The Elevation Tour was a worldwide
concert tour
A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often, concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific ...
by the Irish
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
U2. Staged in support of the group's 2000 album ''
All That You Can't Leave Behind
''All That You Can't Leave Behind'' is the tenth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and was released on 30October 2000 through Island Records worldwide and through Interscope Records in the Unit ...
'', the tour visited
arena
An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
s across North America and Europe in 2001. Contrasting with the extravagant, outdoor productions of the band's previous two live ventures, the
Zoo TV Tour
The Zoo TV Tour (also written as ZooTV, ZOO TV or ZOOTV) was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock music, rock band U2. Staged primarily to support their 1991 album ''Achtung Baby'' and later their 1993 album ''Zooropa'', the tour visited ...
(1992–1993) and the
PopMart Tour (1997–1998), the Elevation Tour saw them return to indoor arenas with a much more stripped-down, intimate stage design. The stage featured a heart-shaped catwalk that encircled many audience members, and
festival seating was offered in the United States for the first time in the group's history.
The Elevation Tour comprised 113 shows over three legs. It opened on 24 March 2001 with the first leg in North America, the second leg in Europe that summer, and the third leg returning to North America that autumn, ending on 2 December 2001. It was both the highest-grossing concert tour in North America (US$109.7 million) and globally (US$143.5 million) that year. Its success was capped off by the band's performance at the
Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show in 2002. The tour was depicted in two concert films, ''
Elevation 2001: Live from Boston'' and ''
U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Ireland''.
Stage design and show production

The Elevation Tour show was designed by
Willie Williams, with
Mark Fisher
Mark Fisher (11 July 1968 – 13 January 2017), also known under his blogging alias k-punk, was an English writer, music critic, political and cultural theorist, philosopher, and teacher based in the Department of Visual Cultures at Golds ...
serving as the architect. The stage, built by Tait Towers, measured wide by deep and featured an open center.
Extending from the wings of the main stage were curved ramps shaped like the bottom of a heart, which joined together at the center of the venue floor.
The heart shape was inspired by the video graphics being produced for the tour, and it was chosen by the creative team early in the design process. At the suggestion of bassist
Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton (born 13 March 1960) is an English-Irish musician who is the bass guitarist of the rock music, rock band U2. Born in Oxfordshire, England, he lived in County Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland after his family moved to ...
, the stage was given an open center that could be filled with fans;
the first 300 general admission ticketholders to queue before a concert were given wristbands and allowed access to the center of the heart.
Williams was amused that the catwalks were the same shape as the vertical golden arch from the
PopMart Tour stage when laid horizontally. The Elevation Tour stage was placed at one end of the venues, with seating offered "
in the round". Due to this configuration, the stage designers focused on ensuring
sightline
The line of sight, also known as visual axis or sightline (also sight line), is an imaginary line between a viewer/observation, observer/wikt:spectator, spectator's eye(s) and a subject of interest, or their relative direction (geometry), relative ...
s were not obstructed for anyone. Fisher said, "With a show done in the round, you can't really have any scenery because what is background scenery for one person is a sightline obstruction to another." To facilitate this, the stage height was kept low to the venue floor,
with the main stage built high and the wings high.
A video wall constructed by Brilliant Stages was located at the rear of the stage, measuring high by wide. It comprised 13 sections that could independently rise out of the stage or lower below it. The video wall featured
Barco DLite
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...
panels and was provided by XL Video; it featured more LEDs than the video screen from the PopMart Tour, which was high by wide. The idea for the video wall was suggested by lead vocalist
Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...
, who preferred it over the video options that Fisher showed him. Williams called the amount of
backlight
A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) that provides light from the back or side of a display panel. LCDs do not produce light on their own, so they require illumination—either from available light, ambie ...
produced by the video wall "ridiculous".
In lieu of traditional
image magnification (IMAG), four video screens were hung above the front of the stage, each of them displaying a black-and-white camera feed dedicated to a specific member of U2. Four long-lens cameras followed the band members and presented a "raw" video feed of each, without the intervention of a video director. The setup was Williams's response to what he saw as a growing trend with rock shows having "big video screens on either side running something that looks like an
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
special". He believed such a trend instilled a mindset into the audience that the most interesting thing happening at a given moment was what the video screens were displaying, thus diverting attention away from the actual live performance. Williams was inspired by his experience over the years "standing behind video directors and engineers, seeing what they were seeing" on the video monitors. Rather than present a director's vision of what shots to show an audience, Williams wanted to "take that person out of the equation" and present an unmediated look at the band members. U2's management and concert promoters were sceptical at first, but Williams said that after it was seen in action, it was a "complete no-brainer". He expected it to be one most of the most influential aspects of the tour. According to him, the easiest solution would have been to eliminate IMAG altogether, but it was "deemed necessary" because of the size of some indoor venues and the high cost of tickets.
