U2 has come a long way from the "Boy" tour that brought the band to Washington University's Graham Chapel. Front man Bono mentioned the 1981 show during the band's spectacular concert Sunday night at Busch Stadium.

In a great touch, Bono thanked the audience for sticking by them all these years, then fondly brought up the Graham Chapel show.

He went as far as to pull the concert's set list, which included songs "I Will Follow," "The Ocean" and "11 O'Clock Tick Tock." Bono pointed out that those songs were played at the start of that show and then were replayed for the band's encore.

"This was a cool thing to dig up," he said. "So much has changed, yet so much remains the same. ... Adam (Clayton, bassist) still believes being in a band is a great way to meet girls. And it is."

One thing that remains the same about U2 is the Irish rockers consistently put on a show to remember, and Sunday night's stop of the U2 360º Tour was one for the books, a sold-out show of 53,000.

And despite being very late in the tour's run that began in 2009, the show still thrilled all but the most jaded.

Much has been made about the U2 360º Tour stage, anchored by a tall, four-legged structure that's been nicknamed "The Claw," but dubbed the space station by Bono. When it was fully lit up and smoking, it looked like something out of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or "War of the Worlds," ready to either walk away or lift off.

Though it did neither, it was still a magnificent piece of scenery with built-in bridges that swayed over fans' heads, a circular ramp that gave Bono plenty of room to run around, a video screen that changed shapes and sizes, and a spear that protruded from the top of the structure with a disco ball gleaming at its tip.

Bono, guitarist the Edge, bassist Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., were all as good as ever. At the start of the show they took that long walk onto the stage to the sounds of David Bowie's "Space Oddity." There, they gifted fans with a string of "Achtung Baby" songs - "Even Better Than the Real Thing," "The Fly," "Mysterious Ways" and "Until the End of the World."

On this warm summer night, as Bono described the extra balmy evening in which "we celebrate our freedom," the band managed to live up to the tour's hype with necessary staples such as "I Will Follow," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "Pride (in the Name of Love)" and "Where the Streets Have No Name," the latter introduced using a bit of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

The occasional new song included the "No Line on the Horizon" single "Get On Your Boots," which took on a whole new life performed live.

The evening, as one might expect from U2, boasted a great blend of style, substance and spectacle. They dedicated the infectious "Beautiful Day" to Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and included a video introduction from her husband, Commander Mark Kelly, who floated signs with the words "Beautiful Day" while on the International Space Station. It was a huge crowd-pleaser.

During "Zooropa," the video screen stretched down to near floor level, creating an odd but eye-popping honeycomb effect that nearly swallowed up the band. For a moment, it looked as if the band had become the soundtrack to its own spectacle. The screen was raised a bit for the band to perform during the upbeat dance blasts of "Vertigo" "City of Blinding Lights" and the "I'll Go Crazy" remix that incorporated "Discotheque" and more.

Young bare-chested men with "U2 360º" painted on their torsos were allowed on stage during "Elevation." Also on stage during "City of Blinding Lights" was Will DeWitt, the 9-year-old son of Cardinals president Bill DeWitt and his wife, Ira. Bono told the boy to not forget about him.

This being a U2 concert meant political agendas were placed front and center.

"Miss Sarajevo" came with crudely animated bloodshed on the video screen, and the message that history is bound to repeat itself. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was an opportunity for Bono to reference crimes against democracy. "Walk On" was capped with Amnesty International volunteers carrying lighted symbols of candles wrapped in barbed wire.

During "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," performed during the encore, Bono sang into what looked like a glowing steering wheel, suspended so he could swing from it. "With or Without You" also surfaced in the encore, which was when Bono wrapped the show on a somber note.

Bono addressed the tornado victims of Joplin as the introduction to "Moment of Surrender." He described them as a people "trying hard to hold on," and encouraged fans to hold up their cell phones as the house lights were brought down.

Opening band Interpol, whose latest album is last year's self-titled effort, may not come with the same immediate star power as other acts who have opened for U2 such as Lenny Kravitz, Jay-Z or the Black Eyed Peas. But the band still proved memorable with its firm slice of modern rock, and managed to not make concertgoers want to rush them off the stage to get to the main attraction.