Philip Maguire doesn’t lay claim to being a philosopher, but then again he does seem to have a pretty good angle on what it takes to be part of a suddenly popular Irish music family band that features two teenagers and one pre-teen.

First, you don’t so much move the goal posts – you look for different sets of goal posts to put in front of you. And second, and perhaps most importantly, you develop an appreciation for the little absurdities of life, such as oxymorons and their exalted place in Irish conversation.

Some 70,000 fans jammed into Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on the night of Sun., June 25, to hear for themselves that U2 has still got it. Bono & Co., who are on a 17-city tour commemorating the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree album, didn’t disappoint.

Sticking primarily to a set list consisting of songs from legendary album, the band displayed its customary gusto, tuning into their fans’ emotions with anthems like “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and the quiet and reverential ode “Mothers of the Disappeared.”

Those emotions were given full voice when front man Bono, as he often does on stage, stepped back and let the fans enthusiastically sing the lyrics while The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. played along, breaking up The Joshua Tree celebration with a range of U2 hits like the show openers “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Pride (In the Name of Love),” and “Bad,” and the closing cuts from later albums “One” and “Ultraviolet” and the high-energy “Elevation” and “Vertigo.”