On '360' tour, U2 is back in control

For U2, not much has gone according to plan in the past year.

The end of their "U2 360" tour, which has become the biggest moneymaking tour in history, was delayed by a year after singer Bono injured his back last May. Their new album, part of which was done in New York with producer Danger Mouse, was originally due late this year but was also delayed. And, um, there was that whole "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" thing on Broadway.

"The creative side has been an incredible wild ride for us," Bono said last month at a cocktail party for the musical's soundtrack, adding, "U2's best work is done when we don't know what we're doing."

Guitarist The Edge said that he and Bono thought they would easily be able to handle their Broadway duties along with their U2 duties, but found, "It's been an education for us, too."

However, with the "U2 360" tour, which stops at the New Meadowlands Stadium Wednesday finally coming to an end this month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers seem back on course.

"I realize how unusual it is to be able to play large, sold-out shows 30 years into a rock and roll career," bassist Adam Clayton told Rolling Stone recently. "I don't take it for granted."

WHO U2

WHEN | WHERE 8 p.m. Wednesday, the New Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

INFO $62.45; 516-334-0800, livenation.com

SET LIST

The U2 set list changes nightly, especially since Bono likes to throw in ad-libs of songs, both from the band and from its influences, into the set. Here's what they played at Soldier Field in Chicago earlier this month.

Even Better Than the Real Thing

The Fly

Mysterious Ways/Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World

Until the End of the World

Out of Control

Get on Your Boots

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/The Promised Land (snippet)

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Beautiful Day/Space Oddity

Elevation

Pride (In the Name of Love)

Miss Sarajevo

Zooropa

City of Blinding Lights/My Kind Of Town

Vertigo

Miss You/I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight/Discothèque/Life During Wartime/Psycho Killer Sunday Bloody Sunday

Scarlet

Walk On/The Battle Hymn Of the Republic

ENCORES

One

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow / Where the Streets Have No Name

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me / My Kind of Town

With or Without You

Moment of Surrender

One Tree Hill

WHAT CRITICS SAY

"Tops on the list, along with 'Beautiful Day,' would be 'One,' the most perfectly realized example of the U2 strategy of forging an emotional connection with the listener on a scale that's both effectively intimate and transcendently grand. . . . When that happens, U2 can't be beat."

-- Dan DeLuca, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The U2 that hit Chicago this week is a band that seemed distracted, pulled in myriad directions. . . . U2 once again primarily relied on songs from the '80s and early '90s, complete with vintage video clips of the Irish heroes when mullets were still in vogue."

-- Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune

"At its heart, this was about four guys from Dublin who play rock and roll music that people love, and the techno bells and whistles serve to complement the performance as opposed to distracting from it."

-- Ray Waddell, Billboard