Concert Preview: The U2 360 Tour

U2's Claw Stage for their 360 Tour

U2 and Reliant Stadium allowed a sneak peek of the Claw stage the band is using on their current 360 Tour.

The media was taken on a short, one hour tour that included a question and answer session with Tour Director, Craig Evans and Production Manager, Jake Berry.

For more photos, check out this Flickr photostream.

U2 plays tonight at Reliant Stadium with Muse as their supporting act. Tickets range from $32 to $252. Doors open at 5:00pm and the first band starts at 7:00pm. Parking is $20.

For more information, check out the Reliant Stadium page for this event.

Here are some interesting facts about the stage and this current tour:

• U2 have not played stadiums in North America since Popmart in 1997


• The stage design includes a groundbreaking, cylindrical video screen


• The stages are built by the Belgian company, Stageco. The construction of each requires the use of high-pressure and innovative hydraulic systems.


• The steel structure is 90 feet tall with the center pylon reaching 150 feet tall


• The design can support up to 180 tons


• The cylindrical video screen is 54 tons …closed the video is 4300 square feet, opening to a size of 14,000 square feet (as big as 2 doubles tennis court).


• The video screen is made up of 1 million pieces…(500,000 pixels, 320,000 fasteners, 30,000 cables, 150,000 machined pieces)


• The video screen is broken into segments mounted on a multiple pantograph system, which enables the screen to "open up" or spread apart vertically as an effect during different stages of the concerts.


• The steel structure takes 4 days to build. It takes 12 hours to load in screen, stage and universal production equipment


• It takes 6 hours for production to dismantle and it takes 48 hours to dismantle and load the steel structure out of the stadium.