Toward the close of U2’s performance at Mohegan Sun Arena on July 3, Bono noted that this was the final U.S. date of the band’s Experience + Innocence Tour and expressed his admiration for the audience’s energy on a Tuesday night, mouthing “Wow!”

The reverence was mutual as the rapt crowd absorbed the auditory and ocular spectacle centering around the biographical narrative that informs the group’s latest record, Songs of Experience. In many respects, this evening marked the conclusion of an odyssey that began with the band’s Innocence + Experience run in 2015, before U2 shifted gears for 2017’s Joshua Tree tour interlude. Just as Songs of Experience was a companion piece to the group’s prior record, Songs of Innocence, there was also a commonality in the stage design.

A two-tiered hydraulic catwalk bisected the venue, connecting the traditional stage to a smaller circular spot at the far end of the arena. The band made ample use of the walkway, both performing on it and traveling across it to the secondary platform. All told, the group produced as much music beyond the confines of the formal stage as on it, which lent an intimacy to the proceedings that matched the thematic subject matter. The band members often fanned out across the venue, which helped call attention to their individual contributions while serving the larger mission, as on “Sunday Bloody Sunday” when Larry Mullen Jr. marched across the building playing only a snare drum. This arrangement also underscored Adam Clayton’s pulsing bass along with The Edge’s ringing guitar leads and essential, oft-overlooked harmony vocals.

What’s more, the catwalk was covered with a diaphanous LED curtain, which presented live footage of the band as well as images and animations to complement the songs. (This feature was put to particularly good effect during “Cedarwood Road” in which Bono seemingly walked along an illustrated version of the street where he grew up.)

There may be no other arena-level band touring today with such a refined sense of dynamics. U2 thrives at blending hush and bombast, a skill set particularly well-suited to the new material. The quartet focused on this collection, which reflects the grand impact of quiet decisions, while embracing the dichotomy of experience and innocence.

Perhaps it was inevitable that politics would surface on Independence Day eve in the Constitution State. Bono made a point of acknowledging former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who took an active role in facilitating the Irish peace process while serving on the Foreign Relations Committee. The singer also had choice words regarding the current administration’s policy on immigration, which he delivered in the guise of the satanic “Mr. MacPhisto,” resuscitating the character from the Zoo TV tour while citing lyrics from “Sympathy for the Devil.” At the night’s close, he also referenced U2’s advocacy organization, encouraging audience members to visit one.org to participate in their “poverty is sexist” campaign.

Bono recognizes that the personal is political and strives to make politics personal. So too, he effectively melds the intimate and grandiose, as on the night’s final song “13 (There Is a Light),” in which he exited through the crowd, embodying his assertion that “there’s no them, there’s only us.”