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EthicsDaily.com: U2 Concert What Church Should Be
U2 Concert What Church Should Be
Tim Adams
11-03-05
U2 continued its sold out, worldwide "Vertigo Tour" in Dallas this past
Saturday. Once again the biggest band on the planet proved that its
unforgettable fire still has considerable heat, as well as light.
Frontman Bono, along with bandmates guitarist The Edge, drummer Larry
Mullen, Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton, showed that even though it's been
29 years since their first rehearsal in Mullen's kitchen they have yet
to discover autopilot. U2 is still the band with a head full of big
ideas and its heart on its sleeve, but—as they reminded the audience as
they closed the concert singing Psalm 40—their feet are on a rock and
their footsteps are firm.
Grammy-winning record producer T-Bone Burnett said it best back in
1987: "A U2 concert is what church should be." The passion, celebration
and thoughtful reflection that U2's live shows draw the audience toward
is certainly what a church service aspires to be. A friend recently
described a U2 concert as a "transcendent Holy Ghost-filled ring of
Jesus fire." When was the last time you hit the Sunday buffet line
feeling like that?
But Burnett's observation still rings true not only because of U2's
music, the message of hope it often communicates or Bono's occasional
impromptu sermons from the stage. A U2 concert is also what church
should be because of whom it attracts.
I attended my first U2 concert in Dallas in 1983 and learned, as a
young youth minister, how to pay attention to kids that wouldn't
normally darken the door of a church. The post-punk/new wave crowd that
wore Mohawks, had safety pins in their noses and were among the first
to discover U2's music has now grown up.
Looking around the American Airlines Center Saturday it was remarkable
to see how a U2 concert has become a multi-generational event. Many
parents were there with their teenage kids—not as chaperones, but as
fellow fans. Who would have ever thought a rock concert would become a
family outing?
A U2 concert is instructive to the church because it breaks down walls
between groups that otherwise are separated by age, culture and other
barriers that the church seems to have a hard time bringing together.
While talking to dozens of fellow concertgoers before, during and after
the show, there was a strong consensus that a U2 concert has a
spiritual quality but isn't in any way religious. As one 40-something
mom told me, "I don't go to church, and I don't have a very good
opinion of religion in general, but I can believe in the kind of God U2
believes in. In some ways this is my church." A U2 concert is what
church should be because it provides an encounter with the Holy for
people aware of God but not interested in religion.
Another dimension of a U2 show that should challenge the church is its
ability to talk about politics that matters, but in a way that brings
people from different sides of the aisle together.
Since the release of their third album, 1983's War, U2 has been known
as a political band. But their last two albums and tours have
demonstrated a level of maturity in terms of how political issues are
addressed. 2001's All That You Can't Leave Behind and their most recent
release, 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, along with Bono's
activism on behalf of Third World debt relief and issues affecting
Africa, have brought together believers and unbelievers, conservatives
and liberals, evangelicals and mainliners to make a difference for the
least of these.
U2 has never fallen into the trap that plagues so many more explicitly
"Christian bands"—the need to explain the "one true meaning" of their
songs, just to make sure the audience gets it. Bono spoke to the
audience often during the show last Saturday, but no one felt preached
to.
A U2 show is what church should be because it challenges people to
think and act without talking down to them and without watering down
the message. It meets people where they are but doesn't leave them
there.
The lobbies of the American Airlines Center were filled with the
typical lines of people waiting to buy everything from hot dogs to
t-shirts. But there were also volunteers at tables passing out
literature and getting concertgoers to sign petitions for the ONE
Campaign, an umbrella organization so diverse that two of its principle
spokesmen, George Clooney and Pat Robertson, have appeared together
with Bono on ABC's "Nightline" to promote the cause.
One of the show's high points was when a fan threw what appeared to be
a white towel on stage. Bono wore it as a headband as the band
performed blistering renditions of "Love and Peace or Else," "Sunday
Bloody Sunday" and "Bullet the Blue Sky." Written in large black
letters on Bono's headband and clearly visible to the crowd of 20,000
was the word "CoeXisT." The "C" was in the shape of the crescent moon
of Islam, the "X" was the Star of David of Judaism and the "T" was in
the shape of the cross.
As Bono pulled a 9-year-old boy out of the crowd and on stage, he
reminded the audience that, "We are all sons of Abraham. This little
boy will only have a future if we remember that."
A U2 standard that's played toward the end of each show (at the end of
the first of three encores this past Saturday) is the anthemic song
"One." The last verse of the song says it best:
One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One life with each other: sisters, brothers.
One life, but we're not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.
The third encore and last three songs of the night were "All Because of
You (I AM)," "Yahweh" and "40." And with that closing benediction, the
band left the stage … and the congregation went forth to serve.
