U2’s Joshua Tree Tour – which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the landmark album in stadiums across Europe and North and South America in 2017 – is headed to Australia and Asia in November and December for an encore run. The shows will mark their first concerts in Australia since 2010 and their first appearances ever in Singapore and South Korea.
“It’s only taken me 30 years to learn how to sing these songs and it’s great to be able to say that I’ve finally caught up with the band,” Bono said in a statement. “Our audience has given the Joshua Tree a whole new life on this tour. Doing these shows has been very special for us, a lot of emotion… From the despair of how relevant some of the dark songs still are, to the joy, pure fun of the staging… it’s quite a ride. And now we get to do it all over again. Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul… We’re coming for you.”
The Edge echoes the sentiment in his own statement. “We really, REALLY wanted to bring The Joshua Tree to New Zealand, Australia and Asia,” he said. “We promised we would and finally, now we can say that we will see you in November… It’s going to feel like a homecoming and we are very excited.”
The 2017 incarnation of The Joshua Tree tour featured a complete performance of the album along with classics like “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “New Year’s Day” and “Bad.” “We’ve never given ourselves the opportunity to celebrate our past because we’ve always as a band looked forward,” The Edge told Rolling Stone in 2017, “but I think we felt that this was a special moment, and this was a very special record. So we’re happy to take this moment to regroup and think about an album that’s so many years old, but still seems relevant.”
U2 followed up The Joshua Tree tour with the new album Songs of Experience and a tour where they didn’t play even a single song from The Joshua Tree. There’s no indication on U2’s future recording plans, but last year The Edge told Rolling Stone that he feels ready for a break. “There’s been three tours that have been on each other’s heels pretty quickly,” he said. “I would say that we’ll probably take a little bit of a break at the end of this tour and regroup. There’s lots of ideas for the next records, but I think a bit of time off just to listen to music and to really feed our creative instincts is in order.”
U2 Joshua Tree Tour 2019*
November 8th – Auckland, NZ @ Mt. Smart Stadium
November 12th – Brisbane, AU @ SunCorp Stadium
November 15th – Melbourne, AU @ Marvel Stadium
November 19th – Adelaide, AU @ Adelaide Oval
November 22nd – Sydney, AU @ Sydney Cricket Ground
November 27th – Perth, AU @ Optus Stadium
December 4th Tokyo, JP @ Saitama Super Arena
December 5th Tokyo, JP @ Saitama Super Arena
December 8th – Seoul, KR @ Gocheok Sky Dome
*Details of the Singapore show have yet to be announced.