Fans in New York will have to adjust their calendars. Due to a scheduling conflict with the New York Giants and Yahweh, the band will have to switch the date of their performance in New York from September 25th to 23rd. The U2 show in Giants Stadium will not be any worse or any different from the way that it was going to be in the first place. But it will not have complications with Yom Kippur or the Giants’ game on the 27th. Why would they have to move their concert? The band needs two full days to dismantle the giant stage, and wouldn’t have enough time before the game, which has been moved up to accommodate the religious holiday. It’s going to be a complicated September for the band as they work through their US tour dates, but it’s also important for them to get it right. Just take note of the schedule change, especially if you already have tickets.

When U2 plays Dallas, for whatever reason they will be required to raise the jumbotron. I was looking around at the stories about this issue but I didn’t find much of anything about it. It’s a little bit of a weird kerfluffle. Either way, it appears that the stadium managers, and Jerry Jones (the Cowboys’ owner) will have to pay to have it raised for the NFL season. It costs $2million to do. But a lot of people seem to be thinking that U2 might be willing to pay that money anyway. After all, the band has their own large stage that costs a lot to put up and take down. It costs a lot to run that stage, to build it and all kinds of other parts of it. Besides, $2 million would be easy for the band to make back, just by 1 or 2 concerts. We’ll keep you updated about the situation.

With U2 still being as popular as ever, there’s a rather strange story that cropped up this week. Apparently there’s a church service floating around the Episcopal church called the U2charist. The service utilizes some of their music as opening and closing songs as well as an opening prayer. The music apparently brings in a lot of younger people compared to a regular service. How odd that is! It will be interesting to see how far this goes, and if it become actually widely popular or if it’s a very niche kind of service. The churches don’t, incidentally, have to pay any royalties, as long as they donate all the money raised to one of the Bono charities.

We mentioned a week or two ago that U2’s Spiderman musical was being put on pause due to some financial problems that the show was having. But that’s not to say that it’s in imminent danger of being cancelled. One of the things that indicates that it’s still on the way is that Bono gave an interview this week talking about the plot of the show. He says that the band has envisioned Peter Parker as more of a slacker than as a saint (like the comic books might have done). They also have a woman in the role of the villain. The show is called “Turn off the Dark” and is going to be a great show if it can get over some of the early hurdles that they are having right now. It’s a bit different from the original storylines and it’s going to be quite fun to see the show when it comes out. Apparently the previews will start during February as had been previously announced so it can’t be in that much trouble.

It wasn’t a big surprise this week when U2 sang a concert in respect of Burma’s jailed politician Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to yet another 18 months of house arrest for taking care of a guy who came uninvited to visit her a few months ago. He had come over on floating shoes and she took him in for a couple days, feeding him and making sure he wasn’t injured. U2 paid tribute to her this week after the result of the court appearance and it fits with their normal posture of working for freedom and human rights all around the world. For example, Bono made a speech with Tony Blair that was supposed to improve human rights. It’s not clear whether it actually have, but it’s great to see people fighting for it nevertheless.

The Spider Man Broadway musical might have hit a snafu. The producers appear to have been unable to put together enough money to keep the show production going right now, so the performances and further production matters are on hold for the time being. It’s kind of too bad for them, because U2 could practically finance the whole thing themselves, but that’s hard to do if you’re not sure if anyone will actually attend the show in the end. It would be much better to get the money together from backers and then get it onstage. Bono and The Edge are probably disappointed by this, but maybe they should actually consider financing it on their own. What do they really have to lose?

The regular fans are speaking out on U2Gigs.com. And some of them liked their show on Monday in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and some of them didn’t like it so much. But they had no problem with the band or the music. They all were very happy to hear their favorite band in person and enjoy the stage show, which is second-to-none in the world. It seems that there were several Belgian fans posting on this website and they had interesting things to say. Perhaps this is the only show that comes close to Belgium. In any event, the sound displeased them to a certain extent, because there was an echo in the closed stadium. It’s hard for a band to take care of this, since they’re always moving to different cities. And another Belgian didn’t like the Germans at the concert because they don’t know the songs and aren’t as active when singing along. Anyway, as long as they otherwise had fun, that’s what matters.

European fans are well-known for loving U2. They are back out in the world and bringing a message that people all over Europe really identify with. There is a show or two in Poland later this week. This weekend, they were playing in Sweden, at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg. It was a relatively normal show, highlighting a bunch of different eras of the band’s music, including songs from No Line on the Horizon. But interestingly, the players were a little bit off, according to some of the people who follow the band regularly. Bono’s voice was a little bit hoarse and he didn’t play with the audience the way that he usually does. Perhaps he was just a little bit tired from all the publicity the band has gotten in the last week or two, including the controversy in their own hometown that slowed down the arrival of stage equipment in Sweden last week. Anyway, the show was still good and if you don’t follow their performances constantly, you probably couldn’t tell the difference anyway.