A successful U2 show requires an intimate interaction between four long-standing friends and a host of enthused fans. In Philadelphia, hundreds waited through an entire day of standing to earn the chance to stand right up against the stage, and tens of thousands filled the Lincoln Financial Center with a potent energy. Bono even noted as such, saying that U2 forms a bond with their audience that defies physical proximity, defies age, defies gravity, and that the Philly crowd has always known how to make a lot of noise.
To whip the expectant audience into full communion, U2 has the difficult task of crafting a solid set list that doesn’t alienate the Joshua TreeTour t-shirt-wearing fans with that “new stuff,” or becoming a stale greatest hits package. With an emphasis on the early 1990s (seven songs, by my count), the band cut a safe passage between those who want rare cuts from October and those who think “Beautiful Day” is the greatest U2 song of all time. Still, the missing element to this galactic spectacle was a central theme that could unify a three-decade-wide song catalog, engage with current political events, and explain why a giant Claw was transported to the City of Brotherly Love.
********************
Personal Note #1
As a former member of the Propaganda magazine/fan club, owner of the Rattle and Hum outtake VHS tapes, and reader of almost every biography and treatise on U2, I need to place my fanboy passion back into remission. If U2 Mythology were a category on Jeopardy, and if I happened to be playing that day, I would place it on lock. This latent knowledge and love of U2 simmers under the surface, waiting to leap forth, lurking. Wearing a photo pass brought it all welling up, and I’ll try to muffle the urge to geek out.
********************
Having seen the previous Elevation and Vertigo tours, those shows nailed this missing element of U2’s 360° tour. Elevation was initially built on clanging rock chords to drown out any lingering complaints about all things Pop, but as the band toured after September 11, the concerts shifted into a celebration of America. The return to rock and the cathartic energy solidified this tour. At the same time, the failing health and eventual death of Bono’s father propelled the subsequent Vertigo tour into a reflective mode. In digging up songs from Boy, the band reignited the adolescent fire that bristles through “I Will Follow” and “The Electric Co.” but then tempered the flame by an acknowledgment of mortality in “Sometimes You Can’t Make it on Your Own.” After 9-11, American audiences needed a reminder of beautiful days. After the passing of Bob Hewson, Bono needed an audience with whom he could share his father.
The current 360° tour imagines the relative intimacy of an 18,000-seat indoor venue within cavernous outside stadiums. For the Zoo TV and Pop Mart tours, the massive video screens, hanging Trabants as spotlights, and mirror ball lemon space transporter, provided a media onslaught that reached to the nosebleed seats. By merging in-the-round staging with ambitious lights and projections, this tour makes use of every physical and visual space inside of our modern coliseums. Yet, where the Zoo production reveled in the alienation and existential crisis brought on by media saturation, and where Pop presented a garish satire of commercialization and disposable culture, the 360° tour picks through scraps of past tours to form a jumbled pastiche that separates audience from band. It was a return of Zoo Baby, Larry taking his djembe around the circle stage ala “Desire,” pre-recorded satellite connection with a space station, and the final notes of “One” accompanied by an on-screen Trabant. This all makes for good allusion hunting, but not for a grand concert experience.
Still, what really worked, in stark contrast to previous concert experiences, was a political call to action. Gone is the tossed away, “am I bugging you? I don’t mean to bug you” when describing apartheid and Desmond Tutu. In its place, the band delivered a firm description of Burmeese oppression, before sharing a video thank you from Aung San Suu Kyi, explaining how supporting Amnesty International can bring about strong change. Previously, the average person would have needed to research the One Campaign, seen footage of U2 protesting the Sellafield nuclear reactor, and disliked military juntas, to follow the disjointed information on earlier tours. This night provided a clear description of debt relief and human rights violations, amazingly done without a pedantic tone. When a chorus of 70,000 joins in a Happy Birthday wish to Nelson Mendella to close out a rock concert, an amazing thing has happened.
In this way, the openness of the politics matched the openness of the music. It never felt too heavy or too stagnant. Bono’s banter was heavy on Philly name-dropping: 69th Street Station, multiple sports teams, cheese steaks, Independence Hall. He often mentioned the rebels who crafted the Declaration of Independence, mentioning that America is more than a country--it’s an idea. The conceit worked as a foundation for later civics lessons and won great applause from the crowd.
For a show postponed a year because of Bono's emergency back surgery last summer, there was a shift from earlier legs of the 360° tour, as the set recognized the twentieth anniversary of Achtung Baby and the Zoo TV tour. Musically, visually, and thematically, the highlight was "Zooropa." The pantograph video screens folded accordion style to obscure the band from all eyes, and ominous screeches gave way to Edge’s warbling guitar. As with most live U2 songs, the mix provides a heavier sound delivered by Adam Clayton, and Zooropa throbbed from his red bass guitar. The song’s opening lyric, “vorsprung durch technik” offers an ironic nod to Bono’s operation in Munich, while also conjuring the mind numbing technology required to design and transport a 150-foot-tall stage across six continents.
I found few of these moments, though, in the concert. Maybe it was because the experience in the seats is very different from sweating it out with the GA fans; maybe it was because of awkward transitions like “Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me” quickly replaced by “With or Without You.” Maybe I’m right about a missing emotional center to this tour. Even with pointed political commentary, the between-song attempts at a “Claw Narrative” were dead ends. It was big, noisy, and very polished. Ultimately, to hear “Stay” performed acoustically, to watch a teeming mass of humanity break into enraptured cheers at the opening notes of “Streets”--these moments make me pause. Ultimately, that is the power of U2; the sublime never requires satellite television.
********************
Personal Note #2
While listening to U2 on my drive from Boston to Philly for the show, I was struck by the amount of references to fathers. Sure the imagery works for both a Heavenly deity and our earthly dads, but the music spoke to the continued struggles of children against parent, and a persistent love that offers unmerited grace. Leaving my own daughter for this concert road trip, meeting up with my own dad to take him to his first U2 show, these are the thoughts and emotions that really matter.
Catch the final dates of the tour!
07-17 - St. Louis, Missouri
07-20 - East Rutherford, New Jersey
07-23 - Minneapolis, Minnesota
07-26 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2011-07-30 - Moncton, New Brunswick
