U2 start the UK leg of their ‘Experience + Innocence’ tour in October, and they’ve just released an accompanying app.
The ‘U2 Experience’ app will give fans an augmented reality experience, both at home and while at tour dates.
The app allows users to hold their phone up and point it at the 100 foot long LED wall that will form part of the band’s set, which will trigger a ‘specially curated audio visual experience emerging through your mobile device’.
Fans can also use the app at home by pointing their camera at U2’s latest album cover ‘Songs of Experience‘ to ‘get a taste of what’s coming up in the show’.
However, we tried pointing it at at an online image of their album and nothing happened. It then froze and crashed our phone, so be aware if you’re wanting to use this that you’ll need a lot of free storage space for it to work properly.
It’s also a pretty sizeable app at 223 mb – coming with a warning when you try to download it – so make sure you download it while on wifi.
The app is available on iOS or Android.
Meanwhile, artists such as Jack White are at the other end of the spectrum, with the singer forcing fans to lock up their phones before his recent gigs.
Comedian Chris Rock also banned phones on recent live dates, while Annie Mac hopes that one day people will stop filming everything at gigs.
Earlier this month it emerged that Guns N’ Roses, U2 and Pearl Jam once nearly went on a massive joint tour together – but the latter band refused to take part.
The shows were suggested by GnR frontman Axl Rose in 1993, just after Pearl Jam had enjoyed the success of breakthrough debut ‘Ten’ – but Pearl Jam’s Kelly Curtis immediately shut it down when he was approached.