For the first time in almost three years, the four members of U2 took to the stage and performed a show together. The band appeared unannounced Saturday night at Sean Penn’s third annual Help Haiti benefit at the Montage Hotel. Given, a band-stand in a Beverly Hills hotel ballroom is a smaller stage than Bono and the boys are used to, but it was a show nonetheless.
Fully plugged in, they performed a collection of hits including “I Will Follow”, “Vertigo”, and “Desire”. Bono and The Edge also performed a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” alongside Haitian singer Anaelle Jean-Pierre. You can watch a collection of clips from the performance below (via Billboard).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6zEhFWGgQE
This surprise U2 gig is just the latest in a series of news bits regarding the return of the rock icons. The band’s hotly anticipated 13th studio album, produced by Danger Mouse, is reportedly due this spring and sees the band returning to their original Island Records home. Their first new song in three years, the Danger Mouse-produced “Ordinary Love”, came in November as part of the soundtrack to the biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
