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114 | Vaughan S. Roberts www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 111–116 perhaps even taking one’s life”, contrasting it to the “waves of regret” expe- rienced by Judas.8 The juxtaposition of Judas and Jesus from the latter song is often enacted in performance as a kind of duel played out between Bono and The Edge. The connection with “Until the End of the World” is alluded to at a point just under three minutes into “Exit” at Twickenham, when Bono holds out his hand to The Edge in a way that is similar to their Judas/Jesus interaction.9 The dramatic connection is even clearer in the Dublin performance, where the two more clearly re-enact the characters of Jesus and Judas from “Until the End of the World”.10 TWO CONTRARY STATES OF FAITH (1) The idea of two contrary states of the human soul enters the work of U2 through their use of William Blake’s volume of poems entitled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul of 1794. As already noted Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are the titles of com- plimentary U2 albums released either side of the “Joshua Tree Tour”, and I would contend that their reimagining of “Exit” with its dichotomy between the constructive and destructive sides of faith is making a strong statement about the positive and negative aspects of religion. But arguably this song is not just about faith and religion – it is also about faith and politics. There is a sense in which in 2017 the North American part of the road trip started with the Obama presidency and concluded with the election of Don- ald Trump. The text to Elizabeth Alexander’s poem “Praise Song for the Day”, which was read at the 2009 Obama presidential inauguration, appears on the LCD screen before the show and a con man with the surname Trump appears at the start of the momentous rendition of “Exit”. A clip from the 1958 CBS Western TV series Trackdown is played, showing a snake-oil merchant named Trump visiting a town and promising to build a wall, which stirs up disagree- ment between the townsfolk. As the song draws to a conclusion, Bono repeat- edly urges the audience, “hold out your hand, hold out your hand”. What could this call signify? I argue that it works at a number of levels. First, it is a reflec- tion of the TV evangelists who were such a feature of American culture in the 1980s when The Joshua Tree was recorded and remain a significant factor now. Second, like Bono and The Edge playing Judas and Jesus in “Exit”, the call to hold out hands could also be looking ahead to the broader critique of TV culture 8 Exit (U2 Song) 2018. 9 Starting at 2 minutes, 55 seconds in the recording of the Twickenham concert. 10 See the recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFWc8QAYmwg, (00:02:42–00:05:10) [ac- cessed 21 November 2017].