Ask anyone for an example of stadium rock, and their answer will almost always be U2, whose music has been played on the biggest stages possible for decades.
They’re possibly the only band that can even think of automatically downloading an album to everyone’s iCloud, regardless of whether you thought they got away with it. For them to perform to anything less than several thousands of people, much less Harlem’s 1,506-seating Apollo Theater of all places, is surprising, but that’s exactly what Bono and company are doing.
In collaboration with SiriusXM, U2 is going to play the Apollo Theater on June 11th. SiriusXM has done similar events before with other stadium standbys like Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, but where even Springsteen is now in the midst of a Tony-winning residency on Broadway, U2 has not done anything like this in New York City in nearly two decades (the last time was a 2000 concert in the 1,025-capacity Irving Plaza). This is especially a departure from the rest of their current tour, where they’re playing venues like Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum in NYC.
“New York City and [U2] have a unique history” Bono said in a statement. “From the songs of Lou Reed, Billie Holiday and the Ramones that taught us how to listen, to the New Yorkers at our earliest U.S. shows who taught us how to play, the souls of New York and U2 have always been intertwined.”
It will be interesting to hear how their music will translate to a smaller venue, and even if you can’t make it to the invite-only show, you’ll still be able to hear the show with a SiriusXM account.
The show will stream on XM’s Channel 30, as well as through SiriusXM’s mobile app.
