U2 announces Innocence + Experience Tour, bows out of KROQ gig

U2 is going (relatively) small for once.

The famously big-thinking rock band announced Wednesday that it will tour the world in 2015, months after the recent release of its 13th studio album, “Songs of Innocence.”

But instead of playing outdoor stadiums -- such as the Rose Bowl, where it stopped in 2009 -- U2 will play indoor arenas for what it says is the first time in a decade.

Called the Innocence + Experience Tour, the trek is scheduled to launch May 14 in Vancouver, Canada, and wrap Nov. 11 in Paris, with at least two shows in each city the tour visits. Four concerts are scheduled for the Forum from May 26-31.

“We are going to try to have a completely different feeling from night one to night two” said U2’s frontman, Bono, in a statement. He added that the band was aiming to “have some fun playing with the idea of innocence and experience.”

“Songs of Innocence” was released in early September as part of a unique deal with Apple in which the album was made available to all iTunes users as a free download.

Critics called the stunt an invasion of privacy, for which Bono apologized -- sort of -- in a subsequent Q&A session on Facebook.

“I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves,” he said. “Artists are prone to that kind of thing.”

News of U2’s tour follows Bono’s involvement last month in a serious bicycle accident that led to the cancellation of several performances, including a weeklong stint on the “Tonight Show” and a heavily promoted appearance at KROQ-FM’s upcoming Almost Acoustic Christmas.

“[Bono]’s been told by his doctors to stay put,” said the band’s guitarist, the Edge, in a phone call aired Wednesday morning on the L.A. radio station. “He’s back in Dublin right now and he basically can’t move for the next couple of months.”

Set for Dec. 13 and 14 at the Forum, Almost Acoustic Christmas will feature acts including Weezer, Fall Out Boy, System of a Down, Smashing Pumpkins and Modest Mouse.

According to KROQ, refunds for tickets purchased for the event’s second night (which was to have included U2) are available from Ticketmaster through Dec. 12.

Twitter: @mikaelwood