Sales were so strong each city got an extra date for the band’s 360° tour. And, like the original dates, the additional shows sold faster than corporations hitting Congress for bailout bucks.

Take Goteborg, Sweden, for example. The original July 31 date at the city’s Ullevi Stadium sold 56,000 tickets within 30 minutes resulting, prompting a second show – August 1 – to go up and sell out before the day’s end.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, did a little better by selling 60,000 tickets for U2’s July 20 gig at the Arena within 15 minutes of going on sale. That’s 4,000 tickets sold per minute, working out to just almost 67 tickets per second. A newly added second show – July 21 – is also sold out.

And Milan, Italy? 80,000 sold for July 7, while the added show scheduled for July 8 will go on sale this Friday.

Then there’s the band’s hometown gig in Dublin at Croke Park. Tickets for the July 24 stop haven’t even gone on sale yet, but the ticket sales in Sweden, Italy and The Netherlands prompted Live Nation and the band to slot at least one additional Dublin show, now scheduled for July 25. Both Dublin shows will go on sale this weekend.

What’s next? Paris, Nice, Chorzow, London, Glasgow, Sheffield and Cardiff go on sale this week, and if the past weekend is any indication, this time next week we’ll be reporting on additional shows in those cities. Stay tuned.