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.