Check Out U2′s New 360° Degree Stage Design

U2 rev up their 360° Tour tonight in Barcelona, Spain, and joining the foursome is a specially designed stage set called The Claw. Fans at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium will be the first to experience The Claw and its revolving stage – an expensive, hi-tech production that looks to up the ante significantly with an entirely new approach to the live concert experience.

What looks like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster about aliens invading the planet, The Claw houses all the technical wires and speakers in its four, giant legs, and at the very top there is a huge video screen.

The Claw will be positioned in the middle of the venue, with a revolving stage, and it’s said the design should open up an additional 20,000 seats per stadium.

Speaking to Irish Times about the tour, Bono says The Claw was his idea – an engineering challenge he had been working on for the past seven years.

“The Claw is all to do with how you can play outdoors without using a proscenium stage with a big bank of speakers on the left and right. Every outdoor stage show you’ve ever seen uses that configuration. This idea we’re now working on will mean more people can fit into the shows, there will be better sight lines and everyone will be closer to the action,” he says.

The Claw is actually inspired by the four-legged Theme Building at Los Angeles airport.

For the 360° Tour, U2 will have three different Claws to play with; while rocking out on one of them, the second one is being set up at another venue and the third one is being transported somewhere else.

Longtime U2 associates Willie Williams and Mark Fisher will be working as show directors for the 18-month tour.

“Everyone who sees it says that it looks like something different,” says Williams. “It does look as though it has escaped from a giant space aquarium.”

The European tour will be followed by dates in North America beginning at Chicago’s Soldier Field on September 12th, 2009.

What do you think about The Claw?