Music Speaks: U2 - Awesome concert!

My Review/Summary of U2 360 Concert in Nashville, TN 7/2/11
Posted this on my LJ but forgot to put it here. It was written in mid-July 2011.
Be warned...it's a bit long and fangirl-y. LOL So sue me. :P They are my fav band after all.

Hmmm...ok, not even sure how to start this. The U2 concert in Nashville was AMAZING...2.5 hours of non-stop pure awesomeness! I've been meaning to do a review ever since it happened on the 2nd, but honestly I just can't find the words. I mean, I don't think anything I can say would even begin to cover it. It's not unusual for me to be left searching for the right words for a situation, but this is the hardest I've ever had with writing a concert review. It should be easy. You know, just write what happened, but I don't think the words would do it justice. Amazing, awesome, brilliant, moving, heartfelt, special, squee....yeah, I could use all of those and more, but it was more than that too, you know? It's now been almost two weeks since the concert and I'm just beginning to feel the concert high begin to falter. I always get a sort of buzz after a good concert, but it's never ever lasted that long. This should tell you something. So, I'm going to attempt to do a post of sorts on the concert and just U2 in general. If you wanna skip over this rambly post, by all means, skip away. My main purpose here is to get the details of the concert down so I have something to remember it by. I think to understand why I'm having a hard time writing this, you have to see how U2 has been with me (or me with them?) for a long time, so first a quick background.

I've been a U2 fan since I was a kid. I can remember going into my best friend's older sister's (who I ran into at the concert) room and seeing her Joshua Tree poster on the wall. Said friend also introduced me to U2's music. I can remember renting Rattle and Hum for the first time and watching it with her. We both loved it! I watched it multiple times after that. It's always been my favorite U2 album, partially because it was my first I guess. I even had a Rattle and Hum tshirt and wore my cassette tape out until I later bought the CD.

Surprisingly, I've never really heavily fangirled any of the boys. At least not before the concert. Shocking I know. ;) I do however feel a bit of fangirling coming on though. I adore them all (yes, even Bono with his meandering rambles and sometimes huge ego; underneath it all he has a huge heart which is in the right place, just a little misguided at times). Although I will admit to having two favorites: Adam Clayton (bass) and Larry Mullen, Jr (drums). In fact, since the beginning it's been that way, always with Adam slightly in the lead. Which probably dumbfounds a lot of people as he's not a hunk nor has classic good looks (like Larry does), but there's just something about him. A spark...a warmth...a humor...a wisdom...just something very special. I actually remember the moment I became an "Adam girl". I was watching their video to "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" which I had taped on VHS from some really wierd Christmas show with Dennis Miller hosting and I saw the part where Bono is singing and walks over to Adam and Adam looks up from his bass and grins then winks. I just remember rewinding that over and over again to see Adam's grin and wink. To this day, I'm a sucker for both. Heh! Whatever that something special was, I saw it even then at my young age and it's still there, stronger than ever.

I haven't been an uber fan. I haven't followed them extremely closely over the years, but close enough that I kind of always knew what was going on with them in the big picture. They seemed to just keep popping up in my life, reminding me they were there and that I loved their music and them. I always noticed their latest single on the radio and/or video and always enjoyed listening to/watching them. When their autobiography came out, I eventually stumbled on it on sale in the bookstore and had to have it. See, it's a HUGE coffee table book and normally I wouldn't spend that much on a book or buy one that large, but U2 + really good sale = have to have! "Vertigo" was the first song I ever downloaded from iTunes. And I actually downloaded it BEFORE I even had an iPod. I got both of their Greatest Hits cds as soon as they came out. The second one even making a mad run to the store during our vacation cause I HAD to have it THEN. When the U2 edition iPods were first introduced I wanted one SO badly, but couldn't justify getting one as I already had a shuffle. About a year later, my family agreed to get me a bigger iPod as I had run out of room on the shuffle, although refurbed, for my birthday and I cannot tell you how stoked I was to find a U2 edition refurbed through the iTunes store. I immediately bought a cover for it so as not to scratch the engraved signatures. I believe all of my cellphones over the years have had at least one U2 ringtone. So, when I found out that U2 was coming to town this summer and giving the concert where I work, I HAD to get tickets. I've never seen them in concert. But that's mainly due to the fact that they haven't played near me in 30 years. Yep, 1981 was the last time they played near me and honestly that was before I even knew who they were.

My Mom got the tickets for myself and hubby for our birthdays. I was totally excited, but hubby wasn't so sure. He liked them, but never was really into them. At first he tried to get me to sell his tickets to a friend of mine, but I told him that this is U freaking 2! You don't pass these tickets up. If nothing else, you go to see the spectacle. But I knew he would enjoy himself. And after me and my friend Rachel telling him he'd be crazy if he didn't go, he gave in and went. As it got closer, he got more into the idea thankfully and ended up having just as good of a time as I did. We had a kid free night thanks to my Mom and went out for dinner (pizza) and frozen yogurt before hand. Our parking passes for work allowed us to park without paying, but we had a nice little walk to the stadium. After pizza and frozen yogurt I didn't mind. lol

Florence and the Machine was the opening act and they got started a little after 7:00. They were good, but I was too excited to see the boys and couldn't really concentrate on her. Plus I only know one song of theirs, so that didn't help. After they finished, the crew started to re-do the setup on stage. U2's stage is incredible. There is a huge claw/spaceship that sits above the stage with the whole stage open so you can see from all sides. There is a rotating riser in the middle of the circular stage where the drum set sits. Then there is a circular cat walk that loops around the main stage with a second circular cat walk looping around it with two movable bridges, allowing the boys to move from stage to inner catwalk to outer catwalk and back. After taking all this in, I was certain we were in for a spectacular show, even though I kinda knew that already. Our seats were high up, but we had a perfect view of it all. While waiting for the show to start, the 360 wrap around screen above the stage starts scrolling various random facts, like time in different places and the number of people in the stadium (ended up being around 45,000 and was sold out), how many tweets had been on Twitter that day, etc. I will admit that I spent most of the night looking through my wonderful friend's camera lens (she let me borrow her kick arse camera) because while we did have a great view, we were high up and I could see the boys much better through the lens than through my unaided eyes.

Soon enough the lights on the claw/spacestation light up and music starts to play, but it's not U2...it's David Bowie's "Space Oddity." Then we start to hear screams and the boys appear on the big screen, walking into the stadium. We watch them on the screen until they appear in the corner of the field, coming out of the tunnel. I liked how they walked in, side by side, all together as a group, brothers.

As they reach the field, David Bowie fades out and "Even Better Than the Real Thing" starts up. A great, high energy song to start the show off. After that, Bono gives a shout-out to Nashville and then plows into "The Fly", which is now in it's 20th year. Then straight into "Mysterious Ways". Now I'd heard how Bono likes to play around with lyrics at shows and three songs in he proves it right by adding an "I Love You" and "Eat It" to the song. Ummm...Bono? Eat it? LMAO! He also throws a quick snippet of Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" in there for the heck of it.

Next up was "Until the End of the World". In the middle Bono stops for a moment to speak about freedom. This was typical Bono, but was neither preachy or out of place. It fit right in with the song. Edge's guitar is on fire and Larry is rocking on the drums. Sadly, sometimes Adam's bass gets a little lost in the mix, but you can tell he's into it and having a good time as he moves around the stages. And if you listen, hard enough you can hear his driving, melodic bass lines. However as they kick off "I Will Follow", you can hear it loud and clear. Bono introduces it as their first ever single, but that's not right. Maybe he meant first single in the US, now that could be. He immediately runs into "Get On Your Boots". I hadn't heard this one before or at least didn't remember it. It's off their last album "No Line on the Horizon" and it is AWESOME! So much so that right now it's my favorite song. With a driving, melodic bass line like that, how could it not? Rock on Adam! Just a little aside here, but I truly believe that Adam's best work may very well be the stuff on the last album. Not that he hasn't always been good, but it seems like he's got everything together and matured and grown into an amazingly talented, strong bass player. Like a fine wine....

