U2 has added more North American dates to their 360 Tour.  Next summer, Bono and company will return to the United States and Canada to perform a dozen concerts.

Their first show is scheduled for June 6 in Anaheim and the last is scheduled for July 19.  That's when U2 takes the stage at Giants Stadium.  After that, the band returns to Europe for a slew of concerts in August and October.

The 2010 addendum allows U2 to visit cities they missed on 360's first go around—cities like Oakland, East Lansing, and Seattle as well as a U2 show in Philadelphia.  

 

The Irish rockers will also be making return trips to Chicago and Toronto.

If you're unable to get your hands on U2 tickets, or next summer is too long of a wait, you can always watch their Oct. 25 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on YouTube. 

The concert was originally broadcasted live on YouTube and it garnered 10 million streams across seven continents.  Needless to say, it was the largest event in the website's history.  Since then, the video has earned more than 1 million views.  

However, YouTube has not released the average length-of-time viewers watched the nearly two-and-a-half hour concert.  Obviously, a lot of people just skipped to "Pride" and even more skip over performances of "Lemon" and "Discothèque."

Hopefully for U2, YouTube is paying them handsomely for all those hits.  After all, the band claims their mammoth (some will say bloated) 360 Tour has yet to break even. 

That's a curious claim considering they've played for 3 million fans in 44 cities and set attendance records at the aforementioned Rose Bowl and Giants Stadium.  

Also, if the tour isn't profitable, why haul that 170-ton, $40 million stage back to America next summer?

The band is probably making money but not enough money.  So to boost sales they announced that their gigantic 360 Tour is struggling to get out of the red.

Look at it this way, if you're debating about seeing the band in concert which statement is more likely to get you to part with your hard earn cash and buy tickets to see U2 in Vancouver (for example):  "we're struggling to break even" or "we're making money by the truckload?"

Even in a robust economy, most people would be unwilling to fork over a couple of hundred dollars for concert tickets to further line the pockets of bragging millionaire rock stars.   U2 knows this.  They know struggling sells.

MTV.com calls U2's 360 Tour the "most high-tech, enormous stage in the history of rock." Others have said it's the most corporate infused outing in the history of rock and roll.

It's interesting that U2, one of the few bands without an AARP card and with enough hits to fill a two-and-a-half hour concert, feels it's necessary to surround themselves with a lavish and corpulent stage. 

They should save the special effects for bands that actually need them.   All U2 has to do is turn on the amps and rock and roll.

A few posts back, we wrote about Pearl Jam and how even though they seemed like a band impervious to selling out, they’ve actually sold out.

Now a band once thought to be environmentally conscious is in fact destroying the planet.  We’re all going to die from global warming and it’s totally their fault.

Environmentalists are claiming that U2’s 360 tour, scheduled to visit 44 venues scatter over our lifeless, barren Earth, is damaging the environment and consuming to much energy.

  

Some clever environmentalists have even surmised that U2’s trek will create enough carbon emissions to propel the band to Mars.

When Adam Clayton heard this he asked how many arenas the band would have to play to reach Uranus.

Enviro-critics believe U2’s tour is leaving a huge carbon footprint.  Who cares about a carbon footprint, let’s hope the band doesn’t leave a Zooropa footprint.  They shouldn’t play any song from that awful album.

Recently, while backstage at Wembley Stadium, Edge told a reporter, as he poured gallons of motor oil down a drain, "I think anybody that's touring is going to have a carbon footprint. I think it's probably unfair to single out rock'n'roll." 

It’s unclear if fans at U2 Atlanta or U2 Houston will care more about the band’s carbon footprint—whatever that is—or whether or not they play “I Will Follow.”  Besides we all know what they say about the size of a band’s carbon foot.

 

Edge responded to critics by saying, "…as it happens we have a program to offset whatever carbon footprint we have."

 

Neither Edge nor the band offered details on how they would offset their carbon footprint but we’re pretty sure it involves putting an end to Tire Burning Tuesdays.

According to some eco-nerds, U2 would have to plant 20,118 trees to offset their “excessive and “wasteful” tour.  It’s unclear where the band would find such a large parcel of land capable of sustaining over 20,000 trees, but we suggest Bono’s ego.

Before we start shoving saplings into the ground, aren’t bands like U2 the reason why our ancestors came out of the caves and risked being eaten by dinosaurs and enslaved by the aliens building the Pyramids in the first place.  Isn’t seeing U2 in concert why we formed a complex society capable of burning fossils fuels and subjugating nature?  

Seeing Bono and the boys perform in some giant, impersonal arena is one of the world’s greatest luxuries.  If we can’t use a little extra energy and get a little carbon on our shoes to see U2 then we might as well pack everything up and leave.

Now, we’ve been treating this story with our tongue firmly planted in our cheek, but there are some who take this stuff very seriously.  For instance Talking Heads frontman David Byrne is quite perturbed (i.e. jealous) over U2’s hubris (i.e. popularity).  

“$40 million to build the stage and, having done the math, we estimate 200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe for the duration.  It could be professional envy speaking here, but it sure looks like, well, overkill, and just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa," chuckled Byrne.

Don’t tell D.B. but the same fleet of trucks will be driving from U2 Tampa all the way across the United States to U2 Las Vegas.

“We'd love to have some alternative to big trucks bringing the stuff around but there just isn't one," said Edge as he was sniping at polar bears.

Maybe environmentalist will be kinder to U2’s upcoming re-issue of The Unforgettable Fire.  The legendary Irish band is planning to re-release the 1984 classic with some previously unreleased songs.

One of the new songs, “Disappearing Act,” was previewed during Bono and The Edge’s recent appearance on BBC Radio 1.  

U2 culled through The Unforgettable Fire sessions and discovered several unreleased tracks they found really exciting.  The band put the finishing touches on these songs early this year while in France.

There’s no release date for the deluxe re-issue but the band says it will be out “later this year” after they demolish a couple of acres of rain forest.

Their 360 World Tour is scheduled to conclude October 28th in Vancouver, B.C.  That is if the world is still around by then.