U2's Uncasville setlist, 03/07/18
Tonight brings an end to the first leg of the Experience + Innocence Tour, and U2 closed it off with their first performance in Uncasville, Connecticut. Not only was it their first visit to this small village (it, along with Chesterfield, Mohegan, and Oakdale, forms the town of Montville which has a population under 20,000), it was also the first time U2 have played in the state since 7 December 2005 in Hartford.
The setlist was mostly unchanged from the normal narrative of the tour thus far; Gloria was restored to the set after missing two concerts, and it came with the usual G-L-O-R-I-A snippet at the end. As usual Bono spoke about Pop before Staring at the Sun, this time name-dropping Please as a song from the album that meant a lot to him. Resuming discussion on the song at hand he quipped that the reason he doesn't remember writing it is because Edge claims that he wrote it instead. Asking if the song was just a tune or had chords as well he was informed by Edge that it had chords, to which he responded with an expletive. Bono ended the tour leg by twisting his ankle as he left the stage during 13.
The first concert of the leg was the longest at 27 songs; the next 7 nights varied between 25 and 26 songs, and every subsequent performance had 24 songs (though 21 June in Boston is listed at 25 songs due to the recitation of the poem Hedgehog). Of the 32 songs performed over the 27 nights of the first leg, 23 of them were played every night. Of the songs that were rotated, Gloria was performed 15 times and All Because of You on 11 occasions. They were played on the same night just once, 7 May in San Jose. Red Flag Day was the least performed new song, appearing only four times; once in the rotational slot and the other three times in the company of Gloria. The final rotational song was The Electric Co., played just once this leg. New Year's Day, Song for Someone, and Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses were all also played just once.
Notably, this is the first time we are aware of that The Ocean has been performed at every concert on a tour leg, though it came close on the third and fourth legs of the Boy Tour (17 of 27 concerts, and 53 of 59 respectively) and the fifth leg of October (8 of 9 concerts). The incompleteness and unavailability of many early setlists means that this is likely not actually the case, but it is nonetheless the first time we are actually certain of it! Staring at the Sun was similarly played on every night of a tour leg for the first time since the closing arc of the PopMart Tour just a shade over 20 years ago. Desire was performed every night for the first time since the Zooropa leg of ZooTV in mid-1993. Discounting the two-concert long fifth leg of 360, this is the first time since the third leg of PopMart at the end of 1997 that Bad has not been played on a tour leg at least once.
The tour resumes in Berlin on 31 August; it will be interesting to see what changes U2 makes to their story for the European market.
- Love Is All We Have Left
- The Blackout
- Lights Of Home
- I Will Follow
- Gloria / Van Morrison's Gloria (snippet)
- Beautiful Day
- The Ocean
- Iris (Hold Me Close)
- Cedarwood Road
- Sunday Bloody Sunday / Johnny Was (snippet)
- Until the End of the World (Intermission - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me)
- Elevation
- Vertigo / It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) (snippet)
- Desire Hollywood Mix
- Sympathy For The Devil (snippet) / Acrobat
- You're The Best Thing About Me Full band acoustic
- Staring at the Sun Bono and Edge acoustic
- Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Get Out Of Your Own Way
- American Soul
- City of Blinding Lights
- Women of the World (snippet) / One / Invisible (snippet)
- Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
- 13 (There Is A Light)
encore(s):
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