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U2 extends current tour with show in San Diego

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The biggest rock stadium tour of 2017 so far just got bigger, following U2’s Tuesday morning announcement that it is expanding “The Joshua Tree Tour 2017.”

The legendary Irish rock band is adding 12 new concerts to its acclaimed tour - seven in the United States, one in Mexico City, and four in South America. All the new tour dates and ticket information is listed below.

The first of U2’s’s seven new U.S. shows will be Sept. 3 at Buffalo’s Ford Field. The seventh will be Sept. 22 at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, where U2 last performed in 1997. At the time, Qualcomm - the then-home of the Chargers football team, which this year moved to Los Angeles - was still known as San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The four-man U2 launched its “The Joshua Tree 2017” tour on May 12 and performed a pair of shows at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on May 20 and 21. The first leg of the tour, which concludes Aug. 1 in Brussels, will include at least 33 dates in North America and Europe.

U2 has not performed in San Diego since opening its 2005 tour here with a pair of shows at what was then known as the iPayOne Center and is now Valley View Casino Center. Dubbed “The Vertigo Tour,” it was timed to promote the band’s 2004 album, “How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb.”

U2’s ongoing “The Joshua Tree Tour 2017” celebrates the 30th anniversary of “The Joshua Tree,” the epic 1987 album that many fans still consider to be the band’s single finest work.

The album catapulted the band to superstar stadium, thanks to such classic songs as “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “With or Without You” and “Bullet the Blue Sky.”

For its new tour, U2 is performing “The Joshua Tree” album live in its entirety, along with other songs that span much of the 41-year-old quartet’s career. A four-CD “Joshua Tree” retrospective box set has just been released.

But what also makes this tour stand out is the production itself, most notably the enormous, curved, wrap-around video screen, which runs the length of the stage, from one side to the other.

Standing 200 feet wide and 45 feet high, the screen would be eye-popping if it was used solely to show the band’s performance. While it does serve that purpose at times, the screen often showcases moody video footage filmed by the band’s longtime collaborator, Anton Corbijn.

The result, as U2’s often stunning May 21 Rose Bowl show made clear, is a marriage of sight and sound that sets a new standard for stadium concerts.

Speaking of which, U2’s Qualcomm Stadium show will be one of two at the Q this year. Coldplay’s Oct. 8 concert was announced several months ago.

Both concerts at Qualcomm are being produced by Live Nation, which is producing U2 and Coldplay’s entire tours. Live Nation also produced the 2016 tours by Beyoncé and the revamped Guns N’ Roses, both of which included sold-out Qualcomm Stadium shows.

It remains to be seen how the possible demise of Qualcomm Stadium could impact how many future stadium concert tours do, or don’t, come to San Diego.

Tickets for U2’s seven new U.S. dates go on sale June 12 at 10 a.m. at ticketmaster.com, and by phone at (800) 745-3000. The U2 fan club pre-sale begins June 8 at 10 a.m.

The link for San Diego tickets is: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0A0052C3807D0D27

Tickets for the Sept. 22 Qualcomm Stadium show are priced at $35 to $290 each, plus service charges.

There will be no seating on the field at any of the U.S. concerts. All of those tickets - priced at $290 each for the San Diego show - will be general admission, standing-room-only. There will be an eight-ticket per customer limit.

Tickets for the Mexico City concert go on sale June 14, while tickets for U2’s concerts in Colombia, Argentina and Chile go on sale June 15. Tickets for the band’s concert in Brazil go on sale June 16.

The opening act for U2’s seven new U.S. shows has not yet been announced. Former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher and his band, High Flying Birds, will open U2’s concerts in Mexico and South America.

U2 “The Joshua Tree Tour 2017” new tour dates

Sept. 3: Detroit, Ford Field

Sept. 5: Buffalo, New Era Field

Sept. 8: Minneapolis, US Bank Stadium

Sept. 10: Indianapolis, Lucas Oil Stadium

Sept. 12: Kansas City, Arrowhead Stadium

Sept. 16: St. Louis, The Dome At America’s Center

Sept. 22: San Diego, Qualcomm Stadium

Oct. 3: Mexico City, Foro Sol

Oct. 7: Bogota, Estadio El Campin

Oct. 10: Buenos Aires, La Plata

Oct. 14: Santiago, Estadio Nacional

Oct. 19: Sao Paulo, Morumbi Stadium
Twitter @georgevarga; george.varga@sduniontribune.com

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