Vertigo Tour

Vertigo Tour
World tour by U2
Location North America, Europe, South America, Oceania, Asia
Associated album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Start date 28 March 2005
End date 9 December 2006
Legs 5
Number of shows 131
Box office US$389 million
U2 concert chronology

The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Staged in support of the group's 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 2005 through 2006. The Vertigo Tour consisted of five legs that alternated between indoor arena shows in North America and outdoor stadium shows internationally.[1] Much like the previous Elevation Tour, the indoor portion of the Vertigo Tour featured a stripped-down, intimate stage design. Protruding from the main stage was an ellipse-shaped catwalk that encapsulated a small number of fans.

The tour grossed US$260 million in 110 sold-out concerts in 2005, making it the top-grossing tour of the year.[2] In North America alone, the tour grossed $138.9 million from 1.4 million tickets sold.[3] The Vertigo Tour won the 2005 Billboard Roadwork Touring Awards for Top Tour, Top Draw, and Top Single Event, and U2's management company Principle Management won for Top Manager.[4] By the time it finished, the Vertigo Tour had sold 4,619,021 tickets — with 131 shows — for a total gross of $389 million; the gross was the second-highest such figure ever.[5] The tour was depicted in three concert films: Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago, Vertigo: Live from Milan, and U2 3D.

Itinerary

U2 performs in Anaheim on April 1, 2005.

After rehearsing for several months in Vancouver, the tour's opening night was on 28 March 2005 at the iPayOne Center in San Diego, California. The first leg through North America consisted of 28 sold-out indoor arena shows and finished on 28 May in Boston, Massachusetts.

The second leg was a European stadium tour, commencing on 10 June in Brussels and finishing on 14 August in Lisbon. They played in a number of venues including Amsterdam, London, Dublin, Madrid, Milan and Oslo. U2 broke Irish box office marks with ticket sales for three Croke Park concerts in Dublin, after more than 240,000 tickets were sold in record time. In The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Austria, the tickets were all sold within 60 minutes.

The symbols of Islam, Judaism and Christianity form the word "Coexista" during a performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in Mexico City.

The band then returned to North America for the third leg in the autumn, playing 50 sold-out shows in indoor arenas, starting on September 12 in Toronto and finishing up on December 19 in Portland, Oregon.

A fourth leg began on 12 February 2006 in Monterrey, Mexico, and ran through March visiting Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile; many of these locales had not seen a live U2 performance in nearly a decade and proved to be a hugely successful leg, with massive audiences attending these shows.

On 9 March 2006, it was announced the final 10 shows in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Hawaii were postponed due to a serious illness to guitarist The Edge's daughter Sian. (The initial start of the tour had been postponed for the same reason, prior to any tickets being sold.) On 20 July 2006, it was announced that they were rescheduled for November and December, with some adjustments and additions of dates. The fifth leg started on 7 November in Brisbane, Australia and concluded on 9 December 2006 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii after thirteen shows.

Stage design

The stage and LED curtain viewed from the rear at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on 22 May 2005.

The Vertigo Tour's production was designed by architect Mark Fisher and stage and lighting designer Willie Williams. Key elements were an ellipse-shaped ramp on the floor connected to the stage, with some fans inside it and some outside it (similar to the heart-shaped ramp used on the previous Elevation Tour). The inside area of the ellipse came to be known as the "bomb shelter", in reference to the supporting album.[6]

In the North American shows, a set of seven retractable, see-through LED-based lighted bead curtains hung behind and to the side of the stage, showing abstract patterns, maps, moving figures, and occasionally text. The roll-drop LED screens were designed by Fisher using 360deg golf-ball pixels developed with Frederic Opsomer of innovative Designs in Belgium. The spherical LED product joined the BARCO product line as the Mi-Sphere. Dynamic, "moving" lights were also embedded in the stage and the B-stage ramp, as well. Four screens suspended above the stage showed close-ups of each member of the band, another element reused from the Elevation Tour.

