-played live song ever, having been performed 896 times since its debut . (Fun fact: U2 shot the music video for this song the day they played it live for the first time!)

The song peaked at No. 13 in the US and won a Grammy for Best Performance Music Video.

"With Or Without You"

"With Or Without You" was the album's lead single, and like "Where The Streets Have No Name," it originated from a demo. In an interview around the song's release, Bono explained the meaning behind the line "and you give yourself away."

"It's about how I feel in U2 at times," he said. "Exposed. I'm not going to do many interviews this year. Because there's a cost to my personal life, and a cost to the group as well."

The Edge used a distortion device called an "infinite guitar" to create the song's signature wail sound. The instrument was invented by Michael Brook – whom The Edge worked with on the soundtrack to the 1986 film "The Captive."

"Running To Stand Still"

This track showcases U2's American music influences on the album. It incorporates elements of folk rock and acoustic blues, and a lot of the music was improvised by co-producer Daniel Lanois during a recording session. The band cites Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" as inspirations for the track.

The lyrics, on the other hand, were inspired by Bono's Dublin roots. He refers to the city's heroin epidemic in the 80s, as he does in songs "Bad" and "Wire."

"I used to see words as music and my voice as an instrument," Bono said .

"It was the sound of the words as much as the sense that interested me. The way they bumped against each other, not necessarily their meaning. The idea of a couplet I think I discovered about two years ago, talking with Elvis Costello. But my writing at best is still sort of subconscious. 'Running to Stand Still' is pretty much as I wrote it the first time, as a sort of prose poem."

The song has been played live 402 times – nearly half as many times as "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "With or Without You."

"Mothers Of The Disappeared"

"Mothers Of The Disappeared" is the eleventh and final track on The Joshua Tree. The song was inspired by Bono's time in Nicaragua and El Salvador in 1986, following the band's benefit shows on their Conspiracy of Hope Tour.

U2 debuted "Mothers Of The Disappeared" on the first leg of The Joshua Tree Tour, where it closed in place of the band's long-time closing song, "40." They played it a few times on other legs, but didn't add it to the setlist again until 1988's PopMart Tour. They stopped playing it for eight years, bringing it back in 2006 on the Vertigo Tour.

It's been played live 73 times, making it the band's 95th most-played song.

Check out U2's remaining Joshua Tree tour dates below, and head to their website for tour and ticket info!

U2's 2019 Joshua Tree Tour dates:

11/23 – Sydney, Australia @ Sydney Cricket Ground

11/27 – Perth, Australia @ Optus Stadium

11/30 – Kallang, Singapore @ National Stadium

12/01 – Kallang, Singapore @ National Stadium

12/04 – Tokyo, Japan @ Saitama Super Arena

12/05 – Tokyo, Japan @ Saitama Super Arena

12/08 – Seoul, South Korea @ Gocheok Sky Dome

12/11 – Manila, Philipines @ Philipine Arena

12/15 – Mumbai, India @ DY Patil Stadium

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Most played songs.

• I Will Follow ( 1060 )
• Pride (In the Name of Love) ( 1026 )
• Sunday Bloody Sunday ( 948 )
• Where the Streets Have No Name ( 945 )
• With or Without You ( 879 )

More U2 statistics

Gigs seen live by

24,857 people have seen U2 live.

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U2: The Joshua Tree Tour [Concert Review]

Brian Q. Newcomb | July 3, 2017 July 3, 2017 | Concert Reviews , Reviews

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16 Memorable Moments From U2’s First ‘Joshua Tree’ Tour

The Joshua Tree was more than a hit album. It was, as the below gallery of 16 Facts About U2 's first Joshua Tree  Tour shows, part of a phenomenon – and one that would change the band forever.

As their No. 1 1987 album went supernova, so did U2. Already on their first headlining tour, the group moved from indoor arenas to football stadiums over the course of these shows. Their sound was changing too.

During the sessions for The Joshua Tree , producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois had encouraged the group to seek out inspiration from American roots music – something that focused this album in ways unheard on 1984's more experimental  The Unforgettable Fire . The resulting tour brought them face to face with that source material, both figuratively and literally.

They immersed themselves in it all. That meant tracing the music's roots back to Elvis Presley , the Staple Singers, the Memphis Horns and B.B. King . They also suddenly found themselves intersecting onstage with the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen , figures who had likewise fired their imaginations.

