U2 opens The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 in Vancouver -- the second consecutive tour that U2 has begun in this city. Tonight the show takes places in BC Place Stadium, across the street from the smaller Rogers Arena where U2 opened the Innocence + Experience tour in 2015. It's U2's first stadium show in North American since the end of the 360 tour in 2011.

U2's set begins later than expected due to delays in getting fans into the stadium -- especially those with General Admission tickets. With an estimated 11,000 GA ticket holders trying to get in through one gate, and the stadium only processing about 50 people per minute, it's a slow process. When Mumford & Sons takes the stage at 7:30 PM, the GA floor is still mostly empty and thousands of fans are still in line outside. There are tense moments outside as some fans begin chanting "Let us in!" and many are unsure which direction to walk to get into the correct entry gate. Calm prevails outside and the stadium promises that U2's set won't begin until everyone is inside. As U2's 9:00 PM start time approaches, the venue reportedly begins to let the GA line enter without going through a security check or having their credit cards scanned.

U2 eventually takes the stage at about 9:20 PM, walking on one member at a time while The Pogues' hit "A Rainy Night In Soho" plays over the PA system. They take positions on a larger-than-normal b-stage, which is in the shape of the Joshua Tree logo. U2 begins by playing five songs from the pre-Joshua Tree era, including the rarely heard "A Sort Of Homecoming," which gets its first performance since November 2001.

The band moves to the main stage to begin playing The Joshua Tree album in full and in sequence. The giant video screen (in 8K resolution) lights up in bright red as the band members walk in front, their silhouettes appearing against the screen exactly as fans remember from the Rattle And Hum film. It's one of many moments during the show that serve as reminders of U2's past. As the band goes through the full Joshua Tree album, a unique video plays on the screen behind them during each song. The 11 video clips are all created by Anton Corbijn, and evoke scenes and themes found throughout the album.

In playing the full album, U2 performs several songs that are have never or rarely been heard before. "Red Hill Mining Town" gets its first-ever live performance, but isn't quite true to the album version -- Edge plays piano, not guitar, throughout the song. "Running To Stand Still" is played for the first time since 2005. "Trip Through Your Wires" is played for the first time since the original Joshua Tree tour in 1987, while "Exit" hadn't been played since one appearance on the Lovetown tour in 1989. Songs like "In God's Country," "One Tree Hill" and "Mothers Of The Disappeared" have been played more recently, but each only a handful of times across recent tours.

For the encore, U2 plays a handful of post-Joshua Tree songs including a new, more dance/electronica-inspired version of "Beautiful Day."

Though many fans expect U2 to use the show as a continuation of the anti-President Trump message that accompanied the iHeartRadio Awards and Dreamforce concerts last year, that message is more muted during this show. Prior to "Exit," the video screens show a clip from a 1950s TV show called Trackdown, which remarkably features a character named (Warren) Trump trying to save the citizens of a small, western town by telling them they have to build a wall around themselves. For the rest of the song, Bono is in character with a Stetson hat on and performing as if he's the "preacher stealing hearts at a traveling show" (from "Desire").

The band's humanitarian concerns are front and center during the encore. Bono dedicates "Ultraviolet" to the band's wives and female staffers, as the song is transformed on this tour to a women's rights/equality anthem. A collage of women's rights activists appear on the video screen throughout the song. After the song, Bono repeatedly sings "The power of people is greater than the people in power," but his attempts to get the audience to sing it back to him fall mostly flat. Before "Miss Sarajevo," the video screen introduces us to a Syrian teen named Omaima who tells the audience about the refugee camp in Jordan where she now lives with her family. As the band begins the song, the video screen shows some of the devastation that's forcing so many to become refugees -- scenes similar to what U2 used during "Bullet The Blue Sky" during the I+E tour two years ago.

The show closes with a big surprise, as U2 performs a never-before-heard song called "The Little Things That Give You Away." Bono has mentioned the track in several recent interviews, saying it's his favorite from the material U2 is planning for its next album. His introduction refers to it as "a song of experience," a reference to the expected name of the next album (Songs Of Experience). As the song ends, the video screen shows a photo of what appears to be the album cover -- a photo of Bono's son Eli holding hands with Edge's daughter, Sian, who's also wearing a military helmet. It's a message to fans that, even though the band is celebrating its past on this tour, they're still very firmly looking ahead to what's next.

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