U2's Berlin #3 setlist, 13/11/18
Tonight, U2 performed in Berlin to conclude the Experience + Innocence Tour.
This show was never meant to happen. Berlin was scheduled to have the first two shows of the European leg, but the second night ended early: Bono completely lost his voice after five songs, and so this show was scheduled to make up for it.
As a result, this is the first time U2 have opened and closed a leg of a tour in the same city. This is the third time Dublin was meant to be the last city of the tour, only for unexpected events to force the addition of more shows. The previous occasions were on Lovetown's second leg in 1989–90, also because of Bono experiencing voice problems, and on the European leg of the Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015, because of the Paris terrorist attacks.
Gloria appeared in the set for the third show in a row. The last time it has appeared at three consecutive shows was 26 May 2018 in Nashville, 28 May in Atlanta, and 5 June in Montreal. Earlier in May it achieved a run of five consecutive shows.
This tour is U2's first to not feature any song from The Joshua Tree since that album was released in 1987. The closest they got was the one-off performance of Spanish Eyes, one of the b-sides on the single release of I Still Haven't Found, at 21 September 2018 in Madrid. This is, therefore, the first tour since 1987 to not have any performances of Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found, and With or Without You; other songs from The Joshua Tree have come and gone from the setlist over the years but those three had been done on every tour, and in the case of Streets on almost every night.
Beyond The Joshua Tree, there were two other significant omissions. Neither Bad nor Mysterious Ways were performed this tour. Both had appeared on every previous tour since their live debuts in 1984 and 1992 respectively.
A total of forty different songs were performed this tour (our database counts a 41st: the poem Hedgehog, read on 21 June 2018). A lot of crowds chanted for the song 40, but it was not one of the forty performed. Fourteen of those forty songs were played every night of the tour, not counting the aborted second show in Berlin. Those forty songs represented every U2 album except for No Line on the Horizon or Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1.
Every song from U2's most recent album, Songs of Experience, appeared on this tour in some capacity (snippet or full performance) except for Little Things, which was performed live in 2017. This means it joins a select group of U2 albums where every song has featured live in some capacity: Boy, The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and Pop. Only the first three of those aforementioned albums can claim that all of their songs have been played in full, though; Pop falls short because Playboy Mansion was only ever snippeted, and for Songs of Experience it is The Showman that never got past the snippet level.
The full setlist was:
- The Blackout
- Lights Of Home
- I Will Follow
- Gloria / Van Morrison's Gloria (snippet) / Patti Smith's Gloria (snippet)
- Beautiful Day
- Dirty Day
- Zoo Station
- The Fly
- Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
- Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (Intermission - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me)
- Elevation
- Vertigo / The Jean Genie (snippet)
- Even Better Than The Real Thing Fish Out of Water Mix
- Hall of Mirrors (snippet) / Acrobat
- You're The Best Thing About Me Full band acoustic
- Summer Of Love Bono and Edge
- Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Get Out Of Your Own Way
- New Year's Day
- 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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