U2! First time in 8 years.
The Cliff Notes version: awesome like the moon and sun and all the stars in the Milky Way. The Milky Way made an appearance, although not in its most-often noticed form; despite the roof on Reliant Stadium having been opened, too many clouds blocked out the stars there. No, the Milky Way in question was created by an entire stadium of lit cellphone screens. Another way for technology to be beautiful.
Muse opened the show around 7:30 and played for 45 minutes. I hadn’t heard their stuff before and I felt pleasantly surprised by how much I liked them. Also, would you please lower the decibels? If the sound is so loud that it’s muddy, it’s not doing you any favors. kthanks, now I can go buy your tunes.
Shortly after 9:00, strains of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” filled the stadium and U2 took the stage for a 2 hour and 20 minute wild ride. The sound? Excellent, even in Section 508 (one section shy of nosebleed). The sight? Amazing. Their 360 “claw” stage allowed everyone have great seats, even the folks in back of the stage, and they played to everyone, roaming moving bridges and a second circular strip of stage placed out in the middle of the crowd.
I could talk about the set list — and I’ll post it below for the interested — but I want to try to talk about something I’ve had a hard time explaining to people who’ve never seen U2 live. There is a difference between experiencing a song on CD and experiencing one live with lots of bands. With U2, that difference is vast.
I wrote somewhere else about the vibe of a U2 show that makes me want to dance dance dance and that it has nothing to do with Bono’s charisma, or that Bono’s charisma doesn’t affect that dancing vibe. That’s actually not true. The guy has enormous charisma, and it’s very effective. He also runs his energy like a priest.
When I look at him at a live show, I see that his column of roots/energy is both extremely concentrated and three times Bono-size. He’s blasting it through at light-speed. With his voice, yes, and also with the rest of him. That sort of thing is probably true of all sorts of other front men or other musicians. What captivates me about what Bono does in particular is that he channels this energy with and through spirit, love, and hope, and the way energy that connects with those qualities in the audience. Edge, Adam, and Larry are all doing this, too, in a way that weaves seamlessly with Bono’s effort. Great amounts of energy, moved in the spirit of expansion and an honoring of our common humanity. Last night was that, complete with the raising of a stadium-sized blast to lift up Aung San Suu Kyi.
(By which mention, if you assumed that there were politics discussed at the show, there were. It’s U2.)
I’ve been to plenty of live shows and have never felt anything quite like what they do. I love their songs, sure. *And* this feeling of their live shows is what made me really fall in love. It’s a religious experience. It’s church, when church is both immanent and transcendent.
I spent nearly the entire concert dancing with the vibe and the music. I laughed. I cried. (Yeah, I’m like that.)
If that’s your sort of thing, give some thought to catching them live.
Set List:
Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day/Here Comes the Sun
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For/Stand By Me
Stuck In A Moment
No Line on the Horizon
Elevation
Your Blue Room
Until The End of the World
The Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (as a house mix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Amazing Grace/Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender
Special thanks goes out to the friends with whom I attended the show. Y’all rock.
Special where-are-the-toothpicks-to-hold-open-my-eyelids thanks goes to our seemingly brilliant transportation plan. We took the train to the show. Couldn’t have been better. On the other hand, a thousand other people had that same idea and the lines for the train after the concert were just plain unbearable. We ended up walking a mile to the next train stop and waiting for half an hour for a train with room for more people.
Out of the arena: 11:45 PM. Home: 2 AM. Bed: 2:45 AM. Up: Once at 4:30 and again for good at 6:30 AM.
I’m exhausted and it was worth every cup of tea I’m having to drink today.
