U2 performs in Davis Square

Iconic rock band U2 surprised area residents last night with a "secret" concert at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square after confirmations of the group's visit came at the 11th hour.
    The show was the third stop in a little-publicized preview of the North American leg of an upcoming tour, which will start in September to promote the band's new album "No Line on the Horizon." Last night's show was the last of the "3 Nights Live" series, which saw the band make appearances at small venues in Los Angeles and Chicago.
    Rumors have swirled over the past week that the band would visit Somerville. Radio stations became aware of the concert and began giving out tickets, and Somerville officials confirmed earlier this week that U2 would be playing at the Davis Square theater.
    Many local residents and Tufts students were disappointed to discover that none of the tickets at the 900-seat venue were for sale. Access to the concert, which was sponsored by Live Nation, was limited to invitations by the concert promoter or by radio station promotions.
    By the time the logistics of the quickly planned concert unraveled, the number of seats had dwindled to 750. "We had to kill a bunch of seats for film crews and stuff," Ian Judge, general manager of the Somerville Theatre, told the Daily.
    The band performed a combination of new and old songs and interacted with the audience during a question-and-answer session, according to the radio station WBCN-FM (104.1), which broadcast the show live and distributed tickets to listeners.
    "They were funny, they were off-the-cuff, they sounded like … you could have a beer with them," the WBCN DJ Juanita, who helped run the broadcast of the show at WBCN, said on the air last night.
    "I thought they sounded amazing, even on the new songs that you would think that there's so much production these days," she later told the Daily. "The new ones just sounded amazing live."
    The band also played a surprise concert on Friday at Fordham University's Rose Hill campus in the Bronx.
    U2 is the biggest name to hit the longtime Davis Square establishment since Bruce Springsteen played the venue in 2003.
    Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone told reporters on Tuesday at the Somerville Theatre that he was excited that the band chose the city, which he said was a perfect location for a group with strong Boston roots.
    "Somerville rocks! Why else?" he said.
    Both Somerville Theatre and the Somerville Police Department were put on short notice for the event, which required 50 of Somerville's finest to report for duty.
    "The organizers have been very gracious in terms of the logistics and covering the costs that the city is incurring in hosting the event," City of Somerville spokesperson Tom Champion said.
    Somerville Police Captain John O'Connor told the Daily yesterday morning that he did not know what kind of turnout to expect. Initial estimates received from the police department for crowds in Davis Square ranged from 600 to 25,000 people, O'Connor said.
    "It is another indication that Davis Square is becoming an increasingly attractive venue for events," Champion said. "There is a lot of excitement in the city about this."
    At 9 a.m. yesterday, the police had shut down Dover Street and Meacham Road. Later in the evening, they had also blocked eastbound traffic on Holland Street in front of the theater.
    By the time the doors opened at 8 p.m., onlookers had gathered in Davis to catch a glimpse of the action. Two separate lines snaked down the sidewalk in front of the theater for VIPs and those who had won their tickets through radio promotions.
    "I think it'll be cool to see U2 in such a small location and not in a big stadium," said Jesse Russell, a Newburyport resident who was attending the concert with his family as what his mother called "guests of the band."
    In order to avoid parking problems, those who had won tickets were bussed over from the Museum of Science in Boston. Police motorcycles escorted the charted buses to the theater.
    The Somerville Fire Department was also on the scene. An anonymous fire department official said that measures were being taken to prevent overcrowding in local bars.
    Local businesses also prepared for a huge influx in foot traffic.
    Cate Vitagliano, a supervisor at J.P. Licks, said yesterday that all employees were going to be on duty last night.
    A chalkboard in the ice cream shop that usually listed the staff's favorite ice cream picks instead displayed a list of special flavors playing off of the band's song titles.
    Among the concoctions were "Sundae Bloody Sundae," "Peanut Butter than the Real Thing" and "The Ground Beneath Her Sweet Cream."
    Meredith Klein, Leslie Ogden and Ben Gittleson contributed reporting to this article.