Bono then thanks Florence and the Machine for opening on this their last night on tour together. Then an embarrassed Bono fesses up to the fact that it's been 30 years since they last played Nashville. He says it's a hard fact to take in but that they are here now and the crowd cheers loudly. He also says some things don't change and begins his band intro by saying he's Bono and they are a band from Dublin. Every night he intros the band and every night he does it a little bit differently, or at least the ones I've heard about. It's always cute and funny. He begins with Larry Mullen, Jr on drums mentioning the fact that Larry was the one that formed the band. He then calls Larry handsome and thoughtful and says he's had this same haircut since 1981. All of which is absolutely true! Especially the handsome and haircut parts. lol Then he moves on to Adam. He talks about how all Adam ever wanted to do since he was born was play four strings and he's mastered at least three of them, which sets them both to giggling. He goes on to call Adam "a prince of a man and an unusually talented, gifted, improvisational and great rock and roll bass player of all time." (See...I told you Bono rambles!) The crowd cheers and he moves on to Edge saying they wouldn't be there without The Edge but without them the Edge would still be in his bedroom twiddling knobs. I about fell out laughing! Yes, I am twelve. :P He calls Edge their own card carrying genius, playing the guitar and everything else. He wraps up the intros by saying "in a city of masters we will stay students." Nawwww!

And then launches into "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by asking us to sing along. Bono starts off the first few phrases then goes silent, holding out his mic and letting us sing for a while. He says we're a little sharp and then says he's just kidding. Watch it there buddy! LOL During the bridge, he gives a shoutout to Cowboy Jack who was there and introduced them to BB King back during Rattle and Hum I think. Then he lets us finish the song before he transitions into the collaboration they did with Johnny Cash, "The Wanderer". Now this is VERY special, as this is the only time or one of only two times, there is some debate, they have ever performed this song live. He sings it in Johnny's voice and really sounds like him until his voice tires and he has to go back to his own voice. That's one of Bono's gifts though, he can copy anyone's accent brilliantly, speaking or singing. He talks about Johnny and his wife June and how they had some wonderful times hanging out with them. He also says next time they are in town they will go out to Johnny's grave for one last goodbye. I'm holding you to it there Bono. Next tour definitely needs to have a Nashville date. :D None of this once every thirty years crap! ;)

Next up is "Stay (Far Away So Close)". Bono says there's a hint of Sinatra in it. At this point the audience takes a break and sits down for a moment to rest their feet. I really didn't want to sit, but everyone else was so... The next song he dedicates to Gabby Giffords and talks about her husband up in space and wonders what he would have to say to us. The screen starts to pop and crackle and low and behold there Commander Mark Kelly appears from the International Space Station feed and gives a shout out to Nashville. I think this was actually taped and not live since I think I heard Kelly was already back on Earth by then, but he does mention Nashville all the same. Bono mentions the hot and humid conditions and Commander Kelly quotes a line from Bowie. "Tell my wife I love her very much. She knows..." Then the boys kick into "Beautiful Day". Another amazing song performed beautifully and tightly by these seasoned pros. Again Bono changes up some words and I catch it immediately, but it's such a sweet awww moment to me. All through the show you can see how much these guys genuinely love each other and how tight the bonds of their friendship is. This is one of those moments. Bono changes the line about finding a friend to take you out of this place to finding three friends (there are three other members in the band beside him). Then a little later on in the song he adds ya'll to the end of the line "I know I'm not a hopeless case", causing me to grin. Commander Kelly comes back in around the middle of the song and speaks a few of the lines before Bono takes back over and finishes it out. He ends with a few lines from "Space Oddity", tying the whole bit together.