Projection factored heavily into the shows' visuals. The tour used four PIGI
projectors
A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer typ ...
from E\T\C Audiovisuel placed in the corners of each venue. The projectors used a 7K bulb with a , square aperture, producing an "enormous amount of light", according to Williams. Instead of projecting the imagery onto a screen, Williams had the idea to project it across the entire interior space of the venues.
Each projector was positioned on its back and aimed upwards at a mirror that was operated by a crew member to direct the reflection around the venue.
Williams enlisted visual artist Catherine Owens to create the artwork used for the projectors and the videowall. Most of the projection imagery was hand-drawn, much of it directly to film, though some artwork was computer-generated. Owens worked with a team of four artists to create the artwork. The projection graphics were generally abstract and textural; Williams said the look of it borrowed heavily from
rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
culture. For the concluding song "
Walk On", he handwrote the lyrics from the song's closing refrain onto the projector film and reversed it, allowing the words to "scroll over the audience and run like closing credits". The wide dimensions of the videowall posed challenges for Owens's team, as they had to
re-aspect much of the artwork without it looking squashed. A large amount of the videowall artwork was created onsite during tour rehearsals. During that time, the artists were given access to one of
Media 100's editing suites in London, where they created images on a
PowerBook G3
The PowerBook G3 is a series of laptop Macintosh personal computers that was designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1997 to 2001. It was the first laptop to use the PowerPC G3 (PPC740/750) series of microprocessors, and was ma ...
laptop and could instantly view them on the videowall. The process allowed Owens's team to solicit artistic ideas from the band and
turn them around within a single afternoon.

Equipment for the
sound system Sound system may refer to:
Technology media
* Sound reinforcement system, a system for amplifying audio for an audience
* High fidelity, a sound system intended for accurate reproduction of music in the home
* Public address system, an institution ...
was provided by
Clair Brothers Audio, which had a long-standing relationship with the band.
The primary front-facing
speaker arrays at stage left and right each featured 14 of Clair Brothers' i4
cabinets, variously angled at 2°, 5°, and 10°. Directly adjacent to these arrays were Clair Brothers' i4B
subwoofer
A subwoofer (or sub) is a loudspeaker designed to reproduce low-pitched audio frequencies, known as bass and sub-bass, that are lower in frequency than those which can be (optimally) generated by a woofer. The typical frequency range that is ...
s; 24 cabinets were used in total. For sidefill, each side of the venues was covered by a column of eight speaker cabinets, while the rear of the stage was covered by two arrays of six cabinets arranged in 10° increments. For the general admission audience inside the heart, P-2 speakers were positioned on top of ML18 bass cabinets under the front of the stage, and a cluster of three P-4 speakers was center hung overhead.
Sound engineer Joe O'Herlihy
mixed the sound on a
Midas
Midas (; ) was a king of Phrygia with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house.
His father was Gordias, and his mother was Cybele. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek m ...
XL4 automated
console
Console may refer to:
Computing and video games
* System console, a physical device to operate a computer
** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device
** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
, and used a
Yamaha O2R console for overflow inputs.
For the
stage monitor system
A stage monitor system is a set of performer-facing loudspeakers called monitor speakers, stage monitors, floor monitors, wedges, or foldbacks on stage during live music performances in which a sound reinforcement system is used to amplify a p ...
, the band members utilised a combination of
in-ear monitors by
Future Sonics and monitor speakers by Clair Brothers.
For Clayton, a single 12-AM wedge was placed near his "pocket" position at the corner of the drum riser, while a pair of "double-12s" was placed at the front of the stage. For the rest of the band, a pair of 12-AM wedges was used by Bono, a pair of Series II wedges by guitarist
the Edge
David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is a British-Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist o ...
, and a pair of ML18 bass speakers by drummer
Larry Mullen Jr. On each side of the
backline, a P-4 cabinet was laid on its side atop ML18 units, which were angled inwards for sidefill. At the front of each wing of the stage, a "double-12" was placed, and on each side of the rear apron were a wedge and two subwoofers.
The monitors were mixed by engineers Don Garber and Dave Skaff on two
ATI Paragon consoles,
with a Yamaha 02R and
Mackie 1604 console used for audience microphones and
talkback inputs from crew members.
