Entertainment

U2arrives Saturday at American Airlines Center as one of rock's most celebrated bands, complete with 16 Grammys and a Nobel Prize nomination.

That's a far cry from its first Dallas club show, when only a few dozen people saw the Irish band with the mullet-wearing singer – and some had actually come to see a wet T-shirt contest, not U2.

Here's a look back at the band's previous 11 concerts in Dallas-Fort Worth.

FILE 2001/Staff photo

Bono (right) and the Edge led U2 in concert at Reunion Arena in April 2001.

With opening act Damian Marley, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory. Ticketmaster.

{TriRight} Sold out.

E-mail tchristensen@dallasnews.com

(Album: Boy)

U2's first trip to Dallas was a humbling one. The Bijou, a restaurant-club in the Medallion shopping center at Skillman and Northwest Highway, had double-billed the band with a wet T-shirt contest (a fact Bono joked about onstage in 2001). All of 30 people were in the audience, despite a ticket price of $1.02, a tie-in with now-defunct rock station Q102.

When no one from Q102 showed up, George Gimarc, a jock from another now-defunct station, KZEW, got to introduce U2 as "one of the most promising bands from England," prompting a none-too-pleased Bono to reply, "We're from Ireland!"

Despite the gaffe, Mr. Gimarc (the author of Punk Diary) bonded with the band at a Ramada Inn near Interstate 635, where he'd driven them in his Chevy Citation. "My most bizarre memory was Bono putting a rough tape of new U2 demos into a jam box and then going to take a shower. He came out dripping wet in his underwear, toweling his head off and singing along. He was asking me, 'What do you think?' and I'm thinking, 'I'm getting a one-man concert with Bono in his underwear.' "

(October)

Fast becoming a buzz band, U2 drew a big crowd at Cardi's, the new name of the same club it played 10 months earlier. But Dallas Morning News reviewer Pete Oppel wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as the audience. "The rhythm patterns are fine, but nothing is ever done with those patterns," he wrote. "One can admire the group's youthful exuberance, but that admiration quickly fades to tedium."

Two months after the show, Cardi's became famous as the spot where David Crosby got busted on charges of cocaine and firearms possession.

(War)

A week before, U2 taped an incendiary show at Colorado's Red Rocks that became an MTV hit and spawned the LP Under a Blood Red Sky. The Bronco Bowl show isn't so famous, but the set list was nearly identical, including "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Gloria," "I Will Follow" and "New Year's Day," a song that was all over Dallas radio that month.

Opening act: The Alarm

(The Unforgettable Fire)

Bono did his best Spider-Man impression, climbing to the balcony to sing "Amazing Grace" while perched on the railing. But "what could have been a truly remarkable moment was lost when the sea of clutching hands refused to let it happen. He tried for intimacy and found his fans grabbing for a piece of a pop idol," wrote the late Morning News critic Russell Smith, who went on to say, "Not since Bruce Springsteen first occupied that stage have I witnessed such a magnificent, shattering concert performance."

U2 hoped to return to Reunion the next year to play a benefit for Amnesty International, but the show was scrapped after Neil Diamond booked the arena for the same night.

Opening act: Red Rockers

(The Joshua Tree)

On the first night, Bono wore a cowboy hat ("Have I the right to wear this hat in Texas?") and attacked then-President Ronald Reagan for his policies in Central America. The high point of night two came when B.B. King jammed with the band on "When Love Comes to Town," a moment captured in the film U2: Rattle and Hum. "The Fort Worth stint was joyful and triumphant, and Bono Vox may yet make the transition from Christ figure to sex symbol," wrote Mr. Smith.

Opening acts: BoDeans (Nov. 23) and B.B. King (Nov. 24)

(Achtung Baby)

U2 played almost all of Achtung Baby, including seven songs in a row to start the show. But as Morning News critic Manuel Mendoza noted, the elaborate stage and video screens "were as important as the music, as if the band were merely providing a soundtrack for some warped experience in virtual reality. ... With this tour, U2 has redefined what it means to put on a concert." Fans got in on the action, with three of them storming the stage, including one redheaded fanatic who carried Bono around during "Where the Streets Have No Name."

Opening act: Pixies

(Achtung Baby)

U2 peppered its first Dallas-area stadium show with a slew of cover songs: "Stand by Me," "Can't Help Falling in Love," the Pogues' "Dirty Old Town," Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" and Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." Morning News critic Tom Maurstad wrote, "Any other band would have been completely overwhelmed by such a fireworks display of special effects, but it is a demonstration of U2's power and presence that all the ... TV extravagances only served to highlight and underline the music."

Opening acts: Public Enemy and the

Sugarcubes

(Pop)

Bono opened the PopMart tour show by saying, "Texas, it's good to be in a state where size really does matter." But the 170-foot-wide video screen and 100-foot-high golden arch didn't impress everyone, including Mr. Maurstad, who wrote, "The question provoked by all the show's special effects and answered by none of them was 'What's the point?' ... It's a hard one to avoid as you stare at that big olive or that giant lemon, waiting for them to do something." However, the show did offer the Edge the chance to sing a karaoke version of "Daydream Believer."

Opening act: Rage Against the Machine

(All That You Can't Leave Behind)

Knowing that U2 alienated some fans with Pop, Bono said, "This is our 'Reapplying for the Job Tour.' ... Did we get the job?" Alas, not on this night: A raspy, tired-sounding Bono prompted this critic to call the two-hour show "underwhelming." The group's loyal subjects disagreed and flooded The News with angry e-mails and phone calls for the next two weeks.

Opening act: PJ Harvey

(All That You Can't Leave

Behind

Selling out Reunion for the second time in eight months, the band switched around the set list, adding "In God's Country," "Out of Control" and part of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Morning News reviewer Teresa Gubbins called the show "fantastic ... one of those right-time right-place events in which everything clicks in all the right ways."

Opening act: No Doubt