U2 Looks Back—And Forward

From Esquire

"We're from a small island, but we've got a big band!" the white-haired Irishman, draped in a leather vest and black jeans, in the row behind me proclaims as he asks for a hand in getting a picture of he and his friends. They are speaking-shouting, actually-about U2, who is, at the moment, relishing in the rapture of a 15,000-person-strong Monday night crowd at Madison Square Garden. It is the first of their three planned Experience + Innocence shows at the venue, arriving near the tail end of their North American run of this tour.

The Irishman and his friends are seated amongst a crowd that brims with guys out for guys' night, grizzled rockers reliving their glory days, dads with their youngsters, and edgy teens looking to thrash. There are couples on dates, cool aunts, young models, several really famous people-Lady Gaga and Seal each appeared in the crowd on Monday night-and lots of really rich people. Somehow, be it the lines at the merch tables or the thunderous cheers that welcome the deep cut-leaning setlist, it seems like all of them have been waiting years to see this show.

The Experience + Innocence Tour finds the rock stalwarts continuing the journey they began on the Innocence + Experience tour, which took its final bow three years ago. The same transfixing rig, which splits the venue down the middle with an enormous screen stretching between two stages, is making the rounds (though this outing sees it updated with new bells and whistles), and the setlist still finds gravity in the handful of songs that recall the death of Bono's mother and the band's turbulent youths, growing up in a violent Dublin. (On Monday they played "Iris (Hold Me Close)," "Cedarwood Road," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," and "Until the End of the World.")

This was always the plan, sort of. When Bono & Co. first designed the two-tour presentation, they thought they'd run in succession of each other. They also thought they albums they'd be supporting-2014's Songs of Innocence and 2017's Songs of Experience-would release with significantly less time in between. But even rockstars cannot bend the world to their will all of the time. First, in 2014, they faced public backlash following their "gifting" of Innocence into iTunes libraries that Christmas morning and grappled with Bono's bicycle accident, which shattered his left arm. Then, in 2016, the frontman experienced a brush-the group has yet to elaborate further-with mortality.

Experience, as it were, had to be re-worked. And as the 30th anniversary of the group's seminal Joshua Tree LP arrived, it had to be celebrated. U2 embarked on a massive stadium tour that revisited the set, snaking through North and South America-where they headlined their first U.S. festival, at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee-as well as Europe. They played all the hits and, as stadium after stadium sold out, you'd have to think they also realized a new paradigm that could define the rest of their career: nostalgia. Why shouldn't the rock gods spend the rest of their days looking back? (And raking in cash?)

As has become increasingly obvious on this 2018 jaunt, it's because they don't want to.

The Experience + Innocence tour is an elaborate and difficult production, for the band as well as the audience. There are lights! Suspended stages! Second stages! Augmented reality! And, significantly fewer hits. Audiences have not heard signature cuts like "Where The Streets Have No Name" or "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in 2018. (Though they have been treated to some crate digging: "Acrobat," off 1991's Achtung Baby, which appears nightly now, had never been done live before this tour; "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses," also off Achtung, got dusted off after more than a decade during the tour-opener.) This is not a show meant just to entertain, it's meant to explain-where the men came from and what remains of their hopes for these divisive times. (Answer? Change. A lot of it.)

Earlier this month, U2 played a private show at the fabled Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York to a crowd of just 1,400 people. It was their smallest show in who knows how long, and one that came with little stage production; an LED light was nary insight. They treated fans to songs that weren't currently being done on tour: "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of," which they dedicated to Anthony Bourdain landed with extra emotional heft, as did the 1988 Billie Holiday tribute "Angel of Harlem." When he wasn't spraying them down with water bottles, Bono shook seemingly all the hands that were within reach of his stage.

The two events couldn't be more different, except for the singular, palpable energy that binds them: U2 is glad to be here. They're not ready to become your favorite legacy act. They still think they can save the world. Go join them for a sing-along of "Pride (In the Name of Love)," which they perform with each of the four members at the opposing corners of the arena while images of Martin Luther King, Jr. play alongside footage from the hate-filled rallies in Charlottesville-you'll be hard pressed to deny them.

The Experience + Innocence tour continues Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. All remaining dates can be found on the band's website.

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