U2 Brought a Worldwide Broadcast into Irving Plaza

On December 5, 2000, U2 returned to club scale at Irving Plaza. Roughly 1,000 contest winners and guests attended the free New York performance, while a worldwide broadcast carried the show far beyond the room.

The concert drew on the recently released All That You Can’t Leave Behind and reached back to material from Boy. The band’s official account places songs from opposite ends of its first two decades inside the same compact setting.

Irving Plaza gave the event its particular tension: a small audience in the building and a much larger one listening elsewhere. It was a one-off club show with the reach of something much bigger, preserving a close view of U2 as the band introduced a new album.

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Sources: u2.com; u2.com.