Concert History | U2 at ASU Activity Center — The Night a Tour Opener Became an Arizona Civic Platform

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On April 2, 1987, U2 opened The Joshua Tree Tour at the ASU Activity Center in Tempe, with Lone Justice opening. Robert Hilburn’s contemporaneous Los Angeles Times report identifies the Thursday performance as the tour opener; Billboard’s April 18 Boxscore independently lists U2 and Lone Justice at the arena on April 2 and 4 under promoter Fey Concert. Sources: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-04-04-ca-1116-story.html and https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1987/Billboard-1987-04-18.pdf

The booking had become a civic question after Arizona governor Evan Mecham rescinded the state’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and some touring acts avoided Arizona. Hilburn reported that U2’s management consulted local fans and the recall campaign before choosing to perform, that the band made an undisclosed donation to the Mecham Watchdog Committee, and that promoter Barry Fey read a statement before the show. Matt McGee’s U2: A Diary independently records the consultation, contribution, and statement: https://books.google.com/books?id=ioI3AQAAIAAJ

The room’s role changed again when the performance began. Hilburn reported that Bono could barely speak before showtime; he asked the audience to help, the crowd carried substantial parts of the songs, and the band cut three numbers. The arena therefore worked not just as the first stop on a new tour, but as both a local political platform and an improvised vocal safety net. Billboard/Amusement Business reported aggregate attendance of 25,113 for the April 2 and April 4 shows and a two-show gross of $389,251, labeling the combined capacity a sellout. Those are two-show figures, not an attendance or gate count for April 2 alone.

Coordinate method: the pin at 33.424524, -111.930948 marks the center of the arena building, not the 1987 stage. Wikidata P625 places the venue there (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q770570); Arizona State University’s independently maintained campus GIS opens on an extent whose converted center is 33.424502, -111.930994, about five metres away, and ASU identifies the building at 600 E Veterans Way (https://tours.asu.edu/tempe/desert-financial-arena). Precision radius: 80 metres, covering the arena footprint and uncertainty about the concert’s internal stage orientation. The building was called ASU Activity Center on the session date; it is now Desert Financial Arena.

Cover caption and credit: the former ASU Activity Center photographed in 2014 during its Wells Fargo Arena era. It shows the venue exterior, not U2 or the 1987 concert. Photo by David Pinter (davidpinter), CC BY 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arizona_State_University,_Tempe_Main_Campus,_Tempe,_AZ_-_panoramio_(163).jpg