U2’s First Boston Show Wasn’t Actually U2’s First Boston Show

I've been living a lie. For years, I believed I knew the date of U2's first Boston show. Turns out it wasn't really their first Boston show.

Allow me to explain. I grew up north of Boston in the '80s and '90s. My parents were (and still are) rockers. So it was WBCN that was on the home stereo and car radio most of the time. BCN, of course, was the radio station responsible for breaking U2 in the U.S. So those four Dublin lads have been part of the soundtrack of my life from a very early age.

In 2003, I was hired as midday host at WBCN, which made my mom so happy she cried. Not just because I was going to be on the air at her favorite radio station, but because it meant I was moving back home after living and working in radio in New Mexico for almost three years. During my BCN tenure, I would host a once-weekly Live Lunch, where I'd play a live set from the BCN archives on Thursday at noon, commercial-free.

One of my go-to sets was U2's Live From Boston 1981. The recording was part of The Complete U2, the digital box set that the band released on iTunes in 2004. But Boston fans knew about it long before that. The show was broadcast live on WBCN back on March 6, 1981; the copy I used to play for my Live Lunch was a digitized copy of that broadcast from the BCN archives. I used to bill it as "the first Boston U2 show."

I was wrong.

Thanks to my former WBCN colleague (and good friend) Mark Hamilton, I now know the truth. Recently, I referenced the gig when marking the anniversary of U2's War. Mark was quick to point out that the '81 Paradise gig was the band's second Boston appearance. Their first time playing Boston was indeed at the Paradise, but it was a few months earlier: December 13, 1980.

You can check out the setlist over at U2gigs.com. And, because it's U2, of course it's been bootlegged and uploaded to YouTube. So fire it up below and enjoy the actual, factual first-ever U2 gig in Boston.

February 28, 1983. U2's War album is released. Which makes it 40 years old this year. So let's put some fresh ears on it.

You don't usually hear War referred to as U2's "breakthrough" album; that distinction is usually reserved for 1987's The Joshua Tree. But looking back at War 40 years on, it might be time to do a little retrofitting. The album has gone 4 times platinum in the United States alone. U2's first two albums--Boy and October--are still at single-platinum status as of early 2023. So there's a case to be made on numbers alone.

Of course, I'm making this case from a decidedly Boston-based perspective. I've been a radio DJ playing U2's music for 25 years, all but 3 of those years spent in Boston. And I grew up north of the city, listening to Boston radio stations and DJs that were the first to bring U2's music to the masses in America. What I'm getting at is this: U2 is an Irish band, of course. But they're a Boston band, too, in a way. And that counts for something.

Take this, for instance. March 6, 1981: U2 plays the Paradise Rock Club. It’s only their second-ever Boston tour date; their first was December 6, 1980 at the Paradise. Originally broadcast on the legendary and now-defunct WBCN, the bootleg of the March '81 show was then released as a radio show on vinyl. Many of the songs played that night ended up on future U2 singles as B-sides. So that U2-Boston connection has been strong from the very beginning. I wrote about the gig for the 40th anniversary here.

Back to War, I'd like to share four thoughts on four songs from the album and why I think it's U2's true breakthrough. Let me know what you think on our Facebook or Twitter.

War's leadoff cut about The Troubles in Northern Island is one of the all-time greatest political works in popular music. That's a known fact. But it's also the song that cemented Larry Mullen Jr.'s status as a dynamo behind the drums. Producer Steve Lillywhite insisted that Mullen play along to a click track to really capture the militaristic energy of the drum part. Mullen pushed back at first, but finally came around and was so satisfied with the results that he used the click track on the entire album. His tight drumwork speaks for itself.

Bono started penning the lyrics to "New Year's Day" on his honeymoon in Jamaica. It started as a love song to his wife. It ended up as a song about the Polish solidarity movement. Why is this important? Because War was--and is--a political album, first and foremost. That theme still resonates 40 years later.

When I say: "name a U2 love song," what's the first song that comes to mind? "With Or Without You?" "One?" It's probably not "Two Hearts Beat As One." And that's OK. Those first two songs are standard-issue U2 love ballads. But "Two Hearts..." proved early on that U2 could write a love song that rocked and grooved.

"40" is War's closing cut. It wasn't released as a proper single, but did end up being treated as one in Germany. And if you ask a hardcore U2 fan to rattle off their favorite songs from the band, "40" comes up pretty often. All the way through, War is as strong, vital, and relevant as it was when it was released 40 years ago.