Supergroup honours U2′s The Joshua Tree in series of concerts

Milan Borich from Pluto will sing at the U2 Joshua Tree tribute concert. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Jon Toogood, Shihad’s frontman and member of the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, regards U2′s The Joshua Tree as one of the all-time great rock and roll albums.

“Every single song is perfect,” Toogood told the Herald. “It’s just hit after hit after hit. Bang, bang, banger.”

Jon Toogood is doing his best to follow in Bono's footsteps with The Joshua Tree songs. Photo / Jason Oxenham

And now Toogood, plus a cast of New Zealand music royalty, will be playing the entire album in a series of three concerts over the next three nights.

Under the moniker “Come Together”, the supergroup has honoured classic albums and legendary groups 11 times previously, with last year’s offerings of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, Dire Straits’ Making Movies and Rumours from Fleetwood Mac played to sellout audiences.

This year they’re tackling U2′s The Joshua Tree, Led Zeppelin IV and The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper.

Bono when The Joshua Tree was released in 1987. Photo / Getty Images

Toogood has loved U2 since he first heard their third album War (1983) after an older sibling brought it home.

“I loved that record and ended up playing that record more than they listened to it,” he said. “To me they were the best rock and roll band on the planet.”

The Joshua Tree cemented U2 as one of the greatest rock and roll bands on the planet.

The 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire didn’t quite spark with the music press. Kurt Loder, writing in Rolling Stone, said of the album: “U2 flickers and nearly fades, its fire banked by a misconceived production strategy and occasional interludes of soggy, songless self-indulgence”.

“I liked some of those songs, but it was a little bit ethereal and atmospheric and not direct,” Toogood said. “So I think they were setting themselves up - and if they delivered, they would be the biggest band in the world. And Joshua Tree delivered.”

Toogood equates The Joshua Tree with Michael Jackson’s 1982 worldwide hit Thriller, that still retains the title of best-selling album of all time.

The Joshua Tree will be performed in its entirety at the three concerts. Photo / Jason Oxenham

“It’s like every home would have had Thriller by Michael Jackson, every home would have had, at one point, U2′s Joshua Tree,” he said.

And now Toogood with Julia Deans, Milan Borich of Pluto, Dianne Swan from When The Cat’s Away, Jazmine Mary and Come Together regulars Jol Mulholland, Brett Adams, Matthias Jordan, Alistair Deverick and Mike Hall will be playing the whole album.

U2′s frontman Bono was considered at his prime during the recording of the album, the band’s sixth in a career that straddles 40 years of making music.

And Toogood is full of praise for the Irishman’s singing ability.

“The guy’s got a set of pipes,” he said. “I sing relatively high because I play rock music, but I gotta say he sings a little higher than me. Some of his stuff is pretty challenging.

“I still consider myself a guitar player that sings and he’s a singer singer, you know?”

And the concerts won’t stop at the one album, with the first half of the shows dedicated to The Joshua Tree and the second half to songs from the entire U2 playbook.

“I’ve been asked to sing a song called Vertigo, which is quite later on and I actually find that tougher than any of the songs off Joshua Tree,” Toogood said.

“He’s still singing high now, you know?”

Come Together plays at the Theatre Royal in Christchurch tonight, Wellington’s Opera House on Friday and wraps up at The Civic in Auckland on Saturday. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster and Ticketek.