In May 2015, some New York subway passengers attended a small concert without really knowing who they were seeing. In the station From 42nd Street, four musicians, not exactly young anymore, take out their instruments and begin to play. In New York, so far, nothing too surprising.
Except that hidden beneath the wigs, fake beards, and glasses Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. Yes, U2 in full force. And since we're on the subject of disguise, Jimmy Fallon also made himself unrecognizable to participate in this hidden camera prank organized for the Tonight Show.
U2 incognito on the New York subway
To understand how U2 ended up playing under a fake beard in the subwayWe need to go back a few months. In November 2014, the group was scheduled to participate in a special week of the Tonight ShowHowever, Bono was involved in a bicycle accident in Central Park. Injured in the arm, he had to undergo surgery and U2 cancelled their appearance.
Jimmy Fallon and The Roots took it in stride, improvising their own version of "Desire." A few months later, U2 returned to New YorkAnd clearly, the group didn't want to settle for a mere appearance on the set.
Off to the subway. Bono and the others disguise themselves as street musicians, Jimmy Fallon blends into the scenery with them, and the whole group launches into an acoustic version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".
The funniest thing about it? Almost no one seems truly impressed. A few travelers stop, some watch briefly, but it's a far cry from the riot that U2 would normally cause playing just a few meters from the audience.
It seems that a wig, glasses, and a big beard are sometimes all it takes to erase decades of fame. And yet, musically, it holds up pretty well.
After a while, Bono interrupts the song. Jimmy Fallon removes his disguise, the others follow, and then, inevitably, the travelers realize that they haven't quite stumbled upon the local street band.
U2 followed with "Desire," and the atmosphere changed immediately. People moved closer, phones came out, and the quiet little crowd transformed into a mini-concert in the subway. Not bad for four guys who were barely being noticed a few minutes earlier.
The sequence is still visible on the Youtube channel du Tonight Show And it has had plenty of time to circulate since then: the video has now accumulated more than 22 million views.
Almost 50 years of U2, and still a few surprises.
The video is from 2015, but it still holds up very well today. Especially since U2 is now approaching 50 years in the business. The band is preparing a new studio album and released "Street of Dreams" in July 2026, presented as the first track from this upcoming record.
Jimmy Fallon, meanwhile, is still at the helm of the Tonight Show on NBC, more than twelve years after succeeding Jay Leno.
But what we'll remember most from this sequence is that in New York, you can apparently have Bono just a few meters away, singing one of U2's most famous songs… and continue on your way without really noticing. All it took was a fake beard.
See (or see again) in the video of Tonight Show :
