Biggest Band Ever?

The Beatles. The Stones.

It’s pretty much them and everybody else, isn’t it?

In fact, only one post-punk band has aspired to the iconic status of these rock Gods – U2.

Ranked No. 3 in a recent Top 10 list prepared by MSNBC, U2 have undergone countless evolutions – musically and otherwise. The band has been earnest, ironic and earnest again. They’ve worn crosses and glitter. They’ve sung about Jesus and dressed up like devils.

Frankly, it’s amazing that the band which kicked off its eleventh world tour (in support of its twelfth studio album) is still the biggest rock band on the planet – two decades after Time magazine famously declared them “Rock’s Hottest Ticket.”

All true fans have their favorite U2 moments. Ours include getting The Unforgettable Fire as our first-ever LP back in 1984 (at the age of 10) and listening to songs like “Wire,” “Pride”  and “A Sort of Homecoming” over and over (and over) again on an old late Sixties model stereo. We also remember getting goosebumps on our arms the first time we saw the trailer for Rattle & Hum in the movie theater – or feeling the hair stand up on the back of our necks as the sensory overload of “Zoo TV” filled the inside of Charlotte Coliseum in March of 1992.

That was only the third tour date after the band released its groundbreaking 1991 album, Achtung Baby – and we were there.

We’ve been fans throughout all of U2′s various iterations, but we must admit a special fondness for the band’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind album, which came out in 2000 and seemed to bring the band to its rock-n-roll roots.

U2′s two most recent efforts, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and No Line on the Horizon, certainly follow in that vein – and the live shows are simply stunning.

In fact, here’s a bootleg HD video of “Beautiful Day” from opening night of the band’s 360 tour in Barcelona last month …

Pretty impressive, huh?

The 360 tour – which includes the world’s largest-ever rock-n-roll stage – will make its way to America on September 12 with two shows at Soldier Field in Chicago Illinois.

For South Carolina fans, U2 will play Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. on Saturday, October 3 and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on October 6.

Tickets? Yeah, they’re insanely expensive … but it’s U2, people. Which makes ‘em worth it and then some …