SPOILERS: U2eiTOUR Rehearsal Day Three Report: April 11, 2018

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2018-04-11)

WARNING: As the tour rehearsals progress we will be posting spoilers about songs on the site itself. We will try to give advance warning about these in this fashion. THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS. If you continue reading below you will find spoilers about songs that were heard at the venue, as well as rehearsal timing and other information some fans may not want to hear. We would ask that you remember some fans do not want spoilers before the start of the tour, and use caution when posting about this story on your social media feeds.

U2 are rehearsing for the upcoming eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour in Laval, Quebec, just outside of Montreal. Rehearsals began April 9, 2017 at Place Bell, a small arena. The arena is a newer one, opened in 2017. Today marked the third day U2 are on site in Laval working on the upcoming tour.

The band was at the venue this afternoon. The Edge was the first to arrive and Bono the last. Gavin Friday was seen at the venue today as well. Friday, a long time friend of Bono’s, and former Virgin Prune, was listed as Executive Producer and Band Consultant on the most recent The Joshua Tree 2017 tour. He has been a creative influence over many tours. Security was much heavier today than on previous days and a number of fans were asked to move out of the general area by security. Fans were able to speak briefly with Brian Murphy as he entered the venue. The weather is cold in Laval hovering around the freezing mark these last few days.

For those who have asked, the band have not been meeting with the fans waiting outside. They have been driving in vehicles with darkened windows, and driving right into the venue, and the doors are often closed before they even exit the vehicles. They are often not even seen, and thus there are no photographs of them at this time that we have seen.

If you continue beyond here we will be spoiling song titles. Some fans don’t want to know what is happening until opening night, so we ask you to please respect that and refrain from posting song titles without a spoiler warning.

We are told that there was some music heard early this evening after the band had arrived. There was a number of trials of the song “Acrobat” that could be heard, but these did not appear to be live, and it is expected that this was playback of previous recorded efforts, perhaps even last night’s performances.

The band did not have the venue to themselves this evening. The rinks in the building were in use, first for a small team of kids practicing their hockey skills, and later a couple of practices for older players. As there was a lot of traffic in and out of the building from these sports practices the band may have chosen not to do any live rehearsal work for the early part of the evening, and instead worked on the production itself instead of songs. The only vibrations that could be heard for most of the evening was the Zamboni machine cleaning the adjacent ice surfaces, leading to some fans singing “Zam-Bone-I” to the tune of “Volcano” while they waited.

At 9:30 the band was heard starting rehearsal. They started while practice was still happening on the other rink, and music from that rink made hearing U2’s practice difficult.

Tonight they started with “Pride (In the Name of Love)” which was done a few times. All four songs heard tonight are rehearsed in Canada for the first time at tonights rehearsal. To the best of our ability to pick out what they performed, U2 played the following:

  • “Pride (In the Name of Love)” (1st time rehearsed in Canada)
  • “Pride (In the Name of Love)”
  • “Get Out of Your Own Way” (1st time rehearsed in Canada)
  • “American Soul” (1st time rehearsed in Canada)
  • “City of Blinding Lights” (musical transition into this song from “American Soul”) (1st time rehearsed in Canada)

At this point the rehearsal went silent. We do not know at this time whether or not the band will restart. If we get further information, we will post it in the morning. But at this point it appears that the rehearsals have finished for the evening, or can no longer be heard.

Many thanks to Talie, Karin, Annouche, Jean-Paul, Antoine, Jason and a few contributors who wished to remain unnamed for sending information to us over the last few days. Earlier reports on the progress of rehearsals are linked below:

Earlier stories:



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