For the Vertigo Tour , the group originally considered dropping the song from their setlists , but Mullen and Clayton successfully argued against this . All 131 of the Vertigo Tour concerts featured a performance of the song , which were accompanied by the stage 's LED video curtains displaying African flags . On the tour 's opening night , this reminded Bono that he had originally written the lyrics in an Ethiopian village . He thought this visual accompaniment made the song come full circle , saying , " And here it was , nearly twenty years later , coming back to Africa , all the stuff about parched lands and deserts making sense for the first time . " The song was also played at the preview screening of the band 's concert film U2 3D at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival . At the Glastonbury Festival 2010 , The Edge accompanied rock band Muse for a live cover version of the track , later playing it with U2 while headlining Glastonbury in 2011 .