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What It Was Like To See U2 Perform The Joshua Tree Live
One of the three big, traffic choking events happening in Pasadena this weekend is the nightly apparition and performance of Bono and the rest of the U2 gang. They're here to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the band's breakout album, The Joshua Tree, by playing the album in its entirety at the Rose Bowl. Though Saturday's show has come and gone—chronicled for LAist by Annie Lesser—U2 remains in town for a Sunday evening performance.
If you're lucky enough to go, expect the show to lead out with epic displays of poetry featuring the works of Pedro Pietri and Carl Sandburg. Lesser reports how right before the band started playing, the audio managers blasted "Black Hole Sun," as an ode to the late Chris Cornell of Soundgarden.
The show itself proceeded as advertised, with a live rendition of The Joshua Tree in totality. U2, known for their often explicitly political content, kept politics chiefly for the encore, and included a montage of women (ft. everyone from Rosa Parks and Michelle Obama to Pussy Riot and Lena Dunham), and an LED banner stating "The Power of the People is Stronger than The People In Power." Towards the end, Bono made a speech about we, collectively, can change history, and how governments should fear its people—not vice-versa. Before launching into "One," Bono added how the fight against HIV aids is being fought by America, and that we should be proud that as taxpayers we are AIDS activists.
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