Tour Music: The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 Pre-Show Music and More

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2019-12-11)

Originally Published: Nov. 9, 2019 Last Updated: December 11, 2019

With each tour we track the music by other artists that U2 use throughout their shows. This includes music used before, after, and during the show, and the new The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 tour is no different. We’ve been tracking these songs since the PopMart tour in 1997, and all of the tours can be found in one spot on our Tour Songs page. That page also contains Spotify playlists. The Spotify playlist for The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 is available here. We also have a playlist for the current tour over on Apple Music thanks to Colin T.

The tour music we hear before the show is curated by Gavin Friday in most cases. Early in the day as people are let into the show, the music is from a handful of spotlighted artists, and the full albums are played. Later that will break into an actual mixed playlist which is a mix of different artists.

Pre-Show Music

The full albums identified to be played on The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 so far have been Arcade Fire’s Everything Now, Prince’s Parade, Kanye West’s Jesus is King and The Beatles’ Abbey Road. From Arcade Fire’s Everything Now the songs “Creature Comfort,” “Peter Pan,” “Chemistry,” “Infinite Content,” “Electric Blue,” “Good God Damn,” “Put Your Money on Me,” “We Don’t Deserve Love” and “Everything Now (Continued)” have been identified. From Prince’s Parade “Christopher Tracy’s Parade,” “New Position,” “I Wonder U,” “Under the Cherry Moon,” “Girls & Boys,” “Life Can Be So Nice,” “Venus de Milo,” “Mountains,” “Do U Lie?,” “Kiss,” “Anotherloverholenyohead,” and “Sometimes it Snows in April” have been identified. From Kanye West’s Jesus is King the songs “Every Hour,” “Selah,” “Follow God,” “Closed on Sunday,” “On God,” “Everything We Need,” “Water,” “God Is,” “Hands On” have been identified. From The Beatles’ Abbey Road the songs “Octopus’s Garden,” “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “The End” have been identified.

Between Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and U2’s performance down under, and from the time people are let in in Asia, there is a true mix of songs that are played including the following, including a few of the tracks from the above full albums that have made it into the mix:

  • “The Beautiful Ones” – Prince
  • “The Stars are Out Tonight” – David Bowie
  • “A Promise” – Echo and the Bunnymen
  • “Lazarus” – David Bowie
  • “Whole Lotta Love” – Led Zeppelin
  • “Emotional Haircut” – LCD Soundsystem
  • “Lips Like Sugar” – Echo and the Bunnymen
  • “New Sensation” – INXS
  • “Home Computer” – Kraftwerk
  • “Come Together” – The Beatles
  • “The Killing Moon” – Echo and the Bunnymen
  • “Deja Vu” – SOAK
  • “Oh! Darling” – The Beatles
  • “Boys in the Better Land” – Fontaines D.C.
  • “The Truth is Dead” – St. Francis Hotel featuring TT
  • “Cars” – Gary Numan
  • “Got to Keep On” – The Chemical Brothers
  • “Beds Are Burning” – Midnight Oil
  • “Bad Guy” – Billie Eilish
  • “Need You Tonight” – INXS
  • “Burn the Witch” – Radiohead
  • “Circles” – Post Malone
  • “Right Here Right Now” – Fatboy Slim
  • “1979” – Smashing Pumpkins
  • “The Jean Genie” – David Bowie
  • “Juice” (Breakbot Mix) – Lizzo
  • “Enjoy the Silence” – Depeche Mode
  • “Crown” – Stormzy
  • “Royals” – Lorde
  • “On Melancholy Hill” – Gorillaz
  • “Mariners Apartment Complex” – Lana Del Ray
  • “Bury a Friend” – Billie Eilish
  • “Drunk Girls” – LCD Soundsystem
  • “Red Right Hand” – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
  • “I Feel You” – Depeche Mode
  • “Everybody Loves You” – SOAK
  • “Never Tear Us Apart” – INXS
  • “Into the Black” – Chromatics
  • “Get Up, Stand Up” – Bob Marley & The Wailers

This mixed portion of the show is random, and will usually end at a random point before the show actually starts. For the second show in Auckland the final song before the show started was “Boys in the Better Land” and in Melbourne it was “Enjoy the Silence.” As the mix is random, and usually quite a bit longer than the time between acts, some nights you’ll not hear the same songs as others, but other nights you’ll hear very similar mixes.

Intro Music:

The band take the stage to the song “The Whole of the Moon” by The Waterboys, originally released in 1985. They had been using the song for the 2017 version of the tour as well starting with the Bonnaroo festival performance. The Waterboys opened for U2 on The Unforgettable Fire tour in 1984.

Post Show:

After the show ends, and the crowd starts to exit, another song is usually played over the PA.

For these first two shows in Auckland, as well as the show in Brisbane that song was Crowded House’s “Fall At Your Feet”. The song was also snippeted by Bono in Bad on the second night in Auckland. Crowded House were formed by New Zealand native Neil Finn, and Australian’s Paul Hester and Nick Seymour. With Melbourne, the song was changed up and was INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart” on the PA as fans left the venue in that city, and it was used for the remainder of the Australian shows, and all of the Asian shows to date.

Added Bonus:

The music we’ve been hearing as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds take the stage for the Australian and New Zealand shows? It’s a song called “Lady (Put the Light On Me)” by Big John’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Circus. But sorry, it’s not included in our playlists. You’ll have to search that one out on its own!

Thank You:

Special thanks to Fernando, Colin, Mary, Wes, Allison, Mary, Rohan, John K and Sallie Ann for contributions to this article.

All of our news relating to The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 can be found in our shows pages.

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