If your correspondent ever writes a memoir, it may or may not be entitled I Was a Teenage U2 Fan. It might seem incongruous to today’s teens, given that the band have been the personification of establishment leftism for decades, but back in the 1980s, the band’s combination of political outspokenness and a decidedly black-and-white view of the world were perfect for young people who wanted their music to be Serious and Meaningful. That era of U2 peaked with 1987’s The Joshua Tree (and its accompanying live/studio hybrid Rattle and Hum, on which you can see the exact moment that even U2 themselves got sick of being flag-waving pseudo-activists.)
Regardless, The Joshua Tree remains an ’80s classic, home to some of the best lyrics Bono ever wrote and the best music that his band composed to accompany them, and thus I’m just as excited as every other teenage U2 fan to hear that its 30th anniversary is to be commemorated with a tour. In a Facebook post this morning, the band announced a stadium extravaganza, wherein they’ll perform the album in full. (The less said about the support acts, the better.) The dates, as per the band’s website, are as follows:
