"Continuing with the Space Oddity theme, Bono broke off the music to mention how it was 40 years since man first walked on the moon." from this review
U2 beguile with a turn to the space age as 'Claw' stage makes gripping debut
"It was like watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind with a bit of Later with Jools Holland thrown in." from this review
Forget swine flu, catch U2 fever
Sitting not quite slap bang in the centre of the field, the much heralded 360 stage looks...well, bizarre. It's not a lemon, but it's coloured a strange lime green. The aliens have landed (and Bowie's "Space Oddity" is played more than once throughout the build-up to tonight's performance).
Appropriately enough, it's during "Magnificent," classic U2 updated in the most exhilarating way, that the stage set starts really showing what it can do -- rotating bridges, flashing lights, mad visuals all co-ordinating in a display of technical wizardry the likes of which we have never seen before in the context of live rock 'n' roll. Words fail, but suffice to say it's all very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind...
"We wanted to build our space station in the capital of surrealism -- Barcelona!" Bono explains, before draping himself in an Irish tricolour and launching into "Beautiful Day" (the crowd reciprocate by humorously chanting, "Ole! Ole! Ole!"). from this review
U2 Live In Barcelona: It's A Result!
Bono revealed that he carries a two act structure in his mind which guides his performance (which he readily admitted would not be apparent to anyone else). The first half of the show features “more personal songs” (which usually features Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day, New Year’s Day, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Unknown Caller, Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights and Vertigo plus a changing selection of back catalogue classics) in which Bono envisages himself as a young man, struggling to find his feet in life and in search of some kind of personal epiphany. The turning point of the set is a mind-blasting techno remix version of the new song ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’, with the Claw on full acid house lighting effect turning the stadium into a spinning mirrorball. Given that the audience is not particularly familiar with the song (let alone a dance remix), it is actually intended to create a moment of disorientation and discomfort, ending with Bono on his knees, repeatedly singing the coda “It’s not a hill, it’s a mountain”. If I’ve got this right (it was 3 am when we were having this conversation, and many Marguerites had been consumed) from that point on his protagonist has been taken out of himself, and the second act begins in which he moves from the personal to the political, wrestling with the problems of the wider world in a string of songs that includes Sunday Bloody Sunday (recast to acknowledge the protesters of Iran), Pride, Walk On and Where The Streets Have No Name. There is then a coda (not a third act) which represents U2 at their most raw and vulnerable, stripped to the metaphorical bone, when we have all been exhausted by the outpouring of collective emotion and ready just to get down to the dirty truth. This is a hugely effective if counter-intuitive downbeat encore trilogy from the underbelly of love, featuring ‘Ultraviolet’, ‘With Or Without You’ and ‘Moment Of Surrender’. from Neil Mccormick
U2: secrets of stadium rock - Telegraph Blogs
- and I can't find it right now but I know I've seen at least one more review that clearly references the "sci-fi theme".
