Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day – My Hometown, New Year’s Day, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Stay (Faraway, So Close), Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name, One, Bad

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

Images:



Videos:

They have been rocking for 33 years, but U2 showed there was still a spring in their step in Dublin on Friday.

The Irish rock superstars played in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park in the first of three concerts at the stadium.

“In the words of our good friends the Corrs, we are so young,” lead singer Bono, who turns 50 next year, shouted, at the start of Beautiful Day.

“As a nation I mean,” he added pointing to the crowd.

U2 had promised fans a night and a stage show to remember – and they weren’t going to let anyone down.

Once they performed tracks from their latest album, the band launched into their greatest hits.

Bono also paid tribute to Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners, who died last year, by playing one of their tracks the Auld Triangle.

U2 dazzled fans from inside a giant steel claw that rose to 60 metres high above the crown – almost as tall as the stands surrounding it.

It took a week to construct the impressive setting, that included 550 tonnes of steel, 56 tonnes of video screens and spanned across a third of the pitch.

Music aside, the band’s political allegiance was clear – with a dedication to jailed Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi, currently on trial charged with breaking a security law.

Thousands of concert-goers wore a mask bearing her image when the band played Walk On.

Fans queued from midnight last night in torrential rain to catch the band up close.

Over the coming days more than 240,000 revellers from as far as Japan, Canada and America will descend on the north Dublin stadium – the equivalent to three All Ireland’s finals back to back.

It is estimated the series of gigs – tonight, tomorrow and Monday – will boost the city’s economy by 50 million euro.

Celia Braga, from Lisbon in Portugal, was in the audience.

“I am a big fan,” said the 36-year-old.

“This is my first time seeing them. It will be a fantastic night.”

Ahead of the gig Bono told fans via a website link-up: “The ‘rehearsals’ have been going really well. We’ve been rehearsing in Barcelona, Milan, Nice, Berlin and Amsterdam, but we expect that the main event in Dublin will be better than any of them.”

The Edge added: “It’s not just another show, for us or for the fans. They travel from all over the world to see us perform in Dublin. Most of them believe it’s the best gig for them to attend.”

Concert promoters MCD and gardai again appealed to concert-goers to follow traffic plans in the area and respect local residents.

- BBC News

Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day – Here Comes the Sun, Mysterious Ways, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – Stand By Me, Angel of Harlem – Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, In A Little While, Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights – Rain, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name, One

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

Images:



Videos:

Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day – Blackbird, Elevation, Desire, Stuck In A Moment, The Auld Triangle, One, Until the End of the World, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name, Bad

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

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DUBLIN — Bono and U2 rocked more than 80,000 fans in Dublin as the Irish supergroup’s latest world tour hit new emotional highs Friday night on home soil.

Photo by u2_se

A deafening roar welcomed the Dubliners as they launched their three-concert homestand at Croke Park, Ireland’s biggest stadium and a cathedral to Irish nationalism. The band’s “360″ tour — featuring its underselling 12th studio album, “No Line on the Horizon” — switches from Europe to North America in September.

“We are so young — as a nation!” shouted the 49-year-old lead singer Bono.

Crowds braced for downpours threw their raincoats aside as an unexpected sunset gave way to a starry Dublin night.

All of the “360″ concerts feature a stunning feat of engineering: the four-taloned “Claw” stage. The 390-ton, green cabana stands more than 10 stories above the band as they strut through the crowds on moving bridges and a ring-shaped stage with concertgoers inside and out.

The U2 touring juggernaut deploys three “Claws” — each costing euro100 million ($140 million) and capable of holding up more than 150 tons of lighting, pyrotechnics and giant TV screens — that are continually being assembled and disassembled in different concert locations.

Before taking the stage, Bono joked that the band’s performances in Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Nice, Berlin and Amsterdam were just “rehearsals” for the Dublin concerts.

And in front of a crowd waving flags from as far away as Brazil and Japan, Bono said tens of thousands had traveled worldwide to Dublin. “You know the best place to see U2 live is right here,” he said to cheers.

The U2 gigs are delivering an estimated euro50 million ($70 million) boost to Ireland’s recession-ravaged economy, with most Dublin hotels booked solid for weeks. Even the Dublin Criminal Court shut down jury deliberations for the weekend because too many jurors had U2 tickets.

Nonetheless, Ireland’s descent into double-digit unemployment could be seen in the stands. Several thousand seats remained empty — the first non-sellout of a U2 gig in Dublin since 1980.

Irish safety laws also barred fans from the most hallowed end of Croke Park: standing-room-only concrete stands called Hill 16.

Hill 16 was built on rubble from Ireland’s first, failed rebellion against British rule in 1916. Ireland won independence six years later, but not before British security forces made Hill 16 the most infamous killing ground of the conflict, shooting to death a dozen spectators and athletes at a Gaelic football match.

The day become known as Ireland’s first Bloody Sunday, the inspiration for U2’s 1983 anti-war anthem “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

“We’re undefeatable!” Bono shouted. “Hill 16 right behind us. Out of the rubble of a revolution in 1916 they built a beautiful stadium, and more importantly they built a great country. And there is nothing we can’t do if we believe in ourselves.”

High school students Paul “Bono” Hewson, guitarist Dave “The Edge” Evans, drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton came together to form U2 in Dublin 33 years ago.

- The Associated Press