UPDATE: As expected, the tweet and Facebook post showing the stage have been deleted, even though they were already retweeted and shared dozens (if not hundreds) of times, and seen by fans all around the world. Our story below has been edited with screenshots of what was posted.
One of our staffers came across this tweet that, if it's legitimate -- and I think it is -- shows U2's stage for The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 being built inside Houston's NRG Stadium.
#U2 2017 Joshua Tree Tour set-up & rehearsal site in HOU. It's a massive production and #weather threats can be extremely impactful. #txwx pic.twitter.com/qRFWDGthNw
— WeatherDecTech (@WeatherDecTech) April 17, 2017
The tweet was posted mid-day Monday by Weather Decision Technologies, a company that provides weather detection services and software for the concert and sports event industries, among others. It shows a photo of what looks like U2's stage for the upcoming tour -- a photo that, when I just ran it through Google's reverse image search, shows no prior online matches. In other words, Google thinks it's a new image.
The company also shared the same photo on its Facebook page, with some additional text:
At the U2 2017 Joshua Tree Tour set-up and rehearsal site in Houston meeting with production and security leads prior to the tour starting in May. It's a massive production and weather threats can be extremely impactful. That's why they utilize our WeatherOps services!
Conventional wisdom would suggest that the band should be setting up at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver by now, where the tour will begin on May 12. But that facility isn't available yet; the stadium will be used this weekend for a fair that's part of the annual Vancouver Sun Run event. So it's likely that the production team had to use another stadium for initial build of the stage and other pre-tour productions. The tour doesn't reach Houston until May 24, but there will likely be multiple stages in use, so a separate stage could be waiting to be built in Vancouver once BC Place is available.
There's a chance WDT wasn't supposed to post that photo online, but we've made screenshots of their tweet just in case.
UPDATE #2: Instagram user @goldsucog posted two videos from inside the stadium yesterday, and those are embedded below via our repost. NOTE: The audio in this first clip is REALLY LOUD. Be careful. If you have trouble viewing them, try these links direct to Instagram: video one and video two.