For the European, Latin American and Australian stadium shows, the bead curtains were replaced by an LED screen behind the band. The screen was assembled from BARCO O-Lite modules. The assembly of the screen was similar to the rigging used for the LED screen in the PopMart Tour. The ellipse was also replaced with two catwalks leading to two B-stages in the style of the 'Vertigo target'.

Concert setlist

The show's set list varied, with notable differences between each leg of the tour.

Main set

U2 performs "City of Blinding Lights" in their home town of Dublin in June 2005.

The arena shows of the first and third legs usually began with the same trio of songs: "City of Blinding Lights", "Vertigo", "Elevation". On the first leg, "City of Blinding Lights" would alternate with "Love and Peace or Else", and sometimes "Beautiful Day" appeared in the opening trio. In contrast, the stadium concerts of the second leg opened with "Vertigo", "I Will Follow", and "The Electric Co.", though "I Will Follow's" position was occasionally occupied by other songs. By the fourth leg, "City of Blinding Lights", "Vertigo" and "Elevation" were the standard opening trio, that was only altered once - early on in the fourth leg. After the opening trio, songs from U2's early days were played at the arena shows, while the stadium shows featured more anthemic rock songs. "New Year's Day", "Until the End of the World", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "Miracle Drug" were examples of songs that oftened appeared in the main set. Beyond this point in the setlist, the stadium and indoor sets became roughly similar. "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" was played at every show as a tribute to Bono's father. Then there was then a sequence of politically based songs (usually "Love and Peace or Else", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and "Bullet the Blue Sky"), based around the theme of "Coexist" (written to show a Muslim Crescent, Jewish Star of David, and Christian Cross). Later, with flags of African nations displayed on the screens, "Where the Streets Have No Name" followed "Pride (In the Name of Love)". This led to a plea from Bono to participate in the ONE Campaign, while the opening of "One" played.

The encores

"The Fly" performed on the opening night of the European leg at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on 10 June 2005.

The encores varied from leg to leg, and night to night. The first encore was frequently a musical and visual look back to U2's famed Zoo TV Tour, usually featuring "Zoo Station", "The Fly", and "Mysterious Ways". However, for many shows on the third leg, this was discarded in favor of an acoustic encore. The second encore often showcased recent material, and almost all second leg shows as well as rare first and third leg shows ended with a repeat of "Vertigo", in homage to U2's early concert days when they would run out of songs to play. The usual concert finisher in the first leg was "40" where Adam and Edge would switch instruments, but over the course of the tour, many other closing songs would be used as well.

At the start of the much-delayed fifth leg in Australia, the usual first Zoo TV-style encore was used initially, but several shows into the leg "Zoo Station" was dropped in favour of "Mysterious Ways" with "The Fly" opening the encore, making the first encore "The Fly", "Mysterious Ways" and "With or Without You". The second encore, however, showcased three songs that had not been played until this point on the entire tour. "The Saints Are Coming" was played, following U2 and Green Day's using it to reopen the Louisiana Superdome. Up next was a full electric performance of "Angel of Harlem". Making its Vertigo Tour debut and closing a show for the first time ever was "Kite", which hadn't been played since the end of the Elevation Tour five years prior. Kite was accompanied by a didgeridoo and the show ended with Bono releasing a kite from one of the B-Stages. During the band's second show in Auckland, "One Tree Hill" replaced Kite as the show closer. The encore of the final concert of the tour in Honolulu included "The Saints Are Coming" featuring Billie Joe Armstrong, "Window in the Skies" and Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" featuring Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready. The tour ended with the song "All I Want Is You".

Diversity of material played

The Edge plays "Electric Co." in Pittsburgh in October 2005; the song had been a staple of the band's live act in the early 1980s, but had not been played in 17 years.

