![]() “The next one is about the landscape of this country,” he continued by way of introducing “In God’s Country.” “Not just physical. “We’ve been blowing a little fluff off the needle the last few days and wondering why we never played that song before. “Welcome to side two,” Bono said at its conclusion. Other highlights of the album set included “Running to Stand Still,” which Bono dedicated to the late Chris Cornell, the singer from Soundgarden who died Wednesday, an apparent suicide, and “Red Hill Mining Town,” which until this tour kicked off in Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 12 had never been performed live by the band. That song, which opens with grinding guitar and heavy drums, kicked things into a harder rock feel, and also - eight songs into the show - introduced video of Bono, the Edge, Clayton and Mullen into the film footage shot for the this tour by Anton Corbijn, whose dramatic black-and-white shots of the band in the desert are also part of what made “The Joshua Tree” album so striking. ![]() ![]() But starting with “Bullet the Blue Sky,” the fourth track on the album, things got a little more varied, a bit more special. That song and the two that followed are, of course, huge hits that often get played in any U2 show. “The Joshua Tree” opens with those three well-known songs mentioned above, and from the opening swell of music that leads into the shimmering guitar riffs of “Where the Streets Have No Names” you could practically feel the emotions of the crowd rising up. For a moment it was almost as if U2 were playing a club gig, just four musicians and their music, in the center of a stadium.Īt the end of “Pride,” the band moved to the main stage, where again, just the four of them and their gear were all that filled the broad expanse before a high-def LED screen that, at 245 feet wide and 45 feet high, towered over them. The remote stage was shaped like the desert tree the album was named for, and as the band played there surrounded by fans, the massive video screens behind the main stage remained dark. walking down a ramp to a remote stage before many fans even realized he was in the stadium, and there launching into the martial drum patterns of “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” as one by one, singer Bono, guitarist the Edge and bassist Adam Clayton walked out, singing and playing, to join him.Ī quartet of opening songs drawn from “War” and “The Unforgettable Fire,” the two albums that preceded the one in the spotlight this night, included such fan favorites as “New Year’s Day” and “Pride (In the Name of Love),” big anthems that pulled the crowd to its feet to sing along with the band. The night started with subtlety, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. On this tour U2 dispenses with most of the flash and spectacle of recent tours in favor of a stripped-down simplicity reminiscent of the California desert that inspired “The Joshua Tree,” letting the music they wrote for the record, as well as songs from before and after, shine in stark relief against that beautifully desolate environment. ![]() And while U2 has released eight studio albums since “The Joshua Tree” arrived, at times it seemed like the music got smaller even as the surrounding tours got bigger.Īll of which made the show that U2 delivered at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, in which they celebrated the 30th anniversary of the record by playing it in full, that much more special for fans who snagged tickets to the first of two nights at the stadium in Pasadena. The album and its signature songs - numbers that include “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “With or Without You” - remain among the band’s best-loved works. Thirty years ago “The Joshua Tree” was that one album any group dreams of making: a clear-eyed statement of sweeping sounds and bold visions, the kind of record that in an instant takes a great group, which these four Irishmen already were by 1987, and elevates it to the ranks of legends. U2 celebrates ‘The Joshua Tree’ in a stripped-down epic at the Rose Bowl on Saturday – Orange County Register Close Menu
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