U2 Kickoff The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 in New Zealand with 24 Songs

U2 played their first show of 2019 on Friday evening (November 8th) in Aukland, New Zealand. The tour kickoff sees the legendary Irish rockers bringing their landmark album, The Joshua Tree, to parts of the world that the band promised they'd bring it to, according to Bono. The tour will see U2 hitting up New Zealand, Australia, Asia and India, and it's their first tour since wrapping their Experience + Innocence Tour exactly one year ago. It also features support from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds!

They brought with them a 24-song setlist to the Mount Smart Stadium in Aukland, where they fired of the set with four of their staple hits from the eighties U2 era. They started with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and ended on "Pride (In the Name of Love)" before they dove head first in The Joshua Tree, performed in sequencing order.

The album was released in 1987, but the icons have made the songs transcend generations, especially in their performance as they play their Trump-bashing video in the intro of "Exit" and add other politically charged snippets throughout the the album's performance.

They also played an especially heartfelt version of "One Tree Hill," which was written for their friend and crew member Greg Carroll, a young Māori man they met in Auckland back in 1984. He tragically died in a motorcycle accident shortly after in 1986.

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“We sort of adopted him, or perhaps it was the other way around,” Bono told the crowd in Auckland. “But we were very grateful for his companionship over those precious times together. He was taken from us too soon, but in a certain way, he’s still very present. So this is for Greg Carroll.”

Watch them performing it here:

"One Tree Hill" Live

After performing all 12 songs, the band went into a set of eight songs that were released after The Joshua Tree like "Vertigo," "Beautiful Day" and eventually ending on "One." See the full setlist below!

U2

All of U2's dates on this tour are listed below!

11-09 Auckland, New Zealand - Mt. Smart Stadium

11-12 Brisbane, Australia - SunCorp Stadium

11-15 Melbourne, Australia - Marvel Stadium

11-19 Adelaide, Australia - Adelaide Oval

11-22 Sydney, Australia - Sydney Cricket Ground

11-23 Sydney, Australia - Sydney Cricket Ground

11-27 Perth, Australia - Optus Stadium

11-30 Kallang, Singapore - National Stadium

12-01 Kallang, Singapore - National Stadium

12-04 Tokyo, Japan - Saitama Super Arena

12-05 Tokyo, Japan - Saitama Super Arena

12-08 December Seoul, South Korea - Gocheok Sky Dome

12-11 Manila, Philipines - Philipine Arena

12-15 Mumbai, India - DY Patil Stadium

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