After playing the whole of their iconic “The Joshua Tree” album, this past Tuesday (9/12) U2 left the stage. Arrowhead Stadium, in true Kansas City fashion, erupted in the “Tomahawk Chop” continuing until Bono and the rest of the group returned to the stage with “Beautiful Day” for an encore.
Beginning around 7:30, Beck, energized the crowd, with favorites like “Devil’s Haircut” and “Where it’s At” while also telling stories of his summers spent in Kansas City and the nostalgia evoked in coming back. Beck was promoting his new album, “Colors”, dropping October 13, while also exciting the crowd for the headliner.
Coming out to the satellite stage one by one, U2 started their set with “Sunday Bloody Sunday” followed by several other top hits. Lead singer, Bono, known for his strong political views and charitable advocacy group, ONE, used his platform to deliver views on recent events and rouse the crowd in between songs.
The now 41 year old band then moved to the main stage, physically dwarfed by the 200 foot long and 45 foot tall screens behind them. These screens are the first of their kind, enabling all sorts of new technology for an effect that is truly breathtaking.
The screens played various videos as the band performed the entirety of “The Joshua Tree”. These videos were specific to each song, including a mountainous road to which the audience felt they were traveling down in conjuncture with “Where the Streets Have No Name”. There truly was not a bad seat in Arrowhead with the magnitude of these screens, which also enabled a brand new 4K broadcast camera system. A dollied camera moved across the stage, filming and broadcasting the band onto the screens behind them for all to see. The effect was stunning and exactly the type of innovation that keeps U2 selling out venues to their energetic shows even now.