U2’s ‘Joshua Tree’ Anniversary Tour to Resume in Australia, New Zealand and Asia

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – If you’re kicking yourself that you missed U2’s 30th anniversary “Joshua Tree” in 2017, you have another shot at it after all… if you can get to, or are in, Asia.

The band is going to bring its California desert-inspired music and imagery across the ocean, beginning November 8 in New Zealand (full dates below). Tickets go on sale starting June 11.

The 2017 version of the tour reached three continents — North America, Europe and and Latin America — over a nearly six-month period. The box office for those 50 stadium shows was reported as $317 million and 2.7 million fans, making it the highest grossing tour of the year.

singer Bono said “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. 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”.

“We really, REALLY wanted to bring ‘The Joshua Tree’ to New Zealand, Australia and Asia” added guitarist The Edge. “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”.

If the setlists replicate what U2 did two years ago, a full-album performance of the 1987 album “The Joshua Tree” will be sandwiched between a brief opening selection of other classics and an encore set incorporating additional songs.

The band hasn’t been completely on holiday since wrapping up the previous “Joshua Tree” tour. Six months after that wrapped, they returned to arenas in the U.S. and Europe for the six-month “Experience + Innocence” tour, a more typical melange of old and new material. It was assumed at the time that they’d put “The Joshua Tree” in their rear-view mirror again.

8 November Auckland, NZ Mt. Smart Stadium
12 November Brisbane, AU SunCorp Stadium
15 November Melbourne, AU Marvel Stadium
19 November Adelaide, AU Adelaide Oval
22 November Sydney, AU Sydney Cricket Ground
27 November Perth, AU Optus Stadium
04 December Tokyo, JP Saitama Super Arena
05 December Tokyo, JP Saitama Super Arena
08 December Seoul, KR Gocheok Sky Dome

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: