Innocence and Experience Tour
Nearly three months after the surprise release of U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence, the Irish rock outfit has confirmed its touring plans for 2015 with a Dec. 3 announcement. The outfit’s Innocence and Experience Tour (stylized as iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour) is set to launch in mid-May and will visit at least nine cities before the first confirmed North American leg draws to a close in late July.
The upcoming U2 tour 2015 will be significantly scaled back from the band’s most recent venture: the 360° Tour. Where the 2009-11 trek—which still holds the record for highest-grossing tour of all time—sold out stadiums in more than a dozen cities on its first North American leg, the Innocence and Experience Tour is only confirmed to play at nine arenas next spring. To balance out the small number of cities, U2 will play at least two nights at each arena, while lucky fans in Inglewood, Calif., and New York will have at least four chances to see the band live. A full tour schedule, with links to purchase your own U2 tickets, is featured below.
U2’s new album and tour titles both call to mind English poet William Blake’s widely read 18th-century collection, Songs of Innocence and Experience. In the collection, Blake divides his poems into two distinct groups, innocence and experience, and it appears the U2 tour will follow a similar concept. As Billboard reports, it’s rumored U2 will deliver two distinct performances for their two-night runs in each city. For its summer 2014 tour, Dave Matthews Band followed a similar concept, as the group played one acoustic and one electric set at every tour stop. It’s not yet clear what direction Bono and Co. will take for the 2015 arena tour, though in the tour press release, promoter and President of Global Touring Arthur Fogel stated that “Following the record-setting 360 Tour, I’m amazed that they still want to be ground-breaking, this time on a more intimate scale.”
U2’s Songs of Innocence was recently—and somewhat controversially, to the blogosphere—named the Best Album of 2014 by Rolling Stone, edging out Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes and The Black Keys’ Turn Blue. The new album also caused a big stir after it was automatically added to many iTunes users’ music libraries on Sept. 9. It was later released on vinyl on Sept. 30, which was the last day of eligibility for the GRAMMY Awards 2015.