- Music
- 14 May 15
The band will also be using three stages, to ensure that all ticket-holders can participate fully in the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE. From Olaf Tyaransen, in Vancouver…
U2 have confirmed that they are using a dramatic three stage set-up for their iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour, which kicks off in Vancouver, Canada tonight. The band are also promising a radical new approach to surround sound, with the aim of ensuring that everyone in the venue shares in the full immersive experience to the greatest extent possible.
The tour is the most widely anticipated of the year, with the European leg, which opens in Turin in Italy on September 4 completely sold out, apart from the final date at the O2 in London. No Dublin dates have yet been announced.
"The tour will feature stages at each end of the venue connected by an extended third stage spanning the length of the arena," a spokesperson for the band confirmed. "State of the art video and a radical new approach to surround sound will ensure that everyone in the audience sees, feels and hears the show with maximum impact from every seat in the house."
As the name suggests, U2’s iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour charts key moments in the various phases of the history of the world’s biggest band.
All of which adds greatly to the sense of expectation, which is currently galvanising U2 fans all over the world, as they wait to see the four 'boys from Dublin’ strutting their live stuff for the first time in five years, over the coming months.
There have been tech controversies, plane mishaps, biking accidents and family bereavements. But still U2’s iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour – in support of their thirteenth studio album Songs of Innocence – is set to kick off in Vancouver’s Rogers Arena later tonight.
The last time U2 played Vancouver was in October 2009, when they finished the first North American leg of 360 in BC Place Stadium. That was the highest-grossing tour of all time, with its 7.2 million tickets bringing in €653 million in sales, as the band played stadium audiences of up to 90,000 all around the world.
Tonight they’ll be playing just across the road in the home of the Vancouver Canucks ice hockey team, the 19,000-capacity Rogers Arena. It follows a deliberate decision on the band’s part to get back to playing smaller venues on this tour: in truth, there is only so much getting bigger that you can do before the whole thing explodes. Now however, the waiting and the preparation is over. The band are officially about to hit the road...
“We just can’t wait to get going,” bassist Adam Clayton told Hot Press’ Olaf Tyaransen in Vancouver’s Chambar restaurant last night. “After all that’s happened, we just want to get this show on the road.”
If the band are raring to go, things are hotting up too in the hip Canadian city, designated the ideal starting place for the tour. In honour of the band choosing Vancouver to launch iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE this week, Corus Radio Vancouver’s Rock 101 will become U2 101 all day today. From 7 am to 11 pm the station will play back-to-back U2 songs, all in the name of love of the band.