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112 | Vaughan S. Roberts www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 111–116 BREAKING THROUGH The Joshua Tree (1987) is a record of U2’s discovery of America and, in a real sense, the Thirtieth Anniversary Tour was a road trip from the 1980s rerun three decades later. It began in Vancouver on 12 May 2017 and concluded in Sao Paolo on 25 October 2017. The centrepiece of each show featured the band playing The Joshua Tree (1987), frequently described as U2’s “breakthrough” album, in order and in its entirety. The concerts most often began with four songs released before The Joshua Tree: “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “New Year’s Day”, “Bad” and “Pride”. These were followed by the eleven tracks of The Joshua Tree1 and two encores (or one extended encore) including popular songs from the band’s more recent work and, as the tour progressed, some tracks from their next album, Songs of Experi- ence (2017). These stadium concerts were presented in a relatively simple fashion over two stages within each amphitheatre and against the backdrop of a large LCD screen. The B-stage, in the shape of a Joshua tree cactus, extended into the audience, whilst the main stage provided the setting for The Joshua Tree songs, played against vivid images on the screen. This layout contrasted with U2’s ear- lier arena tour for Songs of Innocence (2014), which had an innovative screen that extended far into the auditorium within which the band could stand and play, as well as move to the B-stage. I saw the “Joshua Tree Tour” at Twickenham Stadium on the band’s second London date on Sunday, 9 July 2017. The following are reflections on that con- cert (which is available online)2 informed by observations from other commen- tators on the tour. Elements in the show had clear religious aspects. Examples from the concert I attended include: an extract from The Revd. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech was given at the conclusion of “Pride”; at the end of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” Bono seemed to give one of his regular references to making the show “a church”;3 there were biblical references such as “Jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome” in “Bullet The Blue Sky” and the use of a Salvation Army band in “Red Hill Mining Town”. There were numerous other such references, together with potentially religious tropes that are open to interpretation and debate. 1 Songs of the record are: “Where The Streets Have No Name”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Look- ing For”, “With Or Without You”, “Bullet The Blue Sky”, “Running To Stand Still”, “Red Hill Mining Town”, “In God’s Country”, “Trip Through Your Wires”, “One Tree Hill”, “Exit”, “Mothers Of The Disap- peared”. 2 Part 1 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtSaJvyYJCE and Part 2 here: https://www.you- tube.com/watch?v=iWIypubmHn8 [accessed 16 January 2017]. 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtSaJvyYJCE, (00:34:40) [accessed 14 November 2017].