Skaff mixed for Clayton and Mullen, while Garber mixed for Bono and the Edge. Their mixing position was underneath the left wing of the stage, without a line of sight to the band; as a result, they tracked the band members on video monitors, which displayed the same feed as the on-stage video screens.
Williams served as the lighting designer with Bruce Ramus as lighting director.
The
lighting system was configured in a manner that followed the tour's "forward to basics" theme.
Ramus said that the lighting
truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...
design was simplified, as the team wanted to move away from clever designs. Four straight trusses were suspended above the main stage, two measuring long and two measuring long. Seven Vario-Lift
hoists by ChainMaster could raise and lower the trusses to trim heights varying from to high. A diameter circular truss was suspended above the general admission area inside the heart.
The lighting system used 54
Vari-Lite VL2416 wash luminaires; they were the only automated light fixtures used on tour, and marked U2's first time using Vari-Lite products. Williams chose the fixture for its zoom control and brightness, allowing him to achieve a throw distance.
For a
footlight, the heart-shaped ramp had 300
T3 quartz bulbs embedded in gutters on both sides, along with about 400 Egg Strobe and Star Strobe lights.
Early in the tour, the lighting system featured 24
Fresnel fixtures with gold-painted
barn doors for a "pleasantly stylish, Gucci feel". These fixtures dominated the first part of the show, illuminating at about 50 percent to produce what Williams called a "wonderful brown, low color temperature light which the band loved". As the tour progressed, Bono felt they were too nostalgic among the more contemporary elements of the show, while Williams thought they were being underused.
As a result, the Fresnels were replaced with eight custom fixtures called "fornows"; designed by Williams on a napkin,
they were constructed by Light & Sound Design (LSD) and each housed a four-DWE Mole
striplight in a short, deep wedge-shaped box. Williams felt the "fornows" befitted the show better, emitting light that was "less friendly and more aggressive". Among several unconventional fixtures in the lighting system were 30 modified police beacons, which were placed sideways in groups and whose movements were staggered with each other to create a "rain effect" during "
Where the Streets Have No Name" to stun the audience. At the corners of the stage were four custom-built "ripple drums" by LSD; Williams described the pieces as slowly rotating black trash cans with holes in them and "a naked 5kW fixture" inside.
The lighting package also included 48 LSD DWE Mole striplights, 24 ETC Source Four fixtures, 12 Omni fixtures and 70 Tota fixtures by
Lowel-Light,
and a variety of
strobe lamps.
Williams controlled lights with an
Avolites Pearl
console
Console may refer to:
Computing and video games
* System console, a physical device to operate a computer
** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device
** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
, while Ramus operated a Jands Hog 1000 console.
The stage and equipment travelled on 14
semi-trailer truck
A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called ...
s, and required two hours to disassemble and load into the trucks.
Tour overview
During promotional appearances for the tour and ''All That You Can't Leave Behind'', lead vocalist
Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...
often said, "We're back, re-applying for the job ... And the job is best band in the world." This was in response to the relatively low sales of ''
Pop'' and sometimes poor reception of the PopMart Tour.
The European leg of the Elevation Tour was also presented in arenas. However, several outdoor shows were played due to logistics and facility requirements. These included both of the
Slane Castle
Slane Castle () is located in the village of Slane, within the Boyne Valley of County Meath, Ireland. The castle has been the family seat of the Conyngham family since it was built in the late 18th century, on land first purchased in 1703 by ...
shows, which were part of Ireland's annual
Slane Concert. For these two performances, the "heart" was extended and widened in order to accommodate the larger attendance. The
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
show was played in a football stadium, with a black U-shaped semicircle extending out into the crowd instead of the heart. The Berlin show was performed in a natural outdoor arena with a tent-like structure supporting all the band's flown gear such as speaker stacks and lighting rigs. Due to the limited amount of space available for production, the top of the heart was placed at the front of the stage. During this leg, Bono regularly flew back to
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
after each show to be with his dying father.
The third leg of the tour began in the U.S. only a month after the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
and in the midst of the
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks, also known as Amerithrax (a portmanteau of "United States, America" and "anthrax", from its FBI case name), occurred in the United States over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after th ...
. This nearly led U2 to cancel the leg, but they decided to continue, starting it at the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...
in
Notre Dame, Indiana
Notre Dame is a census-designated place and unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend in St. Joseph County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. It includes the campuses of three colleges: the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's Co ...
, home of the "
Fighting Irish". While some fans shied away from coming to an ordinarily celebratory occasion or to a large, enclosed public gathering, many other fans did not let these events stop them. The tenor of the times dramatically affected the temperament of the shows, with
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...
's "
What's Going On" appearing frequently in the setlist and the band's "
Walk On" taking on added emotional weight.
Setlists

Shows would traditionally open under the venue house lights with the Influx mix of "
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
" playing as the band's intro music. "Elevation", the tour's title track, would then kick off the show, and would then be normally followed up by "
Beautiful Day", "
Until the End of the World" and "
New Year's Day
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...
". Occasionally, "
Discothèque
A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and a ...
" or "
Mysterious Ways" followed "Until the End of the World" instead of "New Year's Day".
For the first two legs, most shows would then use "
Kite
A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...
", "Gone" and "
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
" early in the setlist. Sometimes "Discothèque" or "
Even Better Than the Real Thing" was played between "Gone" and "New York". All tour shows would see "
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" and "
Sunday Bloody Sunday
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1983 album '' War'' and was released as the album's third single on 21 March 1983 in the Netherlands and West Germany. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is noted ...
" Normally, one out of "
I Will Follow
"I Will Follow" is a song by Irish rock music, rock band U2. It is the opening track from their debut album, ''Boy (album), Boy'', and it was released as the album's second single (music), single in October 1980. Lead singer Bono wrote the lyrics ...
", "Out of Control" and "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" would be played before "Sunday Bloody Sunday". "
In a Little While" would then normally be played (sometimes "
Sweetest Thing
"Sweetest Thing" is a song by Irish rock music, rock band U2. It was originally released as a A-side and B-side, B-side on the "Where the Streets Have No Name" single in 1987. The song was later re-recorded and re-released as a single in October ...
" or "Wake up Dead Man" would be played), and that would be followed by a full band acoustic rendition of "
Desire
Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of affa ...
" and then an acoustic song, normally "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". Sometimes "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", "Staring at the Sun" or a cover of "
I Remember You" by
The Ramones
The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of t ...
would be played instead.
The acoustic song would then normally be followed by the live favourite "
Bad
Bad or BAD may refer to:
Common meanings
*Evil, the opposite of moral good
* Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect
* Unhealthy, or counter to well-being
*Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good
Acronyms
* BAD-2, a Soviet armored trolley ...
", which had appeared few times on the previous PopMart Tour. On occasions, "All I Want Is You" would be played instead. "
Where the Streets Have No Name" followed, which was played at every concert. Normally, the band would then play "
Mysterious Ways" with snippets of "Sexual Healing" at the end of the song and a new version of "
The Fly" with the Edge playing guitar and Bono performing at the end of the heart catwalk. On occasions, "The Fly" would be replaced by "
Pride (In the Name of Love)". After playing either "The Fly" or "Pride", the main set would end and the band would leave the stage.

U2 would then open the encore with "
Bullet the Blue Sky
"Bullet the Blue Sky" is a song by Irish rock band U2, and is the fourth track from their 1987 album ''The Joshua Tree''. Lyrically, the song was inspired by a trip that lead vocalist Bono made to Nicaragua and El Salvador, where he saw firsthan ...
", usually accompanied by Bono protesting against gun crime and giving a speech against handgun crime, while using a smaller version of the spotlight he used on
The Joshua Tree Tour
The Joshua Tree Tour was a concert tour by the Irish Rock music, rock band U2. Staged in support of their 1987 album ''The Joshua Tree'', it comprised 109 shows over three legs, spanning from April to December that year. The first and third legs ...
. "Bullet" would then be followed by "
With or Without You
"With or Without You" is a song by Irish rock music, rock band U2. It is the third track on their fifth studio album, ''The Joshua Tree'' (1987), and was released as the album's lead single on 16 March 1987. The song was the group's most succes ...
". The band would then normally play "
One
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
", which was played at every concert. On occasions in the first leg, the band played "Pride" or "The Fly" between "With or Without You" and "One" with the other one of those two songs played after "Mysterious Ways" at the end of the main set. "Wake up Dead Man" was sometimes played after "One", if not after "Sunday Bloody Sunday". "
Walk On" would then be played as the outright show closer.
The third leg saw some alterations to the setlist to reflect the much more emotionally poignant times that existed within America in the wake of the September 11th attacks. After opening with the same trio that they opened the first two legs with, the band would then most commonly play "New Year's Day", "I Will Follow" or "Out of Control", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" and "Kite". "Angel of Harlem" also made appearances either before or after "Kite".
