U2 took a break from the band’s “Experience + Innocence” tour to play one night at the Apollo Theater, on Monday, for a crowd including Harry Belafonte, John McEnroe, Steven Van Zandt, Noah Syndergaard and Jon Bon Jovi.
At the invite-only SiriusXM show, U2 singer Bono dedicated “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” — which he said he originally wrote for late INXS singer Michael Hutchence — to Anthony Bourdain.
“It’s hard to lose a friend… to lose a mate. This band has been through that,” the singer said, calling Bourdain, “a great storyteller who had stories he couldn’t tell us.”
Bono also alluded the to death of fashion pioneer Kate Spade.
“It’s been a funny, not funny few years. We lost a lot of inspiring, useful people. And gained a few useless people,” he said.
The show — for which the Apollo removed all its orchestra seats to create general admission seating — included an appearance by the famed Sun Ra Arkestra during an encore. The horn section had just flown in from Australia that morning for the show, Bono said.
The private concert in the 1,500 capacity theater will air on SiriusXM’s “The U2 Experience” channel on Wednesday.