U2’s sold out, two night stand at The Forum in Inglewood, CA on their 2018 Experience + Innocence Tour was conclusive proof that the band decided to take a very different path than their last pass through the States on the Joshua Tree Tour 2017.
This new tour is in many ways a continuation of the Innocence + Experience tour that the band finished up three years ago. Fans who attended both tours will easily notice that their new show uses the same stage that separates the arena into two halves with an enormous horizontal video screen added that the band enters and exits throughout the night.
The evening began with Bono standing alone in the middle of the giant video wall singing "Love Is All We Have Left," the opening track from Songs of Experience. During this song, those fans “in the know” were instructed through the band’s app, to pull out their cellphones, point them at the video screen and watch virtual reality moments that could only be seen through the app.
Consciously missing from the set were songs from the Joshua Tree album, making the set list very unpredictable for the average U2 fan. The set was sprinkled with more contemporary tracks from the bands last few albums. However, hits were delivered as U2 performed a seven-song “medley” which included "I Will Follow," "Iris," "Cedarwood Road," "Song for Someone," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Raised by Wolves," and "Until the End of the World.” This was the pivotal segment of the show, depicting Bono's troubled childhood, endured the loss of his mother while caught up in political violence in his hometown of Dublin. It really was the heart of the show leaving attendees dramatically touched in their own personal ways.
