But the second section never really recovers from its manic first two tracks, back-to-back early 2000s radio staples Elevation and Vertigo, both from an era where U2 recorded at least a dozen better songs. There are some crowd-pleasing moments and certainly high points at the back end: the under-appreciated Ultra Violet was remade as an ode to groundbreaking women. The extended encore of post-Joshua Tree songs replicates too many of the band’s failures since, an era flecked with moments of brilliance that were too often unappreciated as U2 focused its efforts on being the world’s biggest band, rather than its best. It’s hard to explain how a show can pivot from “You plant a demon seed / You raise a flower of fire” on Bullet the Blue Sky to “a mole digging in a hole” on Elevation within the space of an hour – other than that around the songs from Joshua Tree, U2 seems intent on mimicking its transition from rock band to red shimmering caricatures in a way that might (or might not) be intended with irony. The Joshua Tree-themed concert was accompanied by a stunning visual backdrop of scenes of Americana. Never before has that sounded so real, so scary. On Bullet the Blue Sky in particular, a powerful ramble arranged to sound like a fighter jet overhead, the refrain is “outside it’s America”. There are collapsing coal towns and opioid addicts, thieving preachers and US interventions overseas that feel remarkably fresh. The highlights are (surely not a coincidence) the most political songs from an album pitched musically as an homage to America, but where the lyrics explore its excesses and failures of the 1980s, many of which feel more relevant today to Trump’s United States. Some punters complain about an echo on the vocals, an effect that amplifies the singer at his most searching.

On rare occasions when the show stutters (like at the outset of With or Without You, where the haunting infinite guitar seems too piercing), Bono is still, at 59, able to rally the crowd with a bellow. The main course that follows is Joshua Tree, played start to finish from the high-set main stage with a stunning but calm visual backdrop of scenes of Americana, including visions of the Death Valley desert that provided the album cover’s most stunning artwork. On Sunday Bloody Sunday, the Edge’s guitar needs no visual embellishment to evoke the march of foot soldiers during the Troubles on Bad, Bono shouts “fade away” with the sort of ache that infects his best vocal performances. Galloping tunes: U2 at Suncorp Stadium Photograph: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Drum music bullet the blue sky