U2 streaming archival concert series on YouTube

Lis Sinatra

While large-scale touring remains on hold amid coronavirus, U2 are going into their archives to broadcast a few live past performances. They've announced "U2: The Virtual Road," a series of four of their previous concerts that will be broadcast on YouTube. Starting on St. Patrick's Day, Wednesday, March 17, they'll air their September 1, 2001 concert from Ireland's Slade Castle, which was their first performance there in over 20 years. Then, on Thursday, March 25, they'll go back to their tour supporting War with their iconic June 5, 1983 show at Red Rocks Amphitheater (which was released as concert film Under a Blood Red Sky).

On Thursday, April 1, they'll air a December 1997 show from their PopMart tour in Mexico City, and the series wraps up on Saturday, April 10 with a stream of the final show of the Innocence + Experience Tour, in December of 2016 in Paris.

Each show has remastered audio and enhanced visuals, and each streams for 48 hours on YouTube with new opening sets: Dermot Kennedy for Slane Castle, Fontaines D.C. for Red Rocks, Carla Morrison for Mexico City, and Feu! Chatterton for Paris. In addition, for three of the shows, Slane Castle, Red Rocks, and Mexico, it'll be the first time they're available digitally.

"Every show is memorable for us but these four particularly so," the band say. "It’s exciting to be on the road again... Embracing all the wonder of the virtual road... And especially exciting to be joined by such a brilliant line-up of fellow travellers in Dermot Kennedy, Fontaines D.C., Carla Morrison and Feu! Chatterton."

Watch a trailer for the series below.