The band's acoustic slot was moved forward, with "In a Little While" dropped altogether and the acoustic slot taking place after "Kite". Normally, "Wild Honey" and "
Please" were played. "Please" also made one appearance in its electric form, in a similar style to its PopMart performance when it segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name". "
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the second track from their 1987 album '' The Joshua Tree'' and was released as the album's second single in May 1987. The song was a hit, becoming the band ...
", played only once during the first two legs, was given a regular slot between "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" during the third leg, taking the place of "Mysterious Ways".
The encore once again contained "Bullet the Blue Sky", "One" and "Walk On". Instead of playing "With or Without You" between "Bullet" and "One" as they did on the first two legs, the band instead played a cover of Marvin Gaye's "
What's Going On" and "New York". A few times, the band played "Peace on Earth" between "One" and "Walk On".
Overall, 53 different songs were played by U2 during the tour, with six songs ("Elevation", "Beautiful Day", "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "One") played at all 113 concerts. Three tracks ("Bullet the Blue Sky", "Until the End of the World", and "Walk On") were played at all but one show apiece on the tour.
Super Bowl performance
On 3 February 2002, the band performed a three-song set during the halftime show of
Super Bowl XXXVI. The heart-shaped stage from the Elevation Tour was recreated for the band's halftime performance.
The show began with "Beautiful Day", as Bono walked to the stage through the on-field crowd. For the final two songs, "
MLK" and "Where the Streets Have No Name", the names of the victims from the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
were projected onto a vertical
scrim behind the stage as well as across the interior of the
Louisiana Superdome
Caesars Superdome (originally Louisiana Superdome and formerly Mercedes-Benz Superdome), commonly known as the Superdome, is a domed multi-purpose stadium in the Southern United States, southern United States, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...
. At the end of the performance, Bono opened his jacket, which he had worn throughout the Elevation Tour, to reveal an American flag in the lining, an image that was widely reproduced in the media. ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' ranked it as the best halftime show in Super Bowl history.
Concert broadcasts and releases
Two concert videos of the Elevation Tour were released on DVD, both directed by
Hamish Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half- Scot half- American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''Jame ...
. The first, ''
Elevation 2001: Live from Boston'', was released in November 2001, and included material from three different shows filmed in June 2001 in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
at the
FleetCenter. One of the concerts, the 6 June show, was partially televised on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
during halftime of Game 1 of the
2001 NBA Finals
The 2001 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2000–01 season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers to ...
; the network aired a live performance of "
Where the Streets Have No Name", followed by a pre-recorded performance of "
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
" from earlier. The ''Elevation 2001'' video was televised on
VH1
VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
on 24 November and on
DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
on 2 December.
The second concert video, ''
U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Ireland'', was released in November 2003. Filmed on 1 September 2001, it captured the outdoor variant of the Elevation Tour at the band's
Slane Concert.
Reception
The first two legs of the Elevation Tour sold out all 83 concerts across North America and Europe and grossed US$105 million. The band's two concerts at Slane Castle sold 157,418 tickets and grossed $6.7 million. The Elevation Tour was 2001's top-earning North American tour with a gross of $109.7 million, the second-highest ever at the time for a North American tour. Globally, it grossed $143,472,379 from 2,179,642 tickets sold, making it the year's highest-grossing tour overall. ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles
* Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
'' named U2 the "Band of the Year" for 2001, saying they had "schooled bands half their age about what a rock show could really accomplish".
At the 13th annual
Pollstar
''Pollstar'' is a trade publication for the concert and live music industry. The publication was purchased by Oak View Group, a venue consultancy founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff, in July 2017.
''Pollstar'' holds an annual award ce ...
Concert Industry Awards, U2 were honored with awards for Major Tour of the Year and Most Creative Stage Production, while
Paul McGuinness was recognized as Personal Manager of the Year. Willie Williams won a 2001 EDDY Award from ''Entertainment Design'' magazine for his work as the tour's show director; the magazine said, "While U2's current Elevation tour is striking in its simplicity, Williams created an almost complete amalgamation of lighting and video by using the entire space of each arena as a projection surface."
At the 2002
TEC Awards, the Elevation Tour crew won for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Tour Production; among those recognised were Clair Brothers as the tour company, Joe O'Herlihy as the front of house engineer, and Don Garber, Raza Sufi, Niall Slevin, and Dave Skaff as monitor engineers.
Tour dates
Notes
See also
*
List of highest grossing concert tours
*
Timeline of U2
References
;Footnotes
;Bibliography
*
*
External links
U2.com
{{U2
U2 concert tours
2001 concert tours