VANCOUVER — It was a sort of homecoming as U2 once again kicked off another world tour — this time in support of the 30th anniversary of their landmark LP The Joshua Tree — in “the city we love.”

It was the second time that U2 has started in Vancouver following 2015’s Innocence + Experience trek. But oddly the venue — this time BC Place — didn’t seem equipped to deal with such a large crowd. The lineups to get into the stadium were a mess and unmaintained, causing thousands to miss openers Mumford & Sons.

The Irish rockers — frontman Bono, guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. — are playing their 1987 album in its entirety and the tour marks the first time the band is performing a full album live. Some of Joshua Tree’s songs — Red Hill Mining Town, for example — have never been featured in concert.

“Here we are again,” frontman Bono said following New Year’s Day, “in a concrete temple where we strangely feel at home.”

Backed by hit singles I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Where the Streets Have No Name and With or Without You, The Joshua Tree was the album that catapulted U2 to worldwide fame, winning multiple Grammys and selling over 25 million copies along the way.

But on a night that started with Mullen alone playing the opening drum beat to Sunday Bloody Sunday and ended with the band debuting a new song, The Little Things That Give You Away, there were plenty of surprises besides hearing the classic album front to back. Here are four things you can look forward to when The Joshua Tree Tour comes to your town.

THE STAGING IS BRILLIANT

After the intimacy of 2015’s Innocence + Experience Tour, the Joshua Tree production finds the band once again on a large stage but with a giant screen (think IMAX) that projects short films, shot by Anton Corbijn (who photographed the album art), for each song of The Joshua Tree set. A road scene flashes during Where the Streets Have No Name and With or Without You takes us to the Grand Canyon, while Bullet the Blue Sky features shots of regular people putting on helmets preparing to go to war. Exit edits an old movie to include a character saying, “Trump, you’re a liar.” Later, during Ultra Violet (Light My Way), images of women, including Rosa Parks and Joni Mitchell, are flashed across the screen. But the band has always liked being close to the audience and a small platform in a tree shape juts into the crowd giving songs like MLK, Pride and One a churchy vibe.

THE JOSHUA TREE IS THE CENTREPIECE

The tour is celebrating one of the band’s most beloved albums so, from the moment the organ intro starts for Where the Streets Have No Name to the plaintive closing of Mothers of the Disappeared, it really hits home what a perfect and totally complete listening experience The Joshua Tree is. Even if you haven’t listened to Trip Through Your Wires in a decade, all the familiar notes will come back to you. They did for Bono who joked, “Thirty years and I still can’t play the harmonica,” before playing the song.

JUST THE HITS (WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS)

Because Joshua Tree takes up nearly an hour of the show’s two-hour running time, the band leans heavily on familiar tracks, such as Elevation and Beautiful Day, to fill out the set. But there are a few nuggets. A Sort of Homecoming, which hasn’t been played live since the band’s 2001 Elevation Tour, was a rare surprise. U2’s decision to end the show with the never-before-heard slow-burning rocker The Little Things That Give You Away (which will presumably be on their next record, Songs of Experience) was another eyebrow raiser — but in a good way. We’re used to humming staples like One as we head to the exits. This time we left with the promise of something new.

THE POLITICAL FACTOR

The Joshua Tree was written in the ‘80s “when there was a lot of unrest,” the Edge recently told Rolling Stone. So, many of the tracks have a political resonance to what’s going on in the world today. Trump is called out during Exit (“You ask how to build that wall,” a character says in the short film that precedes the song. “You ask, and I tell you.”) At another point, Bono and company challenge the audience to join them in a chant to deliver a message to the U.S.: “The power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.” The show opens with a scrawl of poetry playing on the screen, one of which includes George Elliot Clarke’s Ain’t You Scared of the Sacred, a response to the Quebec City mosque shootings in January. Ultra Violet (Light My Way) ends with an image emblazoned with the words, “Poverty is sexist,” but also fighting words from the frontman: “Governments should fear the citizens, not the other way around.” But the most poignant moment comes during Miss Sarajevo when the band plays an interview with Omaima, a Syrian refugee. “I want everyone to have hope,” she says. As a giant flag of her face is passed across the crowd, Bono looked out at the audience: “Canada, hold her up.” And they never let her down.

The Joshua Tree Tour hits Toronto’s Rogers Centre Friday, June 23.

An expanded re-release of The Joshua Tree will be available June 2.

Twitter: @markhdaniell

MDaniell@postmedia.com