The Vertigo Tour was notable not only for its diversity of material — it was the first tour since the Lovetown Tour to feature at least one song from each of their currently released albums — but for the rarity of some songs played. Most notably, "The Ocean" had not been performed since December 1982. Tracks from their debut album Boy were chosen ahead of tracks from their biggest-selling album, The Joshua Tree. A number of other songs returned to the setlist after absences of more than fifteen years, including material from October, while "The First Time", from 1993's Zooropa album, was played in full live for the first time. "Miss Sarajevo", a song from U2's side project Original Soundtracks No. 1, became a concert regular despite previously only being played live twice since its release in 1995. Although Luciano Pavarotti sang the operatic vocals on the original, "Miss Sarajevo" featured Bono competently singing the operatic vocals. Also, "Discothèque", from 1997's Pop album, made its final two appearances. The Vertigo Tour has also featured Larry Mullen, Jr. on vocals on "Elevation", "Miracle Drug" and "Love and Peace or Else". All but two songs ("A Man and a Woman" and "One Step Closer") from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb were performed on the tour. "Fast Cars", a bonus track on some countries' editions of the album, was also performed. "Walk On", the Grammy Award-winning song from All That You Can't Leave Behind, was played only sparingly on the tour, and barring performances in Brisbane and Sydney, was played in stripped back acoustic form. Also "Bad", which was a regular on the Elevation Tour playlist, was played less frequently on this tour.

Concert filming

Two nights of the band's four-night engagement in Chicago, Illinois in May 2005 were filmed for the live DVD Vertigo 2005: Live From Chicago. During the European stadium leg of the Vertigo Tour in the summer of 2005, four more concerts were filmed: two in Dublin and two in Milan. Songs from the Milan shows were featured in a band profile on 60 Minutes and on U2.COMmunication. Ten songs performed at the Milan concert appeared as a special edition bonus DVD in U2's November 2006 compilation album U218 Singles. The 20 February 2006 show in São Paulo, Brazil was broadcast live by Rede Globo. Additionally, 700 hours of footage from seven Latin American concerts were filmed in 3D HD for the film U2 3D, released in 2008 in Real D Cinemas.[7] On 18 and 19 November, additional U2 3D filming was done at the Melbourne concerts at Telstra Dome, as additional shots of the stage's LED display and the concert audience were needed.[8]

Support acts

Support slots were taken up by Ash, Arcade Fire, Athlete, Dashboard Confessional, Feeder, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Kanye West, Keane, The Killers, Kings of Leon (U.S. leg only), Sissor Sisters, Snow Patrol, Starsailor (Cardiff only), Paddy Casey (Dublin only), Razorlight, Pearl Jam (Honolulu only) and The Zutons.

Ticket presale controversy

The band's website, U2.com, was involved in a ticket presale controversy that upset fans. Users who paid $40 for a subscription to U2.com were promised the opportunity to purchase tickets in a presale that preceded any general public ticket sales.[9] However, many fans were unable to purchase tickets, as technical glitches plagued the presale.[9] Additionally, many scalpers had taken advantage of the system by subscribing to U2.com and purchasing as many tickets as possible, with the intentions of selling them for profit.[9] Larry Mullen, Jr. apologized on behalf of the band at the Grammy Awards.

Technical details

LED curtains

The LED based curtains behind the indoor stage setup were conceived by Mark Fisher and Willie Williams, custom made by Barco NV and Innovative Designs, and supplied by XL Video.[10] The Vertigo Tour used 189 strings of these "MiSphere" LED balls suspended from custom truss, which allows the LED curtains to be rolled up.[11] High above the center stage hung the MiSphere strings, each containing 64 spheres and totaling nine meters long; together the spheres formed seven 3-D curtains, which permitted concertgoers around the arena to have an excellent view of the curtains above the band and the images they displayed.[11]

Lighting gear list

The following gear was used for the show's lighting:[11]

A PlayStation controller is used to control High End Systems DL1 units for audience shots presented on the large video screens.[11]

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, opening act, tickets sold, amount of available tickets and gross revenue
Date City Country Venue Opening act Attendance Revenue
North America[12]
March 28, 2005 San Diego United States ipayOne Center at the Sports Arena Kings of Leon 29,140 / 29,140 $2,909,029
March 30, 2005
April 1, 2005 Anaheim Honda Center 33,535 / 33,535 $3,454,198
April 2, 2005
April 5, 2005 Los Angeles Staples Center 34,527 / 34,527 $3,673,850
April 6, 2005
April 9, 2005 San Jose HP Pavilion at San Jose 36,140 / 36,140 $3,357,098
April 10, 2005
April 14, 2005 Glendale Glendale Arena 34,905 / 34,905 $3,198,861
April 15, 2005
April 20, 2005 Denver Pepsi Center 36,714 / 36,714 $3,509,741
April 21, 2005
April 24, 2005 Seattle KeyArena 30,251 / 30,251 $3,105,754
April 25, 2005
April 28, 2005 Vancouver Canada General Motors Place 37,031 / 37,031 $3,020,466
April 29, 2005
May 7, 2005 Chicago United States United Center 77,173 / 77,173 $7,541,679
May 9, 2005
May 10, 2005
May 12, 2005
May 14, 2005 Philadelphia Wachovia Center 39,273 / 39,273 $3,767,178
May 17, 2005 East Rutherford Continental Airlines Arena 40,347 / 40,347 $3,838,066
May 18, 2005
May 21, 2005 New York City Madison Square Garden 18,415 / 18,415 $1,907,086
May 22, 2005 Philadelphia Wachovia Center [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 1]
May 24, 2005 Boston FleetCenter 51,658 / 51,658 $5,071,565
May 26, 2005
May 28, 2005
Europe[13]
June 10, 2005 Brussels Belgium King Baudouin Stadium The Thrills
Snow Patrol		 60,499 / 60,499 $4,864,554
June 12, 2005 Gelsenkirchen Germany Veltins-Arena The Thrills
Feeder		 59,120 / 59,120 $4,203,947
June 14, 2005 Manchester England Etihad Stadium The Bravery
Idlewild
Snow Patrol
Athlete		 107,671 / 107,671 $11,119,740
June 15, 2005
June 18, 2005 London Twickenham Stadium Doves
Idlewild
Athlete
Ash		 110,796 / 110,796 $13,677,410
June 19, 2005
June 21, 2005 Glasgow Scotland Hampden Park Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Interpol		 53,395 / 53,395 $5,819,053
June 24, 2005 Dublin Ireland Croke Park The Radiators
The Thrills
The Bravery
Snow Patrol
Paddy Casey
Ash		 246,743 / 246,743 $21,163,695
June 25, 2005
June 27, 2005
June 29, 2005 Cardiff Wales Millennium Stadium Starsailor
The Killers		 63,677 / 63,677 $6,406,073
July 2, 2005 Vienna Austria Ernst Happel Stadium The Thrills
The Magic Numbers		 55,645 / 55,645 $4,200,416
July 5, 2005 Chorzów Poland Stadion Śląski The Killers
The Magic Numbers		 64,711 / 64,711 $3,127,416
July 7, 2005 Berlin Germany Olympic Stadium Snow Patrol
Kaiser Chiefs		 70,443 / 70,443 $4,725,530
July 9, 2005 Saint-Denis France Stade de France Snow Patrol
Starsailor
The Music		 160,349 / 160,349 $11,822,645
July 10, 2005
July 13, 2005 Amsterdam Netherlands Amsterdam Arena The Killers
Snow Patrol
Kaiser Chiefs
The Music
Athlete		 165,516 / 165,516 $13,022,200
July 15, 2005
July 16, 2005
July 18, 2005 Zürich Switzerland Letzigrund Ash
Feeder		 44,260 / 44,260 $3,574,993
July 20, 2005 Milan Italy San Siro 137,427 / 137,427 $7,565,264
July 21, 2005
July 23, 2005 Rome Olympic Stadium 67,002 / 67,002 $4,010,779
July 27, 2005 Oslo Norway Valle Hovin Razorlight
Paddy Casey		 40,000 / 40,000 $3,765,136
July 29, 2005 Gothenburg Sweden Ullevi Razorlight
The Soundtrack of Our Lives		 58,478 / 58,478 $4,081,864
July 31, 2005 Copenhagen Denmark Parken Stadium 50,000 / 50,000 $3,650,294
August 3, 2005 Munich Germany Olympiastadion Keane
The Zutons		 77,435 / 77,435 $5,343,379
August 5, 2005 Nice France Stade Charles-Ehrmann 51,900 / 51,900 $3,548,702
August 7, 2005 Barcelona Spain Camp Nou Kaiser Chiefs
Keane		 81,269 / 81,269 $5,130,437
August 9, 2005 San Sebastián Estadio Anoeta Franz Ferdinand
Kaiser Chiefs		 43,720 / 43,720 $2,936,571
August 11, 2005 Madrid Vicente Calderón Stadium 57,040 / 57,040 $3,679,354
August 14, 2005 Lisbon Portugal Estádio José Alvalade Kaiser Chiefs
Keane		 55,362 / 55,362 $4,492,762
North America[14]
September 12, 2005 Toronto Canada Air Canada Centre Dashboard Confessional 82,572 / 82,572 $7,624,870