Even as they were becoming established as the biggest band of the '80s, the  Joshua Tree tour was also mapping out their next move: U2 recorded various shows, and those tapes would eventually find wide release. And in 2017, the band returned to the road to celebrate its 30th anniversary by playing the record in its entirety. Look below to find out how it all unfolded as we explore U2's first Joshua Tree tour.

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

Revisiting U2's original 'Joshua Tree' tour stop at Tampa Stadium, 30 years later

• Jay Cridlin Times staff

Three weeks before Christmas 1987, Tampa Bay hosted a wild weekend of live music.

Whitney Houston played the USF Sun Dome. The Red Hot Chili Peppers took the stage at Jannus Landing. At Ruth Eckerd Hall, Andy Williams was preparing four Christmas shows over two days.

But for more than 50,000 fans, there was only one show that weekend that mattered: U2 at Tampa Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 5, 1987.

"We're here to warm up your winter night!" Bono , then 27, shouted to the crowd. "There's only one kind of audience that you can take into a winter night. And they'll sing louder than any singer in any rock and roll band, and that's the U2 audience. So you wanna sing with me?"

Did they ever. This was the original Joshua Tree tour, the one that catapulted U2 from big theaters and arenas to stadiums across America. Thirty years later, U2 is bringing The Joshua Tree back to Tampa on Wednesday with a 30th anniversary performance at Raymond James Stadium.

RELATED: Nostalgia or relevance? U2's 'Joshua Tree' tour aims for both in Tampa

Looking back at that 1987, show, it's interesting to see just how the world saw U2 at the time, and how U2 saw themselves.

U2 had played Tampa several times before the Joshua Tree tour, including gigs at the USF Sun Dome in 1985 , Curtis Hixon Hall twice in 1983 and even an old club called the End Zone in 1981. But by the time they came back in 1997, they were, in the words of a Tampa Tribune headline, "the band that matters" in rock music. They had a reputation for being "heavy-handed and pretentious," wrote the St. Petersburg Times , but that only seemed to endear them more to certain fans.

In a preview of the concert, the Tribune polled several University of Tampa students about why U2's music mattered so much.

"They represent a whole different attitude for the way music is going these days," said Richard McBrine , 21. "It's not just sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll. ... Bono's lyrics are about human experience. When music gets to that level ... it's worth 50 bucks to go see it."

Tickets weren't quite that much, but they did sell out quickly — in about a day and a half, according to the St. Petersburg Times. With Los Lobos and Buckwheat Zydeco tapped as openers, the concert — one of the last on U2's original Joshua Tree tour — was set to be a full-on love letter to America, just like the album that preceded it.

"We're a long way from Ireland, but I know we got some Irish people here," Bono said. "Those of you who are not Irish, of course, we make you honorary Irishmen and -women for the night."

U2 at this time was very much concerned with global issues; Bono spoke about politics in Ireland and America, and gave a shout-out to Amnesty International. But they were not yet quite the worldwide citizens and emissaries they would become. This much was evident when the ever-loquacious frontman engaged in a bit of observational comedy emphasizing his Emerald Isle ties.

"Some people have been talking to me about, they say, 'Bono, your accent has changed, and you're starting to sound like an American.' I said, what do you mean? They say to me, 'Well, you keep saying words you've never said before, like "party" or something like that. What is this "party" thing, anyway? What does it mean?' And other things — people come up and say, 'Bono, you're really intense.' What does that mean? In Dublin City, if somebody came up and said you were really intense, you'd smack 'em in the gob. But I take it over here it's a compliment, is that right?"

Musically, the band delivered a range of hits to that point, including I Will Follow, Gloria, Sunday Bloody Sunday , New Year's Day and Pride (In the Name of Love) . From The Joshua Tree , they played all the big hits, including opener Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For ; the only Joshua Tree songs that didn't get a spin were Red Hill Mining Town and Mothers of the Disappeared .

They played snippets of the Doors ' Riders on the Storm and the Rolling Stones ' Ruby Tuesday and Sympathy For the Devil , and at the end, during 40, a little holiday bonus: A snippet of Band Aid 's Do They Know It's Christmas? (but not, unfortunately, Bono's legendary line "Tonight, thank God it's them instead of you!"). And Bono pulled a fan named Chris Lee up on stage to play guitar on a cover of People Get Ready .

