U2 at Madison Square Garden

At age 14, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. sought musicians to form a band and posted a note on his school's notice board in Dublin, Ireland. Little did Mullen know in 1976 that he and the teenaged musicians that met in his kitchen for a rehearsal  would become one of the biggest-selling bands in rock and roll history. Vocalist Bono (Paul Hewson), guitarist the Edge (David Evans), bassist Adam Clayton, and Mullen initially called themselves Feedback because it was one of the few technical terms they knew and played their first public performance in 1977. They changed the band name to the Hype but it was not until they became U2 in 1978 that the band won a talent contest in Limerick, earning £500 and studio time to record a demo. U2 has sold more than 170 million records worldwide and has won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band. U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, the band's first year of eligibility. U2's 14th and most recent studio album, Songs of Experience, was released on December 1, 2017.

A little more than 40 years after the band's first public concert, U2 is touring the world with one of the most extravagant stage shows ever conceived. The 2018 eXPERIENCE &  iNNOCENCE tour is perhaps the companion to the similarly-staged iNNOCENCE & eXPERIENCE tour in 2015, as if the story the band began to unravel was reaching a conclusion now. The band's performance space spanned the length of the venue floor, from a traditional rectangular main stage to a smaller, circular stage, and two connecting walkways, a runway on the ground and a catwalk in the sky, the latter sandwiched between 96-foot-long double-sided video screens that allowed the musicians to interplay with the video projections. The set list on the first of three nights at Madison Square Garden excluded most of the band's hits and focused on the new album and deep cuts from more recent albums, again to tell the autobiographical story of the band members' turbulent survival from innocence to experience. Videos and props gave flesh to the songs. Bono sang powerfully and clearly throughout the night, and the Edge played searing guitar leads, but more than anything, the audience responded to a breath-taking multimedia spectacular. Fans familiar with the newer material followed the story arc, but those who came hoping for familiar songs simply enjoyed  U2's rock and roll thrill ride.

Visit U2 at www.u2.com.

Setlist:

Set 1

1. Love Is All We Have Left
2. The Blackout
3. Lights of Home
4. I Will Follow
5. All Because of You
6. Beautiful Day
7. The Ocean
8. Iris (Hold Me Close)
9. Cedarwood Road
10. Sunday Bloody Sunday
11. Until the End of the World

Set 2

1. Elevation
2. Vertigo
3. Desire
4. Acrobat
5. You’re the Best Thing About Me
6. Staring at the Sun (Bono and the Edge acoustic)
7. Pride (In the Name of Love)
8. Get Out of Your Own Way
9. American Soul
10. City of Blinding Lights

Encore:

1. One
2. Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
3. 13 (There Is a Light)