September 14, 2005
September 16, 2005
September 17, 2005
September 20, 2005 Chicago United States United Center 38,815 / 38,815 $3,795,583
September 21, 2005
September 23, 2005 Minneapolis Target Center 19,328 / 19,328 $1,823,883
September 25, 2005 Milwaukee Bradley Center 19,336 / 19,336 $1,782,895
October 3, 2005 Boston TD Banknorth Garden Keane 34,488 / 34,488 $3,381,429
October 4, 2005
October 7, 2005 New York City Madison Square Garden 93,275 / 93,275 $9,658,009
October 8, 2005
October 10, 2005
October 11, 2005
October 14, 2005
October 16, 2005 Philadelphia Wachovia Center Damian Marley 39,905 / 39,905 $3,773,053
October 17, 2005
October 19, 2005 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center 38,181 / 38,181 $3,902,569
October 20, 2005
October 22, 2005 Pittsburgh Mellon Arena 16,899 / 16,899 $1,636,798
October 24, 2005 Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills Institute 41,379 / 41,379 $3,951,103
October 25, 2005
October 28, 2005 Houston Toyota Center Damian Marley 17,002 / 17,002 $1,652,699
October 29, 2005 Dallas American Airlines Center 17,988 / 17,988 $1,689,471
November 1, 2005 Los Angeles Staples Center 34,291 / 34,291 $3,656,978
November 2, 2005
November 4, 2005 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena 31,863 / 31,863 $3,864,843
November 5, 2005
November 8, 2005 Oakland Oakland Arena 36,340 / 36,340 $3,638,620
November 9, 2005
November 13, 2005 Miami American Airlines Arena Institute 37,354 / 37,354 $3,589,942
November 14, 2005
November 16, 2005 Tampa St. Pete Times Forum 19,354 / 19,354 $1,825,243
November 18, 2005 Atlanta Philips Arena 36,334 / 36,334 $3,500,572
November 19, 2005
November 21, 2005 New York City Madison Square Garden Patti Smith 37,314 / 37,314 $3,859,828
November 22, 2005
November 25, 2005 Ottawa Canada Scotiabank Place Arcade Fire 18,647 / 18,647 $1,486,710
November 26, 2005 Montreal Bell Centre 43,294 / 43,294 $3,575,491
November 28, 2005
December 4, 2005 Boston United States TD Garden Institute 34,583 / 34,583 $3,400,861
December 5, 2005
December 7, 2005 Hartford XL Center 16,165 / 16,165 $1,542,471
December 9, 2005 Buffalo HSBC Arena 18,826 / 18,826 $1,711,094
December 10, 2005 Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena 19,765 / 19,765 $1,791,497
December 12, 2005 Charlotte Time Warner Cable Arena 17,804 / 17,804 $1,672,440
December 14, 2005 St. Louis Scottrade Center Kanye West 19,923 / 19,923 $1,839,020
December 15, 2005 Omaha Qwest Center Omaha 16,134 / 16,134 $1,500,834
December 17, 2005 Salt Lake City EnergySolutions Arena 18,197 / 18,197 $1,709,317
December 19, 2005 Portland Rose Garden 18,233 / 18,233 $1,670,879
Latin America[15]
February 12, 2006 Monterrey Mexico Estadio Tecnológico The Secret Machines 50,347 / 50,347 $4,504,026
February 15, 2006 Mexico City Estadio Azteca 141,278 / 141,278 $10,257,284
February 16, 2006
February 20, 2006 São Paulo Brazil Morumbi Stadium Franz Ferdinand 149,700 / 149,700 $11,682,557
February 21, 2006
February 26, 2006 Santiago Chile Chile National Stadium 77,345 / 77,345 $5,000,589
March 1, 2006 Buenos Aires Argentina River Plate Stadium 150,424 / 150,424 $6,966,821
March 2, 2006
Oceania[16]
November 7, 2006 Brisbane Australia Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre Kanye West 53,480 / 53,480 $1,253,964
November 10, 2006 Sydney Telstra Stadium 206,568 / 206,568 $18,538,724
November 11, 2006
November 13, 2006
November 16, 2006 Adelaide AAMI Stadium 60,000 / 60,000 $5,058,962
November 18, 2006 Melbourne Docklands Stadium 127,275 / 127,275 $11,188,720
November 19, 2006
November 24, 2006 Auckland New Zealand Ericsson Stadium 84,475 / 84,475 $6,216,819
November 25, 2006
Asia[17]
November 29, 2006 Saitama Japan Saitama Super Arena N/A 57,158 / 57,158 $6,096,855
November 30, 2006
December 4, 2006
North America[17]
December 9, 2006 Honolulu United States Aloha Stadium Pearl Jam
Rocco and the Devils		 45,815 / 45,815 $4,486,532
Total 4,619,021 / 4,619,021 (100%) $389,047,636

