U2 at MetLife Stadium
Photo by Greg Cristman

U2 played 'The Joshua Tree' at MetLife Stadium (night 1 pics, video, setlist)

U2 reclaimed its most lauded album on Wednesday night, courtesy of an anniversary tour that reignited all 11 “Joshua Tree” tracks in sequence, and bolstered them with a level of grandiosity few other acts have the means to attempt. The four-piece was backed by an immense, 200-foot-wide LED screen, with a 45-foot-tall Joshua tree etched into its center. A mirror image of the plant jutted out from center stage, the trunk acting as a runway to the shrub-shaped second stage, where the two-plus-hour performance began.

The band first ran easily through a few favorites, the most moving being 1984’s “Bad,” before the huge screen lit up desert red, summoning the start of the album-dedicated show in earnest. U2 returned to the main stage and off they went, into an album that begins with three enormous hits in “Streets,” “Looking For” and “With or Without You.” [NJ.com]

Kendrick Lamar collaborators U2 are currently on their 30th anniversary tour for The Joshua Tree, which has them playing the album in full. Having headlined Bonnaroo a few weeks ago, they brought their tour to the NYC-area for the first of two shows at East Rutherford, NJ’s MetLife Stadium last night (6/28). As the review quoted above points out, they opened with a few pre-Joshua Tree favorites and then proceeded to play the album in full. Then they returned for an encore of post-Joshua Tree songs, including “The Little Things That Give You Away,” a new song off their upcoming Songs of Experience album that they debuted on Kimmel earlier this year. Pictures are in the gallery above. Setlist and a couple videos below.

U2 do it again at MetLife Stadium tonight (6/29). Like last night, The Lumineers will open.

U2 at MetLife Stadium – 6/28/17 Setlist (via)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year’s Day
Bad
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
With or Without You
Bullet the Blue Sky
Running to Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God’s Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared

Encore:
Miss Sarajevo
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Vertigo
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
One
The Little Things That Give You Away

photos by Greg Cristman