Courtesy of Nasty Little ManU2‘s eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour 2018 kicks off tonight with a show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in honor of the trek’s launch a new video offering a behind-the-scenes look at the outing has been posted on the Irish rockers’ official YouTube channel.
In the clip, guitarist The Edge explains, “The idea of this tour is to finish telling the story of ‘innocence’ and ‘experience,'” referring to the themes of the group’s companion albums Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, which were released in 2014 and this past December, respectively.
Bassist Adam Clayton then notes, “For me, innocence is about great things happening and grabbing them with both hands, and experience is about great things happening and knowing which ones to grab.”
The video also features The Edge giving viewers a tour of the “barricage,” the 100-foot-long elevated cage that allows the band members to walk across an arena over the crowd while visual presentations are projected onto its sides.
“It’s almost 20 tons in weight, suspended from the roof of this arena,” the guitarist points out. “And it might seem like a strange place to go to work, but for us, this is just what we do.”
He adds, “Technology for us is only really fun when it’s in something that it wasn’t really designed to do. And now with the visual opportunity that the technology gives us, we can make the songs louder, make the songs more interesting, make the songs more emotional. It’s gonna be a wild ride.”
The eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour 2018 is a sequel to U2’s 2015 iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour. The trek begins with a North American leg that runs through a July 3 concert in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Here are all of the North American dates:
5/2 — Tulsa, OK, BOK Center
5/4 — St. Louis, MO, Scottrade Center
5/7 — San Jose, CA, SAP Center
5/8 — San Jose, CA, SAP Center
5/11 — Las Vegas, NV, T-Mobile Arena
5/12 — Las Vegas, NV, T-Mobile Arena
5/15 — Inglewood, CA, The Forum
5/16 — Inglewood, CA, The Forum
5/19 — Omaha, NE, CenturyLink Center
5/22 — Chicago, IL, United Center
5/23 — Chicago, IL, United Center
5/26 — Nashville, TN, Bridgestone Arena
5/28 — Atlanta, GA, Infinite Energy Arena
6/5 — Montreal, QC, Canada, Bell Centre
6/6 — Montreal, QC, Canada, Bell Centre
6/9 — Uniondale, NY, NYCB Live – Home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
6/13 — Philadelphia, PA, Wells Fargo Center
6/14 — Philadelphia, PA, Wells Fargo Center
6/17 — Washington, D.C., Capital One Arena
6/18 — Washington, D.C., Capital One Arena
6/21 — Boston, MA, TD Garden
6/22 — Boston, MA, TD Garden
6/25 — New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
6/26 — New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
6/29 — Newark, NJ, Prudential Center
7/1 — New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
7/3 — Uncasville, CT, Mohegan Sun Arena
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