Large-scale events don’t get any bigger than this… U2’s 360° stage is one of the biggest sets ever built, weighs 170 tons, and requires 200 trucks to transport the elements.  It was originally nicknamed The Claw until the Spaceship idea formed around the overall look.

The Claw - set-up

It has been reported that the tour has overhead of $750,000 per day, nearly 400 tour employees, 250+ speakers, 13 video cameras, and incorporates astronauts from the International Space Station into the live show.  From a production viewpoint, a large-scale event of this magnitude was something that simply had to be experienced.  Javelin’s home base, St. Louis, wasn’t a stop on the tour so a road trip was in order to experience this massive event in person.

We headed west towards Oklahoma, taking in the sights and sounds over the next 500 miles.  A road trip down Historic Route 66 would not be complete for any experiential marketer without a few stops to soak in some of the nostalgia, local ambiance and food.  So, when a large highway sign near Cuba, MO beckoned us to visit Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q we immediately agreed to check it out.

Route 66 stop: Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q

Mark McInnis and the Happy, Oblivious Pig

Ambiance:  3 out of 5 stars.   The mullet-clad, iconic cartoon (on the sign) welcoming patrons to the establishment was a little disturbing.  The placemats were amusing, featuring a smiling pig wearing a bib, ready to partake in some delicious Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q, unaware of impending doom just around the corner.

Nostalgia:  4 out of 5 stars.  No modern cuisine or diet-of-the-moment to be found here.  Kitschy, rustic decor.

Food:  5 out of 5 stars.  Don’t let the mullet deter you; the Missouri Hick delivers fantastic BBQ and excellent side dishes.

Sufficiently Q’d up, we continued heading west to see one of the most talked about concerts of the year.  Something very difficult to achieve in an arena/stadium setting – especially in the round – is a fully immersive sound, light, and video concert experience.  Years of our own production experience with large-scale events (good and bad) and rumors of what gear might be employed fueled miles of debate about what to expect when we arrived.

The Spaceship, up close and personal

Unbelievable - U2 does it again!

Needless to say, U2 360° has done an outstanding job.  A four-pillar design lifts the sound system out of the crowd’s way and provides the live equivalent of surround sound.  The transformable 360° LED screen is quite an awesome piece of engineering, comprised of more than 500,000 Barco FLX LED modules.  For more information on the screen design, check out these interviews.

The tour continues to set records and raise the bar, not just live on the road, but online as well.  On October 25, 2009 the full 2.5 hour concert was streamed live on YouTube, from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.  Breaking all previous records for the site, the webcast was watched by nearly 10 million people around the world.   The concert is available on YouTube in its entirety, and has (as of this writing) been watched by more than 1.1 million viewers to date. Check out the Rose Bowl concert and this amazing set here!

Posted by Mark McInnis and Mark Russell