Guest post by my good pal, Dante - a huge U2 fan and overall music expert and rock concert aficionado. Here it is... U2 at Soldier Field, 360° Tour, July 5, 2011, By Dante A. Bacani.
U2 fans in Chicago have the good fortune of living in a city held dear by their favorite band. The Windy City has long been a favored destination of the boys from Dublin (our large population of Irish descendents doesn’t hurt), and as a result Chicago has been the site of many high points of U2 tours over the past 30 years. [This in spite of reports that The Edge once said the worst gig U2 ever played was at The University of Chicago – my alma mater – on Sat., April 11, 1981. It was during the tour in support of their first album, Boy, and the ticket price for the show at the U. of C.’s International House was $1.00 – including all the beer you could drink!]
During their second visit to Soldier Field on the 360° Tour (having opened the U.S. leg of the tour there in September 2009), Bono commented that it was in this same stadium where their 1997 Popmart Tour finally fell into place. The band struggled with material from its Pop album and with the overall presentation of the show during the first two months of the Popmart Tour; it was during their three-night stand at the “pre-Spaceship” Soldier Field that the show finally fell into place. Over the years, U2 have consistently credited the support and energy of the Chicago fan base for helping them realize their vision for what Popmart should (and could) be.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of U2’s greatest album, Achtung Baby: to commemorate that milestone, U2 have been opening recent shows with an Achtung suite. At Soldier Field, U2 led off with “Even Better Than The Real Thing,” “The Fly” (one of my favorites), “Mysterious Ways,” and “Until the End of the World.” (A fifth Achtung track, “One,” would be performed later in the show.)
The set list would eventually touch upon nearly all of U2’s studio albums: One song each from Boy, October, War, The Unforgettable Fire, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bom and their 1995 Passengers album (with Brian Eno), two each from Zooropa, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and their most-recent album, No Line on the Horizon, and four tracks from The Joshua Tree. Only Pop and the half-studio, half-live collection Rattle and Hum were ignored.
Given the complexity and expense of their stage presentation, the 22- to 24-song set lists of U2 shows rarely vary from show to show. [Though over the course of a tour, songs get swapped in and out; the band has played full versions of 60 songs since the tour began two years ago.] In many ways, the structure of their shows (and the technology that make them possible) prevents the kind of spontaneity one might see at a Bruce Springsteen or Pearl Jam concert, let alone an Elvis Costello’s “Spinning Songbook” show.
Besides, U2’s strengths as performers have never been rooted in improvisational instrumental prowess: They’re the first to admit they’d make a lousy wedding & bar mitzvah band, as they’re not good at jamming on the fly. (Pardon the pun.) I’m at peace with the fact that U2 won’t wholly reinvent their catalog – or their stage presentation, for that matter – each time I see them. It’s a trade-off, but one that U2 has generally made good on in the 20 years since their behemoth Zoo TV tour. After 35+ U2 shows, I’m content with being surprised by 2-3 songs over the course of a U2 concert, and in that respect the Soldier Field 2011 show didn’t disappoint.
U2 often expresses its affinity for Chicago by departing from their standard set list, treating their Chicago fans with less-frequently heard gems from their catalog. Such was the case on July 5, when U2 played the title song from their “Zooropa” album and ended the concert with “One Tree Hill,” a track from The Joshua Tree which they hadn’t played in the U.S. since 1987. The occasion for this ultra-rare performance was that 25th anniversary of the death of Bono’s friend Greg Carroll (in whose memory “One Tree Hill” was written), which fell on the same week as the Soldier Field show. Before the intended final song of the show, Bono mentioned the anniversary of Carroll’s death, though he said the band didn’t plan to perform “One Tree Hill” that night; a loud cheer of opposition caused him to reconsider – “Maybe we will,” and as U2 played “Moment of Surrendur” from No Line on the Horizon, The Edge’s guitar tech could be seen preparing Edge’s Guild guitar for “One Tree Hill.”
Bono ended “Moment…” with an a capella coda of the closing lyrics of “One Tree Hill”, then turned to see if The Edge was prepared to play the full version of the song. As Edge switched guitars, Bono announced: “OK, here’s the deal – if we screw up really badly, you don’t post it on the Internet.” The crowd roared its approval and U2 closed the show with a rendition that was (understandably) shaky at first. However, once they found their footing it soared – one of the highlights of all 35+ U2 concerts I’ve seen since 1984, and a majestic ending to a terrific U2 concert. [See the footage I shot of this song on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEPBJsULE08]
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting!