Let the puns begin!
"To honor 30 years of Joshua Tree, we have some very, very special shows coming," U2 frontman Bono told the world yesterday in a Christmas video the Irish rock legends posted on their Facebook page.
According to a report from Billboard, the band will embark on a U.S. stadium tour, along with a little one-off headlining performance at Bonnaroo 2017. And what's (reportedly) special about those shows is that they'll feature the band playing its landmark 1987 album The Joshua Tree in its entirety, 30th anniversary style.
From the post:
Sources tell Billboard that U2 will be hitting U.S. stadiums beginning in late spring, followed by a run through Europe. No word on when the specific dates will be announced; a rep for the group did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Furthermore, those U.S. dates are expected to include a headlining performance at Bonnaroo — which will return to Manchester, Tenn. from June 8-11 — as well as two dates at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., according to sources. Bono and co. have never performed at Bonnaroo, which had Pearl Jam, The Dead and LCD Soundsystem headline in 2016.
Note: The original Billboard post has been stripped of its initial investigative reporting. But the aggregated original text is still live via Yahoo.
Not only has U2 never played Bonnaroo, they've hardly ever played U.S. festivals period. Save for a brief six-song set at the 1997 Tibetan Freedom concert in New York City, U2 hasn't played a proper, full set at a big American rock festival since California's US Festival in 1983, where despite appearing on the undercard, the band played for a crowd of 125,000 — still its largest audience to date.
On the heels of mega-hits like "Where the Streets Have no Name," "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," 1987's The Joshua Tree sold 25 million copies worldwide and made U2 global superstars. But the album also features rarely played favorites like "Running to Stand Still" and "Mothers of the Disappeared." It also features white-whale-fan-favorite "Red Hill Mining Town." That soaring, yearning ballad has never been performed live, though the closest U2 ever came to trying was actually in Middle Tennessee, where the band rehearsed the song at soundcheck before its Nov. 28, 1987 show at the Charles M. Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.
In yesterday's video message, Bono also promises Songs of Experience, the band's 14th studio album, will also arrive in 2017. It's the follow-up to 2014's Songs of Innocence, which you might still be able to listen to on your iPhone, whether you like it or not.
Anywhoo, U2 at Bonnaroo. Whaddy'all think about that?
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