Watch U2 Bring ‘Songs of Experience’ Tracks to ‘SNL’
U2 returned to Saturday Night Live for the first time in eight years to perform a pair of tracks off their just-released new album Songs of Experience.
“American Soul” opened with an animated lyric video that paired with Kendrick Lamar‘s spoken word intro; the song itself is a reworking of “XXX,” a U2-featured track off Lamar’s Damn.
For the energetic performance of “American Soul” – which marked the first time U2 played that track live – Bono sang into an American flag-emblazoned megaphone while a stop-motion video projected the song’s lyrics on the video screen that towered behind the band.
Bono and company returned later in the night to play Songs of Experience‘s anthemic “Get Out of Your Own Way.” The previous night, Bono and the Edge performed the track as part of a 25-minute acoustic gig at a benefit for the Museum of Natural History.
To end the SNL appearance, Bono unleashed his megaphone to deliver a closing sermon based on the Lamar piece: “Blessed are the arrogant, for theirs is a kingdom of their own company. Blessed are the liars for the truth could be awkward. Blessed are the cast of Saturday Night Live.”
U2 will embark on the 15-date Experience + Innocence Tour in May 2018.