At Chicago's Soldier Field Stadium Saturday night, U2 began the North American leg of their 360 Tour with more than two hours of hits and covers performed beneath a claw-like, in-the-round stage structure that rose 90 feet in the air like a newly erected monument in the city's skyline.

"There's nowhere else we would want to be on this fine evening than the heart of Chicago," Bono told the sold-out crowd after opening with 'No Line on the Horizon' track 'Breathe.' "We're Irish. We like to think we played a small part in your majestic skyline. We are the wind in this Windy City."

While 1997's PopMart tour had U2 cascading from a giant disco-ball lemon and 2001's Elevation tour had the Irish rockers running through the audience along a heart-shaped platform, the 360 Tour has the audience hugging the band from all angles as they play without a backdrop beneath a circular video, which funnels down over the stage mid-set like an electric tornado.

The set included classics like 'Where the Streets Have No Name,' 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' 'With or Without You' and newer gems 'Magnificent' and 'Unknown Caller.' The band also sampled from others' catalogs, including the Beatles' 'Blackbird,' Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me,' and Elvis Costello's 'Oliver's Army.' The band occasionally unplugged, most notably for 'Stuck in a Moment.'

For an amped-up remix of 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight,' drummer Larry Mullen -- whom Bono introduced as "the man who gave us our first job, our thunder and our lightning, he smiles and the sun comes out" -- left his center stage rotating drum riser armed with a bongo, a seeming tribute to the city of Fez, Morocco, where much of 'Horizon' was recorded. For a performance of 'Walk On,' inspired by Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, volunteers took the stage holding up masks of the imprisoned political leader.

Bono introduced 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' by charming the 60,000-strong stadium. "This very night could be the best night of our lives," he said, before outstretching his arms and belting out that he had "climbed the highest mountain...only to be with you."