"Bono's reckless, jaunty stage style included long skipping jigs across the full breadth of the wide stage; he strutted and flailed and flung his head back," wrote St. Petersburg Times reviewer Eric Snider . "Although he's been criticized for being heavy-handed and pretentious, appeared sincerely committed to combining exhilarating sounds with food for thought. He succeeded."

RELATED: A history of U2 in Tampa, Part II: The Joshua Tree Tour (1987)

In stark contrast to eye-popping U2 tours to come, the stage was "consciously devoid of effects, props and gimmicks," wrote the Times . "The large stacks of amplifiers on either side of the stage were covered with a canvas on which an abstract 'Joshua Tree' was painted. The words 'Stop the madness' were splashed — graffiti-style — on the right side."

The Tampa Tribune 's Janet Wilkof praised the minimalist setup, favorably comparing U2's approach to those of legendary acts the band would eventually emulate. She called it "remarkable ... that a concert could be so stirring in a stadium setting with the bare minimum of special effects and fancy tricks. ...

"In the fall, David Bowie and Pink Floyd delivered visually stunning shows with stage sets and effects that met the grand scale of the stadium. The mesmerizing visuals made the shows passive experiences. And although Pink Floyd's terrific playing matched the impressiveness of the effects — probably every ticket holder felt a chill during Comfortably Numb — U2 achieved the same emotional highs with the sheer power and passion of its songs."

It was, on this chilly December night, such a warm welcome that U2 would keep returning to Tampa time and time again — in 1992 , 1997 , 2001 , 2005 , 2009 and now 2017 .

"And I used to think that it was the sun that kept Florida warm," Bono said that night in 1987.

— Jay Cridlin

Politics Reporter

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U2 Resurrect ‘The Joshua Tree,’ Preview New Album at U.S. Tour Opener

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

It’s very easy to dismiss U2’s Joshua Tree Tour 2017 as a cash grab by a band that’s more comfortable these days looking into the past than into the future, especially considering the blowback that greeted their 2014 LP Songs of Innocence , a public-relations fiasco of such devastating proportions that Saturday Night Live ‘s Weekend Update is still mocking it three years after the fact. It would also be easy to think the move means that they have officially joined the ranks of the Rolling Stones and the Who, giants of rock that long ago contented themselves with playing their old hits at stadium shows that create tremendous amounts of excitement, nostalgia and money, but little forward motion.

But U2 have spent their entire career proving doubters wrong, fiercely resisting the easy lure of nostalgia and rising above any move that hints at cynicism. Time and time again throughout the new tour’s U.S. opener at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field (the band’s North American run officially began in Vancouver two nights earlier), U2 proved how a 30-year-old album can speak to the issues of today – whether they be immigration, U.S. foreign policy or the dwindling power of labor unions – while reminding the audience that they are a live act simply without peer. The band has always done their best work under trying circumstances, and in the words of Bono back around the time they came back with “Beautiful Day,” it really felt like they were reapplying for the job of the best band in the world by showing how they earned the title in the first place.

The show began with Larry Mullen Jr. casually walking onto the B stage (which is shaped like a tree) and kicking into the thunderous intro of “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” He was totally by himself, mirroring (intentionally or not) how he founded the band back in 1976. One by one, the others joined in, though they stayed on the tiny satellite stage and left the enormous screen on the main stage dark. It stayed that way for the entire pre– Joshua Tree portion of the evening, a bold move when you’re playing to about 60,000 people, most of whom can barely see you, but it worked.

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“Sunday Bloody Sunday” led right into “New Year’s Day,” also from 1983’s War. They’ve done this song more than 700 times, but this was the first time Bono has ever sang “And so we’re told this is the golden age/And gold is the reason for the wars we age” from the final verse. It was the first sign that this show was about presenting the songs as they appeared on the albums, minus the extended codas, false endings, snippets of cover songs and mini-speeches that have seeped in over the decades. It was also the first indication that the show (at least until the encores) was going to present their music in strict chronological order.

After the two War songs, they moved on to 1984’s The Unforgettable Fire . A moving “A Sort of Homecoming” (unplayed in America since 1987, discounting a single spontaneous acoustic attempt in 2001) followed, leading right into an intense “Bad” (replacing “MLK” from opening night in Vancouver) and then “Pride (In the Name of Love).” The latter is the tune that took U2 from college radio and clubs and theaters onto Top 40 radio, MTV and arena stages. It positioned them perfectly for the critical and creative breakthrough that came two years later with The Joshua Tree.

