HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
By Chrissi Blaesing
2005.05
U2 has always put on a good show in Chicago and Saturday night was no exception. With a set list that was standard fare for the Vertigo shows up until this point, the band was tight with very few mistakes made.
Many celebrities, including Chris Martin from Coldplay, were in the United Center enjoying the show. The entire crowd, both the glitterati and common folk, were in top form with people getting on their feet when Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" started during the show's run-up and not sitting back down for the entire two hours and 15 minutes U2 played.
The set up for U2 saw guitar tech Dallas Schoo looping around the Ellipse several times with the flash of cameras following his movement. Later cameras panned the general admission crowd possibly getting footage for the forthcoming DVD shoot by “Elevation Tour 2001 (Live From Boston)” director Hamish Hamilton.
The sound of "Everyone" repeated over and over again, introducing the visual of large flashlights bouncing around on the Ellipse. Each flashlight had a distinct personality: Edge's bouncing around more on the floor than not, Larry Mullen Jr.'s directly beaming on different sections with a very controlled movement, Adam Clayton's gently sweeping over the crowd and Bono's basically all over the place with no real sense of direction.
The band then launched into a blistering rendition of "Love and Peace or Else" with Bono manning the small drum kit set up on the Ellipse after Mullen abandoned it to sprint back to his main the drum kit. A weak show of "Vertigo" followed in which the "Stories for Boys" snippet was dropped in seemingly at the last minute as The Edge started playing the opening before Bono nixed the idea. "Elevation," while maybe not a hardcore fan favorite, was well received by the crowd with Mullen assisting vocally on mainly the monosyllabic words.
"An Cat Dubh" and "Into the Heart" appeared to be time for the greatest hits fans to head to the concession stand. Those who stayed were treated to an excellent rendition of both songs with Bono hissing at the crowd and then curling up into the fetal position for the opening of "Into the Heart."
New single "City of Blinding Lights" followed, showcasing not only the phenomenal skills of The Edge but also the amazing set design of Willie Williams with the confetti and light curtain enhancing the overall message of the song. As much as I wanted to close my eyes and listen to Edge play, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the stage. "Beautiful Day" was delivered flawlessly as always and the greatest hits crowd had returned from their beer run in time to sing along with Bono.
"Miracle Drug" started off very wobbly with Bono asking Edge something along the line of, "You want to join us too?" but quickly founds its feet with Edge's vocal solo actually audible towards the end. It's worth mentioning that Mullen's voice was also very clearly heard during "Miracle Drug," prompting one drunken greatest hits fan to ask why Bono's voice sounded different.
"Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" was beautiful as always. Hearing Bono hit the "Can you hear me when I sing?" line is chill-inducing live. "New Year's Day" was exceptional with Sexy Clayton looping around the Ellipse, interacting with the audience and prompting Bono to wonder aloud, "What [had] gotten into this man tonight?" later in the show.
The trio of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Running to Stand Still" showed Bono and the band taking an anti-war stand with the jarring image of Bono blindfolded on his knees in the pose of a prisoner of war and in the next song thanking the men and women of the US military, effectively showed that while the members of U2 might disagree with the politics, they still support those on the front lines.
"Bad" was a major highlight of the night and needs to make its way onto the DVD release. Bono's vocals were spine-tingling with the crowd "whoo hoo-ing" throughout, it was absolutely amazing and worth the entire night. "Pride" was another pleasant surprise with a heartfelt rendition that sounded neither tired nor old. "Where the Streets Have No Name" was excellent but was missing the red backdrop seen on the last tour. The general admission crowd was bouncing around like crazy during the song—it was definitely going off in the Ellipse.
"One," as usual, was dedicated to the One Campaign. At this time several volunteers for the campaign came into the section I was sitting in to hear the song—watching their obvious pride in what Bono was doing was a very nice sight. While it has been described before, the sight of cell phones lighting up the arena is really something to see.
At this point the band left the stage and images from the ZooTV tour came up on the monitor screens. What followed was a wonderful "Achtung Baby" section consisting of "Zoo Station," "The Fly" and "Mysterious Ways." Bono decided against pulling up a female fan during "Mysterious Ways" choosing instead to bullfight with Clayton— following the bassist around the Ellipse and then hugging him. There was lots of welcome Clayton loving going on that night from both Bono and audience.
At the end of the first encore there was a conference between the band members with Bono finally stating that they would be back "in one minute." U2 didn't disappoint, quickly reappearing to perform "All Because of You," "Yahweh" and "40" with Bono apologizing once again for the now infamous ticketing snafu.
The band gave a solid performance but the show lacked the all-important audience interaction. Clayton's play with the audience saved the show from being a completely sterile affair. In all, a good delivery of the songs but without the emotional punch required that separates a very good U2 show from a great U2 show.
