Another Sweet Picture
We’re talking one week, baby, until I see U2 in the City of Blinding Lights (well, in Houston, at any right)…!
UPDATE 11:55 p.m.Speaking of the City of Blinding Lights, here’s the beginning of the Washington Post’s near-rave review:
Let the rock-star mortals wait until the encore to add exultant punctuation to their concerts. U2 has neither the the time nor the patience for that.
After roughly 25 years — a period during which U2 only became the biggest, most important band in the world (and don’t they know it!) — the Dublin quartet is fast-forwarding past the usual pleasantries and getting right to the rejoicing, self-saluting part of the program.
Apparently figuring that its mere presence was cause for celebration, U2 opened its MCI Center show Wednesday thus: with a frenetic, vaguely churchy swirl of noise as the messianic frontman Bono rose from beneath the stage on a mechanical platform, his arms outstretched as he basked in the glory of a confetti shower as well as the emphatic applause, yelps, shrieks, etc., from an adoring standing-room-only audience.
And when U2 actually began to perform? More of the triumphal same, sans the confetti.
With the fervor factor high after Bono’s Big Entrance, U2 relentlessly attacked the opening “City of Blinding Lights” as the Edge and Bono set the show’s soaring if searching tone — the former with his ringing, swelling, high-reverb power chords, the latter with his impassioned, vulnerable vocals (“Time won’t leave me as I am/But time won’t take the boy out of this man”).
For all its intensity on the recent album “How to Build [sic!] an Atomic Bomb,” the song absolutely exploded onstage, with the Edge’s effects-laden guitar gaining thickness and urgency, and Bono pushing his sonorous, deeply soulful baritone higher and harder than on the studio version.
The result was sonic catharsis, something to which U2 apparently aspires on a grand level…
This is going to be one long week…
I first saw U2 a long, long time ago, when they were an unknown band touring for Boy, their first album. Lousy advance work and some weird logistical problems resulted in an audience of about 45 people, and it looked like it was going to be a truly rotten evening. After about 15 dreary minutes, Bono stopped the show and asked everyone to come down and sit around the stage.
“Look,” he said. “Last week, we played three sell-out shows in New York City, and that was really exciting. But you know what’s more exciting? Playing someplace where no one has heard of us, no one’s expecting anything from us, and proving to them that we’re just as good as we think we are. I don’t care how many people are here; if we work together, we’re going to have a great, great time.” The band played their collective butts off for about two more hours, and at one point I got dragged up on stage to dance with Bono. It’s still one of the best, most memorable concerts I’ve ever been to, and I’ve always had a ton of respect for the band for not doing a half-hour set and walking off, like many bands would have under the circumstances.
Anyways, Mark, just wanted to share my Brush with Greatness. Hope you enjoy the show. I’ve seen the boys about six times now, and they’ve never disappointed.
The review capture the entrance very well. I liked that song from listening to it on the album, but it didn’t stick with me. After hearing it live, with the incredible energy in the room, I’ve been listening to it every day.
I’d quibble with the reviewer’s complaint about having the crowd sing parts of the songs. Normally I get irritated when the singer insists I do his job for him, but at the show I went to, it was pretty much voluntary. Bono would have had to tell everyone to shut up to get them to stop singing, which probably wouldn’t go over well when you’ve 20,000 adoring fans.
(BTW, I’m now insanely jealous of utron.)
utron, what a great story. I first saw the band during the Joshua Tree tour (I’ve got a great story or two from that show to share at some point soon). Dennis, yeah, let me tell you, I’m one of those guys who will be singing along to every song…so be prepared, anyone that sits near me!…