U2 Concert What Church Should Be
Tim Adams
11-03-05
U2 continued its sold out, worldwide "Vertigo Tour" in Dallas this past
Saturday. Once again the biggest band on the planet proved that its
unforgettable fire still has considerable heat, as well as light.
Frontman Bono, along with bandmates guitarist The Edge, drummer Larry
Mullen, Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton, showed that even though it's been
29 years since their first rehearsal in Mullen's kitchen they have yet
to discover autopilot. U2 is still the band with a head full of big
ideas and its heart on its sleeve, but—as they reminded the audience as
they closed the concert singing Psalm 40—their feet are on a rock and
their footsteps are firm.
Grammy-winning record producer T-Bone Burnett said it best back in
1987: "A U2 concert is what church should be." The passion, celebration
and thoughtful reflection that U2's live shows draw the audience toward
is certainly what a church service aspires to be. A friend recently
described a U2 concert as a "transcendent Holy Ghost-filled ring of
Jesus fire." When was the last time you hit the Sunday buffet line
feeling like that?
But Burnett's observation still rings true not only because of U2's
music, the message of hope it often communicates or Bono's occasional
impromptu sermons from the stage. A U2 concert is also what church
should be because of whom it attracts.
I attended my first U2 concert in Dallas in 1983 and learned, as a
young youth minister, how to pay attention to kids that wouldn't
normally darken the door of a church. The post-punk/new wave crowd that
wore Mohawks, had safety pins in their noses and were among the first
to discover U2's music has now grown up.
Looking around the American Airlines Center Saturday it was remarkable
to see how a U2 concert has become a multi-generational event. Many
parents were there with their teenage kids—not as chaperones, but as
fellow fans. Who would have ever thought a rock concert would become a
family outing?
A U2 concert is instructive to the church because it breaks down walls
between groups that otherwise are separated by age, culture and other
barriers that the church seems to have a hard time bringing together.
While talking to dozens of fellow concertgoers before, during and after
the show, there was a strong consensus that a U2 concert has a
spiritual quality but isn't in any way religious. As one 40-something
mom told me, "I don't go to church, and I don't have a very good
opinion of religion in general, but I can believe in the kind of God U2
believes in. In some ways this is my church." A U2 concert is what
church should be because it provides an encounter with the Holy for
people aware of God but not interested in religion.
Another dimension of a U2 show that should challenge the church is its
ability to talk about politics that matters, but in a way that brings
people from different sides of the aisle together.
Since the release of their third album, 1983's War, U2 has been known
as a political band. But their last two albums and tours have
demonstrated a level of maturity in terms of how political issues are
addressed. 2001's All That You Can't Leave Behind and their most recent
release, 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, along with Bono's
activism on behalf of Third World debt relief and issues affecting
Africa, have brought together believers and unbelievers, conservatives
and liberals, evangelicals and mainliners to make a difference for the
least of these.
U2 has never fallen into the trap that plagues so many more explicitly
"Christian bands"—the need to explain the "one true meaning" of their
songs, just to make sure the audience gets it. Bono spoke to the
audience often during the show last Saturday, but no one felt preached
to.
A U2 show is what church should be because it challenges people to
think and act without talking down to them and without watering down
the message. It meets people where they are but doesn't leave them
there.
The lobbies of the American Airlines Center were filled with the
typical lines of people waiting to buy everything from hot dogs to
t-shirts. But there were also volunteers at tables passing out
literature and getting concertgoers to sign petitions for the ONE
Campaign, an umbrella organization so diverse that two of its principle
spokesmen, George Clooney and Pat Robertson, have appeared together
with Bono on ABC's "Nightline" to promote the cause.
One of the show's high points was when a fan threw what appeared to be
a white towel on stage. Bono wore it as a headband as the band
performed blistering renditions of "Love and Peace or Else," "Sunday
Bloody Sunday" and "Bullet the Blue Sky." Written in large black
letters on Bono's headband and clearly visible to the crowd of 20,000
was the word "CoeXisT." The "C" was in the shape of the crescent moon
of Islam, the "X" was the Star of David of Judaism and the "T" was in
the shape of the cross.
As Bono pulled a 9-year-old boy out of the crowd and on stage, he
reminded the audience that, "We are all sons of Abraham. This little
boy will only have a future if we remember that."
A U2 standard that's played toward the end of each show (at the end of
the first of three encores this past Saturday) is the anthemic song
"One." The last verse of the song says it best:
One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One life with each other: sisters, brothers.
One life, but we're not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.
The third encore and last three songs of the night were "All Because of
You (I AM)," "Yahweh" and "40." And with that closing benediction, the
band left the stage … and the congregation went forth to serve.
