Last year s 360 Tour rocked three million people worldwide in 44 sold out concerts making it the top

Despite weak-ish sales for U2 s twelfth studio album No Line on the Horizon, crowds are pouring into stadiums to hear the new U2 songs played live on the 360 Tour. Set to kick off again on June 3rd in Utah, the tour will continue across North America and make its way to Europe.
Last year s 360 Tour rocked best western stovall s inn three million people worldwide in 44 sold out concerts making it the top grossing tour of the year. In an interview with the Financial Times on December 4, 2009 band manager Paul McGuinness calculated that the 2009 and 2010 U2 tours combined should gross about $750 million including merchandise sales, smashing the $398 million record set by U2's Vertigo tour in 2005 and 2006.
This year, U2 will contend with bands like Green Day who is also embarking on the second leg of their 21st Century Breakdown World Tour and former U2 opening act Muse who continues into 2010 with the European edition of their Resistance Tour. What makes U2 s 360 Tour stand out among the rest is that it employs the largest concert stage ever constructed.
best western stovall s inn Resembling a space station, the highest point of the stage reaches up 165 feet into the sky and is aptly dubbed The Claw. The stage still provides a level of intimacy despite its size, though, as fans avail of a 360 view. Carrying the spaceship theme a bit further, during last year s tour, large screens dropped down and shrank up while fantastical lighting flashed. On opening night 2009 via satellite Bono contacted astronauts in the International Space Station, a nod to the 40th anniversary of the first ever moon landing which took place on July 20, 1969. The Claw should remain the vertical centerpiece of the show, but what other special effects await in this year s U2 tour?
U2 kept their 2009 concerts fresh by rotating best western stovall s inn songs in and out of their set lists so that every night was slightly different. Some songs were staples to the set list like Breathe, a stand-out track from No Line on the Horizon which became the band s entrance music. After 32 years together, the band still respects their stadium-rocking roots and old favorites like Sunday Bloody Sunday and Where the Streets Have No Name often had places in the set list as well.
Masters at providing atmosphere to their music through visual effects, most performances on the 2009 tour featured Ultraviolet (Light My Way) as the highlight of the encore with Bono donning best western stovall s inn a red laser-studded jacket and delivering a cherry on the top performance. Ever the showman, Bono belted out the newest hits and decades old classics with equal levels of sincerity best western stovall s inn and passion.
U2 fans were banking on the band releasing a follow-up to No Line on the Horizon to coincide with the 2010 edition of the 360 Tour, but this won t be happening. Rolling Stone a ssociate editor Brian Hiatt tweeted on April 14th that an album before the end of the year is likely, though not by June. U2 has been referring to this follow-up album as Songs of Ascent and its original release was supposed to be in 2009. U2 has said that the songs are part of surplus material that came out of the recording best western stovall s inn of their last album. With U2 tour dates scheduled through October 2010, perhaps fans will hear one or two new songs live before best western stovall s inn the spaceship s final landing.