While the crowd was still singing the refrain of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” the band moved onto the main stage as the swelling synth intro to “Where the Streets Have No Name” filled the stadium and the screens came alive with the color of a bright orange sunset and the band silhouetted in front of it. This was the exact original opening to the Joshua Tree tour in 1987 and it lost none of its power in the past 30 years. The moment kicked the crowd into a whole other gear of euphoria. The sunset effect transitioned into a new film by longtime U2 photographer Anton Corbijn of a car slowly moving down a deserted desert highway, a street with no name. Nearly every song on the album would be paired with a mini-film, most taking place in the arid desert that gave the album its inspiration. The clarity and brightness of the tour’s 8K mega video screen is unlike anything that’s ever been seen at a rock concert, making even their past ones seem chintzy by comparison.

The Joshua Tree is top heavy with the hits, so “Streets” was followed by singalong renditions of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking” and “With or Without You.” These are also mainstays of U2 concerts, but hearing them in the context of the broader album made them feel fresh again. “Bullet the Blue Sky” – a furious denunciation of Reagan’s foreign policy in South America – featured a film in which citizens of Latin America, old and young, put on army helmets while standing in front of a painted American flag, essentially bracing for the brutal impact of decisions made thousands of miles away from them with little regard for their lives. On past tours Bono has delivered a “Bullet Rap” that spoke to the politics of the moment, but tonight he let the original lyric speak for itself. Near the end, Bono shined a handheld spotlight on the Edge, just like the iconic image on the cover of Rattle and Hum.

See U2 Debut New Song at First 'Joshua Tree' Tour Show

The next seven songs – “Running to Stand Still,” “Red Hill Mining Town,” “In God’s Country,” “Trip Through Your Wires,” “Exit” and “Mothers of the Disappeared” – weren’t hit singles, and a decent chunk of the audience probably didn’t know them very well. That’s a tremendous challenge for a stadium show, but the Corbijn movies coupled with the group’s passion meant that most everyone stayed engaged and on their feet. “Red Hill Mining Town” had never been played live until this tour and this was a slower version with the Edge on piano and a video of the Salvation Army Brass Band. Any fears that Bono could no longer hit the high notes on the song were clearly misplaced. He turned 57 this week, but his voice is in stunning shape.

The most exciting song from the second side of the album was “Exit.” The haunting tune hadn’t been touched in concert since the psychopath that murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989 claimed the song influenced his actions. In Rattle and Hum Bono said that U2 were stealing “Helter Skelter” back from Charles Manson, and this ferocious rendition of “Exit” seemed to finally steal it back from the clutches of another deranged murderer. It was about time. The Joshua Tree portion of the show wrapped up with “Mothers of the Disappeared,” complete with a video of women holding candles in honor of the young Chilean men murdered by Augusto Pinochet. Eddie Vedder came out to deliver the final verse, joined by opening act Mumford & Sons.

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The Joshua Tree Tour 2017

Wide Awake In Minneapolis When & Where Friday, September 8th 2017, US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis; the 35rd show of the #U2TheJoshuaTree2017  Set List 'I wanna take shelter, from the hurricane, where the streets have no name' It was a high-spirited night Friday in the Twin Cities, where the band and the audience exchanged a kind of contagious (and defiant) joy from the first drum beats of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', through the 'The Joshua Tree' album,  to 'One', which closed the six-song encore with a few lines of Prince's 'Purple Rain.' Bono dedicated the show to 'the memory eternal of Prince Rogers Nelson',  Minneapolis' favorite son who passed away in April 2016. There were echoes of the Purple One's musical legacy elsewhere in the third act, with snippets of 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World' in the encore opener 'Beautiful Day' and 'Let's Go Crazy' in 'Vertigo.' And for those of you keeping score at home: 'Happy Birthday' made its fifth appearance on The Joshua Tree 2017 tour, when the band serenaded longtime collaborator, show designer and creative director Willie Williams.

Social Posts @U2Nurse: 'Thrilled to see a diverse age range here at #U2JoshuaTreeTour2017MN. Oldsters hipsters families and kids. Whew...I love this band. They remind me to feel, even tho sometimes it's a lot.'

