Its cracking me up people are complaining about the audience (not you, Jeannieco, just all the others I have read)- first of all, 90% of the show was so dark, you can't even see the audience, so they really were not relevant to this shoot at all. (that being said, I did spot me and my sister twice on the DVD!!
) I think people are just predetermined to think American audiences suck, so no matter what they see, they are going to bitch and moan and say they should have shot it in Europe. Whatever.
The audience was in to it - especially during the Black Eyed Peas!
Honestly, any of the "mellowness" had to do with the setlist, there were a lot of mellow songs, and a lot of new songs a casual U2 fan (which you have to assume was at least 50% of the audience in a crowd of 100,000) didn't really know. During the hits and the upbeat songs, the crowd was into it.
But I totally agree with the lack of Bono interaction - I was afraid of this when I heard they were going to shoot the DVD, I really didn't want it to be a one take at the Rose Bowl, because I knew Bono would then be on his "best behaivor". I am sure he was told none of his normal shannanignas, they had way too much money riding on the shoot for something to go wrong. It was a bummer, because the spontinaity of a normal U2 show was the one thing that was totally lacking for me. Bono didn't seem as relaxed as he normally does.
The other bummer to me is they cropped off the end - in reality, they stood out there a long time after MOS, the crowd was going bonkers, and Bono said something like "I wish this wasn't the end" (or something else that really concerned me, it almost sounded like U2 was packing it in as a group, he was that emotional, he made it seem like it was the last time we would ever see them perform! Or maybe I was projecting my fears.
). Does anyone remember specifically what he said??