May 2, 2018 - Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA - BOK Center

Opening Act(s): None

Setlist:

1. Love Is All We Have Left
2. The Blackout
3. Lights of Home
4. Beautiful Day - Many Rivers to Cross
5. All Because Of You
6. I Will Follow - Mother
7. The Ocean
8. Iris (Hold Me Close)
9. Cedarwood Road
10. Song for Someone
11. Sunday Bloody Sunday
12. Raised by Wolves - Psalm 23
13. Until the End of the World - Love, Reign o’er Me
Intermission (Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me)
14. Elevation
15. Vertigo
16. Desire
17. Acrobat
18. There’s No Business Like Show Business - You’re the Best Thing About Me (Acoustic)
19. Staring at the Sun (Acoustic)
20. This Is Not America - Pride (In the Name of Love)
21. Get Out of Your Own Way
22. American Soul
23. United States Declaration of Independence - City of Blinding Lights
Encore(s):
24. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
25. One
26. Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
27. 13 (There Is a Light)

Remarks:

U2’s Experience + Innocence Tour kicks off in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city U2 hasn’t visited on tour since June 9, 1983 on the War Tour. The new tour has been dubbed the sequel to the 2015 Innocence + Experience, focusing on the “experience” aspect U2 learned after they became a monster band. Having the same stage design as the Innocence + Experience Tour from 3 years back, the technology has greatly evolved to include a video screen that is 10 times sharper and nearly 40 times more transparent. The cage and walkway can now be elevated up and down on both ends and separated into two pieces as well. This concert comprised of 27 songs, tying 2015’s shows in Cologne (October 18) and Paris (December 6), for the longest concert in U2’s history in terms of number of songs performed. More history is created tonight as Augmented Reality technology is employed for the first time ever in a live concert setting: Within 10 minutes of the band coming out on stage, fans were able to point their smartphones to the massive video screen using the “U2 Experience” mobile app and witness a large glacier of ice slowly melting before completely transforming into a waterfall, digitally saturating the arena floor. As the AR experience continued into the opening melody of “Love Is All We Have Left”, Bono’s face became three dimensional and popped out of the screen as he lip synced the song. “The Blackout” kicks off the concert with a full band performance and is performed for the first time live. After “Lights of Home”, U2 performs “Beautiful Day” and then for the first time since January 20, 2006 in Brazil, “All Because of You”. After a classic performance of “I Will Follow”, U2 plays “The Ocean” (performed for the first time since 2005) which then seamlessly flows into “Iris (Hold Me Close)”. When the intermission finally arrives, it includes a brand new remix of “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” sung with new vocals by Gavin Friday. “Elevation” with the extended intro opens the 2nd half of the concert and then two songs later, its the song fans have been heavily pining for since the year 1991: “Acrobat”. The song is performed live for the first time since its release on Achtung Baby in 1991, and Bono’s devilish alter ego “MacPhisto” is revealed on the video screen as the band launches into the song. After a subdued rendition of “You’re the Best Thing About Me” is performed acoustically, Bono and the Edge perform a song from 1997’s “Pop” album: “Staring at the Sun”, with video images of the recent KKK marches in Charlottesville, VA. The song had not been performed live in 16 and a half years, and the last time any song from Pop was performed live was “Discothèque” on September 20, 2005 in Chicago. After that, “Pride” is performed and the band shift around the stage into different areas. Later in the encore, a fully electric version of “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” is performed for the first time in nearly 13 years. To wind down the setlist, U2 performed 2 more songs from Songs of Experience ending the show with “13 (There Is a Light)”. As that song concluded, Bono walked to the e-stage where a miniature replica of his Cedarwood Road home had been placed. After lifting up the roof, he pulled out a lightbulb that was hanging from the rafters, and pushed it forward. As the lightbulb swung back and forth, Bono walked off stage and the show ended in symbolic gesture as a reversal to how the Innocence + Experience Tour concerts opened up. One of the longest U2 concerts the band has ever performed clocked in at around 2 and a half hours in total duration. The biggest revelation was that not a single song from The Joshua Tree album was performed tonight and this had been the rumour by the band leading up to this new tour. Though the band intentionally chose not to perform any songs from The Joshua Tree, it goes down in history as the first time since that album’s release in 1987 that no song from that album was ever played live at a U2 concert.

Images:

All photos by © Danny North