Bono asks if we should get ourselves elevated, causing the crowd to scream and the familiar sounds of "Elevation" fill the air. The crowd starts singing the Ooohooohs at the beginning and Bono hangs back for a moment, drinking some water and communicating with Larry about something and egging the crowd on, before joining in. It amazes me both how energetic and into it Bono is as well as how in control of everything he is. They have this down to a fine science. A few hand signals and head nods or a simple look in the case of the rhythm section (Adam and Larry) and everyone is on the same page. This will prove very important toward the end of the show, but I'll explain that when I get there.

The lights go down and then just as quickly back up as Edge launches into "Pride In The Name of Love". I've always loved this song, it's one of my favorites. It's a good thing I had the camera and Steve had the video camera. LOL Otherwise the short videos we got would have been full of me singing along. He also changes a line in this one. He changes "early morning April 4" to "early evening April 4", which is actually when it really happened. I always wondered why they didn't just change that line when they realized it was inaccurate. Bono has us close out the song with oh oh oh oh's.

Bono mentions how he thinks America as a country is a great idea before transitioning into "Miss Sarajevo". Even though his voice has had a few raspy moments (I kinda wonder if his allergies were acting up as that does cause his voice to get raspy and TN is known for it's allergy problems), he delivers beautifully, even singing Pavarotti's part in Italian as he would have done. This runs straight into the "Zooropa" introduction which is a mish-mash of images and sounds asking various questions. As this plays, the screen above their heads begins to stretch out until it nearly reaches down to the boys themselves. Then "Zooropa" begins. It's an interesting song, but one that I've never been super fond of. I don't catch it at the time, but have been told and upon relistening to the live recordings of that night can confirm that it is indeed true that they used the Teletubby theme song to bridge into the next song. I...I just don't even know what to say. LOL Part of me is cracking up and part of me is like guys, what were you thinking??

"City of Blinding Lights" is next; a song about what it was like playing a concert in New York right after 9/11. The screen flashes the words "the more you see the less you know"; a shout out to the messages of the ZooTV and PopMart tours I believe. The images of the boys continue to show on the screen, but in a slightly abstract way now as the screen is stretched out to full capacity.

Before we can even catch our breath, Bono says they are kicking it up another notch and they go barreling into "Vertigo", counting things off in Spanish. Again, another one of my favorites. Bono prompts us to take over in the middle for a short bit before joining in again to finish the song out.

Then things get a little crazy. LOL They go through a snippet of "Miss You" before performing "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight". I didn't know this one before the show either but really like it. It's another one from "No Line on the Horizon" and it's a very upbeat, dance kind of song. I just couldn't stand still. Then they launch into more snippets. This time covering "Discotheque", "Psycho Killer", and "Life During War Time". To this day, I can't hear "Discotheque" without seeing them all decked out in Village People costumes, attempting to disco dance. Heh!

Bono transitions into the next song by saying this isn't disco and it's not CBGB's. We don't have time for that. We have more important stuff to do. And he launches into "Sunday, Bloody Sunday". At one point, Edge and Bono are kind of dueting around each other and I'm amazed by how much like Bono Edge can sound when he needs to. I think it was at this point that the screen returns back to it's original size and position.

As soon as the song stops, Larry keeps going with the drums, doing a drum solo of "Scarlet". Bono starts talking about Archbishop Tutu and the leader of Burma. The leader of Burma had been imprisoned and now she has been released, with the help of campaigning that U2 and Amnesty International, among others took part in. Again, Bono lets us take the ooooh ooooh oooohs. Then he asks us to raise our voices as they move into "Walk On". Again, another one I really love. Such an uplifting song. My favorite line from the song is "Stay safe tonight..." Bono talks for a bit about Amnesty International right before finishing the song as the lights go down very low and people carry out lighted Amnesty International votives onto the outer catwalk.. He ends with a quick snippet of "You'll Never Walk Alone" before saying his thank you's to Nashville and then egging Vanderbilt on. He calls themselves students yet again and then introduces Archbishop Desmond Tutu and announces that his daughter is there before the boys leave the stage and they play a message from him on the screen.

