U2 360 Tour Seattle
On a glorious evening at the home of The Seahawks, U2360 took Seattle into orbit… and safely back to earth again. From the opening chords of Even Better Than The Real Thing to the closing benediction of Moment of Surrender this was a night to remember – with an audience who’ll never forget it: ‘You’re incredible people!’
‘Pretend you don’t know us! We’ve been on the road for a while, but this is the day we start again… ‘You think of him as a tough guy. But I tell you, he is very thoughtful. On the drums - Larry Mullen Jr.
‘On my left, you think of him as a ladies man. Well he is. But he is a perfect gentleman. On bass - Adam Clayton.
‘Edge, you think he is a techie zen master guitar genius but I see him as one of Lady Gaga’s dancers. A funky dude on the dancefloor, just get out of his way.
‘And as for me, despite what you’ve heard, I’m a man of simple needs. Just get me 70,000 people, 200 articulated lorries and a spaceship, and I feel good about myself…’
Moment of Surrender is a chance to ‘think of our little planet spinning round the sun - this is for all the people who are trying not to fall off …’
Full U2.COM review here
Below, you can see the best videos we got so far and link to constantly updated photo albums, credit to the several U2 fans attending the show and press.
SETLIST
Opening Act(s): Lenny Kravitz
Main Set: Even Better Than The Real Thing, I Will Follow, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Elevation, It’s the End of the World as We Know It – Until the End of the World – Where Have All the Flowers Gone, All I Want Is You, Beautiful Day – Space Oddity, Pride, Miss Sarajevo, Zooropa, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy (remix) – Discotheque – Life During Wartime – Psycho Killer, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Scarlet, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone
Encore(s): One, Will You Love Me Tomorrow – Where the Streets Have No Name – All You Need is Love, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender
Notes: During Beautiful Day, NASA Commander Mark Kelly brought Seattle a message from the final space mission of the shuttle Endeavour. REM (‘It’s the end of the world as we know it…’) referred in ‘Until The End of the World’ before Bono described meeting two year old Sophia earlier in the day - playing the guitar. Also special mention for Alexander, the son of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was with them and to Bill and Melinda Gates, in their home city.
VIDEOS
U2.com Official
Fan Videos
Arrows posted on screen for navigation to all videos
PICTURES
Click in the link below to see all photos
Band Members Off-Show: Here
Show Photos: Here
As we all know, this leg had to be rescheduled due to Bono’s back surgery, last year. So, after more than two waiting years, Seattle fans will have the chance to see U2 live, tonight at Qwest Field!
As usual, Jack Berry (Production Director) and Craig Evans (Tour Director) received the press members for a brief explanation about the tour, as well as the massive undertaking of putting the stage together.
Below you can see a video from yesterday, with Craig Evans giving fans an idea of what to expect at the show.
Lenny Kravitz will be responsible for the opening act and we will be responsible for all the latest details about tonight’s performance. For that, go to U2NT on facebook or @U2_NT on Twitter! You can also check our new Tweet Feed from Seattle, here, at the right side of the page!
Promoters for the U2 360º Tour say the massive stage being assembled at Qwest Field will truly offer fans a 360º show.
More than 74,000 fans are expected to surround the stage Saturday night. The structure is almost the width of the field. Including a sci-fi-looking spire that towers over the four arching legs, it is about 155 feet tall.
Production crew members prepare for the upcoming U2′s concert at Qwest Field in Seattle. The show, with more than 74,000 fans expected, will be the largest single day concert in the northwest this year.
The large stage was something the band and concert creators had in mind for a tour that would play in stadiums around the world.
“If we make a really big structure, it will make a stadium look small,” said production director Jake Berry. The size, combined with the 360º show is designed to “make the show more intimate,” said Berry.
Over 7 million fans will have seen the tour when it wraps up soon. Gear is transported in 210 trucks that leapfrog three stages and production gear around the globe.
The stage is the largest concert stage ever toured and the 360º Tour is the highest-grossing tour, surpassing the previous record holding Rolling Stones.
As of publication time, tickets for the show were still available.
