U2 to Bring (Potentially) Wicked Awesome 360-Degree Stage to FedEx Field in September
U2 perform at Fordham University in the Bronx on Friday morning. Photo courtesy Gothamist.
We know: You hate U2! Hate them. Bono, especially. For all the celebrity charity campaigners in the world, he's one who has actually gotten results, persuading even ultra-right-wingers like Rick Santorum and Jesse Helms to get on board with debt forgiveness and HIV-treatment-and-prevention efforts in the world's most impoverished countries. Held his band together, sans lineup changes, since 1977. Married to the same woman for more than 25 years, a father of four, and not a single knocked-up supermodel on his resume. What a douche!
And now we'll all find out whether the rest of the world shares your feelings, because for the first time since their oft-maligned PopMart Tour in 1997, U2 are headed back into U.S. football stadiums. Their prior two U.S. outings, in 2001 and 2005, both included two sold-out nights at the (now) Verizon Center, even as the group continued to book gi-normous soccer stadiums everywhere but in the U.S. But the Dublin quartet are banking that 29 years after their first U.S. concerts, they can still fill the biggest room in town: Tickets go on-sale April 6 for a gig at FedEx Field which will likely be on Tuesday, Sept. 29 (that's the date the Baltimore Business Journal is reporting, though the band has yet to announce most of its U.S. dates). DCist believes, but isn't entirely sure, the U2 is the first single artist to headline at FedEx since boat-loving country star Kenny Chesney played there in 2005. FedEx has previously hosted concerts by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in 2003, and the Rolling Stones in 1997.
As in the past, U2 has devised an unconventional stage setup to compress the space of the stadium. Unlike in the past, they'll be performing (apparently) the entire show in the round. The U2360 Tour stage was dreamed up by longtime show designer Willie Williams and realized by architect Mark Fisher -- check out a 3D model here. This team has been collaborating on custom stages for U2 roadshows since the 1992-3 ZOO TV Tour -- arguably the most influential concert tour of modern times, in that every big-venue rock show since has borrowed production ideas from it.
Our first impressions of the new rig? Looks pretty sweet if you're on the field; maybe not so much if you're up in the stands, as most of the audience will be assuming demand is anywhere close to capacity -- a question in itself. Presumably there'll be some additional A/V accommodation for the punters in the cheap seats. Live Nation global music chairman Arthur Fogel told Billboard last week that the standing general-admission tickets on the field will be priced at $55, and that at least 10,000 tickets for each of the 16 U.S. shows announced today will be priced at $30. That's the cheapest face-price to appear on a U2 ticket since 1992.
The pricing expands U2's now-customary tiered model in both directions: The most expensive seats for the 2009 shows will cost $250, about $100 more than on the 2005 Vertigo Tour. There will also be a $90 or $95 price-point.
Whether tickets will actually find their way into fans' hands for $30 or $55, of course, remains to be seen. When Bruce Springsteen tickets went on sale the morning after his Super Bowl Halftime performance in January, would-be buyers found themselves automatically redirected to TicketsNow.com, a TicketMaster-owned "resale" (scapling) site, offering tickets that had only gone on sale minutes earlier for many times their face value. The public outcry was immediate: Everyone from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to the Boss himself publicly excoriated TicketMaster, and Attorneys General in New Jersey and Connecticut, opened investigations. TicketMaster CEO Irving Azoff publicly apologized for the practice, and promised to refund the difference to ticket-buyers who were hoodwinked into overpaying. The Justice Department is currently reviewing a proposed merger between Live Nation and TicketMaster to determine if the $2.5 billion union would violate antitrust laws.
Then again, the sheer capacity of these shows -- not to mention an economy in free-fall -- might render any question of scalping moot. FedEx Field seats 91,000 for football games, and the U2 stage setup will apparently increase this figure by 15 to 20 percent, according to Fogel.
U2 released their 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon, to generally favorable reviews, last week, several weeks after it had leaked online. They've been promoting the record with their typical U2-biquity: Last week, they were the musical guest every night on The Late Show with David Letterman (also contributing a very funny Top Ten List). New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg temporarily rechristened a stretch of West 53rd Street U2 Way, which even I think is a little ridiculous, and they capped the week by playing a free gig at Fordham University in the Bronx on Friday that was (partially) broadcast live on Good Morning America.
The U2360 Tour is U2's first roadshow since the group signed a 12-year pact with Live Nation to handle its touring, merchandising, and website operations.