U2 was the first band I ever really loved. I grew up in the late 1980s and came of age in the early 1990s. That puts me firmly in camp Generation X. The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby were seminal records in my life. In some ways, those two albums define Gen X for me. The Joshua Tree is rootsy, passionate, and authentic. Achtung Baby is ironic, modern, and self-aware. I loved them both.

In 2017 and then again in 2019 U2 embarked on a massive world tour in which they played the entirety of The Joshua Tree album (irritatingly, I saw them in 2018 during the Experience + Innocence Tour in which they did not play a single song off of The Joshua Tree, but I digress).

In our discussion of me trying to make connections with shows instead of just throwing things up randomly someone mentioned that a lot of bands seem to be doing this thing where they play an album in its entirety and that made me immediately think of U2 and this tour. I know I don’t post a lot of U2 shows on this site, frankly I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to them in many years, but I thought it would be fun to post this tour.

I had initially intended to grab and post the 2019 tour as well, but they played a lot of shows in 2017 and I wanted to get this done before spending another couple of weeks grabbing those shows.

I hope you guys enjoy this. I had fun with it. There are a few shows that I’m missing, but according to U2 Start there aren’t any recordings of those shows in existence. It seems weird that no one taped their gig at Bonnarro as there always seem to be a lot of tapers at that festival, but I couldn’t find any. If you do know of any recordings from any of the missing shows I’d appreciate a link.

Leg 1: North America

2017.05.12 – Vancouver, Canada
2017.05.14 – Seattle, WA
2017.05.17 – Santa Clara, CA
2017.05.20 – Pasadena, CA
2017.05.21 – Pasadena, CA
2017.05.24 – Houston, TX
2017.05.26 – Arlington, TX – No Known Recordings Exist
2017.06.03 – Chicago, IL
2017.06.04 – Chicago, IL
2017.06.07 – Pittsburgh, PA
2017.06.09 – Manchester, TN – No Known Recordings Exist
2017.06.11 – Miami Gardens, FL
2017.06.14 – Tampa, FL
2017.06.16 – Louisville, KY
2017.06.18 – Philadelphia, PA – No Known Recordings Exist
2017.06.20 – Landover, MD
2017.06.23 – Toronto, Canada
2017.06.25 – Foxborough, MA
2017.06.28 – East Rutherford, NJ
2017.06.29 -East Rutherford, NJ
2017.07.01 – Cleveland, OH

Leg 2: Europe

2017.07.08 – London, England
2017.07.09 – London, England
2017.07.12 – Berlin, Germany
2017.07.15 – Rome, Italy
2017.07.16 – Rome, Italy
2017.07.15-16 – Rome, Italy
2017.07.18 – Barcelona, Spain
2017.07.22 – Dublin, Ireland
2017.07.25 – Saint-Denis, France
2017.07.26 – Saint-Denis, France
2017.07.29 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017.07.30 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017.08.01 – Brussels, Belgium

I’ve always loved the idea of sharing shows with some connection to each other. An obvious and easy connection are shows within the same time period – a year, or a tour, or a run of shows at the same venue. But I really love trying to find slightly more obscure, or at least different connections.

Mainly I get bored throwing up random shows and I like to find ways to make this blog interesting (at least to me anyway).

Trouble is all of that takes time and a little research.

I have a terrible memory. Unlike some folks in this hobby, I don’t have an immediate recollection of who played bass guitar for Bob Dylan in the fall of 1982. I don’t even know if he played a show in the fall of 1982. I don’t know what Neil Young was doing in the spring of 2001, or if Van Morrison was at the top of his game (or the bottom of it) in 1994.

I’m probably most knowledgeable with the Grateful Dead and even then I can only speak in generalities. I know about the tour of Europe in 1972 and the Wall of Sound in 1973 but I can’t tell you which shows are best.

That’s just the way my dumb brain works (or rather how it doesn’t work.) That means I have to do a little thinking and a little research to find some connective tissue for shows I might want to post. Then I have to actually try to find recordings of those shows.

All of this takes time which is why I’ve talked about this idea fairly often, but very rarely actually done anything about it.

I’ve been feeling antsy lately so I thought I’d give this a go. Obviously, I did Bob Dylan’s Fastbreak Tour yesterday. I’m working on a short tour Jerry Garcia did in 1994 right now.

I’d definitely love to hear any of your suggestions. It can be a time period or a bunch of shows from throughout an artist’s career at the same venue, or anything really. I’m just trying to mix it up a bit.