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 The score data is representative of the both shows in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Wachovia Center on May 14 and May 22 respectively.

References

  1. ↑ "Showing details for U2's Vertigo Tour". U2gigs.com. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  2. ↑ Waddell, Ray (2005-12-13). "U2's Vertigo Leads Year's Top Tours". Billboard. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  3. ↑ "Rolling Stones, U2 help drive concert revenues to record in 2005". USA Today. Associated Press. 2005-12-29. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  4. ↑ "About the Awards: Congratulations to all 2005 finalists & winners!". Billboard. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  5. ↑ Cohen, Jonathan (2007-01-01). "U2: From joshua trees to palm trees". Billboard for Reuters. Retrieved 2009-03-10. It was bested only by The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour, which took place at roughly the same time but was longer overall.
  6. ↑ Pang, Kevin. "Get inside U2's bomb shelter". Chicago Tribune.
  7. ↑ Goldstein, Greg (2006-10-31). "U2 Goes 3-D For Vertigo Concert Film". The Hollywood Reporter for Billboard. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  8. ↑ Geller, Rusty (December 2006). "My Long Weekend in Melbourne" (PDF). Focal Point (Australian Cinematographers Society). pp. 8–11.
  9. 1 2 3 Waddell, Ray (2005-01-27). "U2 pre-sale plagued by Web glitches". Amusement Business. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  10. ↑ "U2 Vertigo Tour a feast for the eyes with revolutionary Barco technology" (Press release). Barco NV. 2005-03-29. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Jennings, Steve (2005-05-27). "Production Profile: U2's Vertigo". Pro Lights and Staging News. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  12. ↑ North America box score:
  13. ↑ Europe box score:
  14. ↑ North America box score:
  15. ↑ Latin America box score:
  16. ↑ Oceania box score:
  17. 1 2 "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.) 118 (51): 63. December 23, 2006. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved June 8, 2014.

External links

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