Here’s a panoramic image of U2′s stage being constructed at Qwest Field. Shot with a panoramic app on an iPhone. (Photo by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com)
Source: Seattle Pi
U2 had to cancel its show here last year because lead singer Bono injured his back. He’s recovered and the band is set to perform Saturday, June 4, at Seattle’s Qwest Field.
Special to The Seattle Times
PREV
PAVEL GOLOVKIN / AP
Bono, on screen, and U2 played their first-ever concert in Russia on Aug. 25, 2010, as part of its “360 Degree” tour.
When U2 climbs onstage Saturday at Qwest Field, many in the crowd will have waited almost two years for the show. The U2 “360 Degree” Qwest date was originally scheduled for May 2010 and tickets first went on sale in November 2009. But when Bono injured his back and needed emergency surgery, the Seattle date was postponed for a year.
Bono is back to leaping and jumping again, and the delay in the end might prove lucky. During the past year, U2 has honed its show, added a few songs and integrated video of the Arab spring revolt into a moving “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Reviews of this leg — the seventh of the tour — are stellar. “Fresh and edgy as ever,” proclaimed The Salt Lake Tribune. “Lives up to image, hype,” raved The Denver Post.
The staging for “360 Degree” includes a 164-foot-high steel support rig, nicknamed “The Claw.” If that sounds like an expensive stage prop to haul around — it requires 120 trucks to transport — U2 can afford it: Even with a break for Bono’s rehabilitation, the “360 Degree” show has become the highest-grossing tour in concert history, surpassing the Rolling Stones’ “Bigger Bang.”
A crowd of more than 60,000 is expected for the Qwest show, but local musician Michael ONeill will be the only person in the throng who can say he opened for U2 at its first Seattle appearance. This was during U2′s first tour of America, in 1981. There were no stage props at the tiny 300-seat Astor Park, but it was a night ONeill will never forget (nor will this writer, who was also a witness).
“It was like a freight train that came on and never let go,” says ONeill, who still plays in the area and also hosts an excellent radio show on www.KGHP.org. “The Seattle crowd fell in love with U2 at that show — and never let go.”
Back then, U2 was so little known — and its member so fresh-scrubbed — Bono felt he needed to separate the band from the wave of British punk bands playing that season.
“We’re not just another English band,” he said. “And we’re Irish, anyway.”
Just a few years later, U2 was one of the biggest rock bands in the world, and has remained so ever since. That’s been due to savvy management, a core band with original members and a constant striving to reinvent themselves with every album.
“This thing of going away for three years and coming back, which we’re very prone to,” Bono told Q this last month, “(makes it) much easier to disappear up your own rectum.”
The other three players are happy to let Bono provide the juicy quotes and hog the spotlight. ONeill remembers that even back in 1981, Bono had an oversized personality.
“He was just a kid then,” ONeill recalls, “but he hugged me and told me to stay true to my heart.”
The Michael ONeill Band ended up opening a few other shows for U2, including an infamous one in Portland where Bono’s briefcase full of lyrics for its “October” album were stolen. Some thought it was bad blood over that incident that kept U2 away from Seattle and Portland during the “Joshua Tree” era in the late ’80s. But U2 eventually returned to the Tacoma Dome in the ’90s, and even the Kingdome for 1997′s “Popmart” tour. They were last in Seattle for two shows in April 2004 at KeyArena.
As for the missing lyrics, a sound man had mistakenly thought the briefcase was part of his gear, didn’t discover the mix-up until much later and was unable to reach U2 to return it. In 2004, the lyrics were finally returned to Bono at a Portland show. It was “an act of grace,” Bono said.
Back in 1981, on his first visit to Seattle, and before a crowd smaller than the snack bar lines will be at Qwest, Bono did make one pledge that stuck with everyone there who heard it.
“We’re here to spend a long time,” Bono said.
He was speaking about the length of the band’s set that night, but the words also were a prophecy about U2′s long career.
Charles R. Cross: charlesrcross@aol.com or www.charlercross.com
The U2360º Crew is now getting Seattle ready for the upcoming show. The first pieces of The Claw were spotted yesterday outside Qwest Field Stadium.
U2 will play in Seattle next June, 4. Lenny Kravitz will be the opening act this time.
Updated (01/06) with new photos.
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