Finally, they’re back: More than a year after the four Irishmen were supposed to play Angel Stadium, before emergency spine surgery waylaid its iconic vocalist, U2 has embarked on the second stateside leg of its 360 Tour and is slated to arrive Father’s Day weekend in Anaheim.
Bono and the band play June 17-18 at the Big A, with tickets for the June 6, 2010, show to be honored the first night, June 7 tickets accepted for the second.
It’s the first major rock show to play Angel Stadium since the Rolling Stones took over the outfield in November 2005, just a few months after Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez and more performed at Wango Tango, the last time that poptopia has been held in such a giant location.
U2 has been back to Orange County a number of times in the past decade, always at Honda Center, but these dates mark the first time they’ve played the stadium in nearly two decades, since a ZooTV stop in 1992.
The band’s enormous claw-like stage setup reportedly remains unchanged, though some of the visual display has likely been updated. Fans going to either or both of these Anaheim shows who also attended U2’s last Southern California appearance – a record-setting blast at the Rose Bowl in October 2009 that was broadcast live via YouTube and eventually released on DVD – will immediately notice an altering of the setlist, however.
For starters, “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and “I Will Follow” tend to open every set, before dove-tailing more or less into the previous leg’s show-starting stretch: “Get On Your Boots,” “Magnificent” and “Mysterious Ways.” The encores, on the other hand, have largely stayed the same, kicking off with “One” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” and winding down via “With or Without You” and “Moment of Surrender.”
But based on setlists out of Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City and elsewhere, what falls in between has been shifted. Classics like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “The Unforgettable Fire” have been swapped out for other standards like “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and lesser-celebrated favorites like “All I Want Is You,” “Zooropa” and “Stay (Faraway, So Close!).”
There’s also no telling what snippets of other artists’ famous songs Bono might toss into codas: lately he’s sung lines from R.E.M., the Beach Boys, Talking Heads, Carole King, Dylan, Sinatra, Lennon, even Bachman-Turner Overdrive – and he always ends the main set by leading “Walk On” into “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” For some die-hards, such ever-changing impromptu asides make it worth going both nights.
Advice: Arrive early to avoid traffic snarls, and bring several Benjamins for show-specific merchandise. Retro-rocker Lenny Kravitz – whose ninth album, “Black and White America,” is due in late August – will open with a smattering of his hits, from “Fly Away” to his smash cover of the Guess Who’s “American Woman.”
Visit Soundcheck, at soundcheck.ocregister.com, for live reviews and photos from both shows next weekend.