@larsleafblad: '10 years old when this album came out. 10 year old like joy coming out listening to this concert. #u2minneapolis #U2TheJoshuaTree2017 If You Had To Pick One Song  'With or Without You' 'Through the storm, we reach the shore/You gave it all but I want more/And I'm waiting for you' @michelle_my_belle22: 'Show me someone who doesn't think of their first love when they hear this song, and I'll show you a liar. #U2 #thejoshuatree2017 #withorwithoutyou #Minneapolis' Whenever Heidi and Andy Chamberlain hear 'WOWY' in the years to come, they'll be thinking of their wedding day and how Bono congratulated them in a shout-out from the stage in front of 50,000 people. 'I was congratulating the Chamberlains because today in the GA queue Heidi and Andrew got married right here. And interestingly—I thought it was pretty cool—Andrew took Heidi's name: Chamberlain. Oh yeah.' 'I didn't think today could be any better and then, of course, Bono finds a way to take it over the top,' the newly-minted Mr. Chamberlain (formerly known as Andrew Johnson) said when we tracked the happy couple down after the show late Friday. 'I was just as surprised to get a shout out at the same concert as Prince!' added the bride. The Chamberlains, both realtors in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, got engaged last Christmas. When they began discussing wedding plans, the conversation gravitated toward U2, said Heidi, 43, a lifelong fan who has seen each tour since 1992. 'Every time I see them, it feels like I'm in church—it's so spiritual,' she said. 'Wouldn't it be cool to have the concert as our wedding night?'  Heidi and Andy decided they would marry in the church of U2 when the band next played Minnesota. 'We thought we'd have to wait five years for the next tour,” Heidi said. But then the dates for the second North American leg of the Joshua Tree Tour were announced in June and Minneapolis was on the list. 'Andy said, 'We're getting married in three months, aren't we?' They asked their friend to officiate, and quickly pulled together plans for a simple, music-drenched ceremony that would conclude just before GA ticket holders were to begin queuing for the show Friday afternoon. The nuptials opened with 'When Love Comes To Town' and included 'In A Little While,' 'Hallelujah Here She Comes,' 'Ordinary Love,' 'Satellite of Love,' 'Every Breaking Wave,' 'Yahweh,' '40', and the band's new single (Bono's love song about his missus) 'You're The Best Thing About Me.'  As soon as they were lawfully wed, the Chamberlains joined the GA line and celebrated by sharing dozens of (wedding) cake-flavored Oreo cookies with their queue. News of the 'GA wedding' began to spread through the venue; photos were posted on Twitter, and eventually word reached he lead vocalist himself. A few hours later, Bono's shout-out from the stage caught the newlyweds by surprise. 'I heard him say 'Take us to church. The church of the Chamberlains—newly minted.  (during 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For') and I thought it was just a coincidence,' Andy, 37, said. 'And then when he confirmed that he was talking about us it blew me away….It was the most amazing night of our lives!'  And that, music fans, is how you get U2 to play your wedding reception. 

What (else) did Bono Say? Bono dedicated 'One Tree Hill' to Gavin Friday's mother, Annie Hanvey, who passed away Friday in Ireland, saying: 'Tonight we carry in our hearts our friend and comrade Gavin Friday, one of the creative visionaries behind these tours we do. Gavin has just said goodbye for the last time to his mother, Annie Hanvey. Annie was a neighbour of ours growing up, and as well as being our neighbour she was always an heroic character, encouraging our best mate Gavin to be all the people he wanted to be.' Before the band launched into 'Ultraviolet', Bono talked about how 'incredible women' was a theme now. 'Our partners, our daughters, our mothers, our elected representatives on both sides. Women. We want more women in the political process, is that not right? Men are fucking things up.' Two local Minnesota 'she-roes' were featured Friday among the 'luminous icons' of the HERSTORY installation: Former Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, and Mary Jo Copeland, founder of Sharing and Caring Hands, an organization that works amongst Minneapolis' impoverished communities. 

In his introduction to 'One,' Bono echoed something he'd told Jimmy Fallon the night before when the band performed on 'The Tonight Show': 'This country is not just a country, it's an idea. That's why the whole world has a stake in this idea working out. We love the idea of America. It's still being born this idea…. Allow us to kiss your ass this evening, to say thank you this evening. Thank you, America. …There is nothing you can't do. When you work together.  As one.'

Review on U2.com  Nejnej09: Amazing. What an amazing performance! Absolutely love this band and everything they stand for and it was an outstanding performance. When they finished the Joshua tree and came back out and did not just a couple of songs but 5 more (note- all you people that left at that point, you really missed out)' Were you at the show at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis? Tell us all about it.  Add your own review and photos below. 

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