2005.05
U2 has always put on a good show in Chicago and Saturday night was no exception. With a set list that was standard fare for the Vertigo shows up until this point, the band was tight with very few mistakes made.
Many celebrities, including Chris Martin from Coldplay, were in the United Center enjoying the show. The entire crowd, both the glitterati and common folk, were in top form with people getting on their feet when Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" started during the show's run-up and not sitting back down for the entire two hours and 15 minutes U2 played.
The set up for U2 saw guitar tech Dallas Schoo looping around the Ellipse several times with the flash of cameras following his movement. Later cameras panned the general admission crowd possibly getting footage for the forthcoming DVD shoot by “Elevation Tour 2001 (Live From Boston)” director Hamish Hamilton.
The sound of "Everyone" repeated over and over again, introducing the visual of large flashlights bouncing around on the Ellipse. Each flashlight had a distinct personality: Edge's bouncing around more on the floor than not, Larry Mullen Jr.'s directly beaming on different sections with a very controlled movement, Adam Clayton's gently sweeping over the crowd and Bono's basically all over the place with no real sense of direction.
The band then launched into a blistering rendition of "Love and Peace or Else" with Bono manning the small drum kit set up on the Ellipse after Mullen abandoned it to sprint back to his main the drum kit. A weak show of "Vertigo" followed in which the "Stories for Boys" snippet was dropped in seemingly at the last minute as The Edge started playing the opening before Bono nixed the idea. "Elevation," while maybe not a hardcore fan favorite, was well received by the crowd with Mullen assisting vocally on mainly the monosyllabic words.
"An Cat Dubh" and "Into the Heart" appeared to be time for the greatest hits fans to head to the concession stand. Those who stayed were treated to an excellent rendition of both songs with Bono hissing at the crowd and then curling up into the fetal position for the opening of "Into the Heart."
New single "City of Blinding Lights" followed, showcasing not only the phenomenal skills of The Edge but also the amazing set design of Willie Williams with the confetti and light curtain enhancing the overall message of the song. As much as I wanted to close my eyes and listen to Edge play, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the stage. "Beautiful Day" was delivered flawlessly as always and the greatest hits crowd had returned from their beer run in time to sing along with Bono.
"Miracle Drug" started off very wobbly with Bono asking Edge something along the line of, "You want to join us too?" but quickly founds its feet with Edge's vocal solo actually audible towards the end. It's worth mentioning that Mullen's voice was also very clearly heard during "Miracle Drug," prompting one drunken greatest hits fan to ask why Bono's voice sounded different.
"Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" was beautiful as always. Hearing Bono hit the "Can you hear me when I sing?" line is chill-inducing live. "New Year's Day" was exceptional with Sexy Clayton looping around the Ellipse, interacting with the audience and prompting Bono to wonder aloud, "What [had] gotten into this man tonight?" later in the show.
The trio of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Running to Stand Still" showed Bono and the band taking an anti-war stand with the jarring image of Bono blindfolded on his knees in the pose of a prisoner of war and in the next song thanking the men and women of the US military, effectively showed that while the members of U2 might disagree with the politics, they still support those on the front lines.
"Bad" was a major highlight of the night and needs to make its way onto the DVD release. Bono's vocals were spine-tingling with the crowd "whoo hoo-ing" throughout, it was absolutely amazing and worth the entire night. "Pride" was another pleasant surprise with a heartfelt rendition that sounded neither tired nor old. "Where the Streets Have No Name" was excellent but was missing the red backdrop seen on the last tour. The general admission crowd was bouncing around like crazy during the song—it was definitely going off in the Ellipse.
"One," as usual, was dedicated to the One Campaign. At this time several volunteers for the campaign came into the section I was sitting in to hear the song—watching their obvious pride in what Bono was doing was a very nice sight. While it has been described before, the sight of cell phones lighting up the arena is really something to see.
At this point the band left the stage and images from the ZooTV tour came up on the monitor screens. What followed was a wonderful "Achtung Baby" section consisting of "Zoo Station," "The Fly" and "Mysterious Ways." Bono decided against pulling up a female fan during "Mysterious Ways" choosing instead to bullfight with Clayton— following the bassist around the Ellipse and then hugging him. There was lots of welcome Clayton loving going on that night from both Bono and audience.
At the end of the first encore there was a conference between the band members with Bono finally stating that they would be back "in one minute." U2 didn't disappoint, quickly reappearing to perform "All Because of You," "Yahweh" and "40" with Bono apologizing once again for the now infamous ticketing snafu.
The band gave a solid performance but the show lacked the all-important audience interaction. Clayton's play with the audience saved the show from being a completely sterile affair. In all, a good delivery of the songs but without the emotional punch required that separates a very good U2 show from a great U2 show.
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I totally agree, however, that there seemed to be more distance between the band and the audience all night long which resulted in a less "magical" experience.
