Bono started his Stories of Surrender tour in support of his memoir, Surrender - 40 Songs, One Story, Wednesday night at the Beacon Theater in New York.
Literally taking a page out of Bruce Springsteen's Broadway show, based on his memoir, Born to Run, Bono not only read passages from his book, but also performed with the help of three musicians.
With The Edge, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Tom Hanks in the audience, he started the show with "City of Blinding Lights," and then said. "It is preposterous to think that others are interested in your story...this has all been a bit surreal."
While the bulk of the show was his life in chronological order, he chose to start with his heart surgery in 2016, before rewinding to the death of his mother when he was 14.
Sitting next to an empty chair, he recreated conversations he used to have with his dad, trying to earn his respect.
From there he talked about his brother Norman influenced his musical taste by playing Ramones records. "[They are] songs so simple even I might be able to write [them.]"
And of course he talked about U2 coming together, recalling his first impressions of The Edge and Adam Clayton.
The Edge would "buy a guitar the same shape as his head"; Adam Clayton as "a sort of posh Sid Vicious."
And then there were some specific songs that were discussed including "I Will Follow," saying it was "the song that will save my life," and "Sunday Bloody Sunday," saying it wasn't "just a song; a map, a way forward in the world."
And the show wasn't short on music as he did full versions of or parts of 17 songs.
- City of Blinding Lights
- Vertigo
- With or Without You
- Glad to See You Go (Ramones)
- Out of Control
- Stories for Boys
- I Will Follow
- Iris (Hold Me Close)
- Gloria
- October
- Sunday Bloody Sunday
- Miss Sarajevo (Passengers song pre-recorded snippet)
- Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Where the Streets Have No Name
- Desire
- Beautiful Day
- Torna a Surriento (Ernesto De Curtis cover, sung in Italian)
- City of Blinding Lights (reprise)
Towards the end of the night he said, "This is my story and I'm stuck with it." And he also gave a plug for his love and belief in America.
"We all need America to work. America is a song yet to be finished...a song still being written."
Bono continues the tour Friday in Boston followed by Toronto on Sunday.
He then takes it to Chicago, Nashville, San Francisco and Los Angeles before doing another seven in the U.K. and Europe through November 28th in Madrid.
Source: NY Post and Premiere