When the boys come back out, beginning encore #1, they begin playing "One". Bono's voice is back at it's strongest and he even plays guitar on this one. It's a special guitar. Can't remember what brand it is though. It's acoustic and huge and green and has "The Goal is Soul" carved into it. And when I say huge I mean so huge that it almost makes Bono look like a child holding it. Yeah, I know he's on the small side, but still. He gives a few shoutouts to local politicians and musicians that have helped with his One Campaign as they end the song.

The stage goes black, save for a spotlight on Bono as he sings part of "Amazing Grace" acapella. I seriously got goosebumps. His voice is just amazing. This leads into "Where the Streets Have No Name", had a snippet of "All You Need is Love" in the middle of it. He gives another shout out to Nashville and starts clapping before saying, "or as ya'll say in Nashville Wooo!" And yes, there was a lot of woooo-ing going on that night!

The boys get another chance to catch their collective breath as they head off for a costume change or at least Bono, Adam, and Edge change, before encore #2. Bono gets into a new jacket and a black button down, opposed to his earlier black tee under the jacket, Adam into a short sleeve very sparkly white shirt, and Edge into a grey tee. Larry it's hard to tell because his shirt looks the same, but it could have been just another similar shirt and not the same one. At this point I am very hot, but there's a breeze, so I'll survive. I can't even imagine how hot and sweaty the guys are down there on the floor with no breeze able to reach them, moving around under those hot lights. I mean, Bono even has on leather pants and a leather jacket. I don't want to even think about how hot, sweaty, and well stinky he is by this point. And yes, I'm 12, but at this moment all I can think about is Saturday Night Live and schweaty balls. Ha! The other guys dressed more appropriately even before the costume change, Adam with a long sleeve white shirt he had pushed the sleeves up on and baggy, light white pants, Edge with a white tee and black jeans, and Larry with a mid-length sleeve shirt that was white and black pants (although not leather I don't think). I know Bono does the black leather thing every night on the tour, but you think with the heat he would be dying for a change of pace.

A couple of strange aliens pop up on the screen, whistling "Where the Streets Have No Name" before saying their feet hurt and making comments about the claw on stage and how it looks like a spaceship. They disappear and the Zooropa, cute, childlike alien appears asking what time it is in the world and then singing baby, baby, baby and then quoting more Bowie, "planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do" until he too disappears. Then you can hear Bono asking over and over what time is it in the world and the red steering wheel looking light up mic descends from the inner part of the claw, rotating just above the stage and shown up on the screen. Everybody knows what this means and you hear Bono answer his own question with the answer of "Showtime!"

He jumps on the dangling mic and swings across the stage as the lights go up and the boys start to play "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me". Another favorite of mine. I think I may have actually had the cassingle of this back in the day. He swings from and sings into the lighted mic throughout the whole song. Gotta love how full of energy Bono is after about a good hour plus of performing. Also, the new leather jacket he is sporting has red laser lights beaming from the sleeves. He asks once again "What time is it in the world?" and answers himself with "Why, showtime!"

The lights on the mic go blue and they start playing "With or Without You". Again, he lets us sing some alone. I can only imagine how cool this sounds to them, every night the crowd singing the words to some of their oldest, most loved songs, knowing every word by heart. The verse he chooses to let us sing is one that I have trouble remembering the words at that very moment, but it sounds like others do too as this is much softer than we've sung all night, so I don't feel so bad. As the song begins to end, he pulls out a coat hanger and hangs his leather jacket on the now blue light up mic. "Night Nashville...Night Ya'll..." he says in his best southern accent as the mic and jacket begin to reel themselves back up into the claw. Then he thanks the crew for their work and thanks us for giving them a good life (Super Awww!) and we oooh ooooh oooh the song until the music stops. I love it when he gets so humble. It's very becoming actually.

He announces that this is their 100th show and that it's appropriate that they are in this "extraordinary town, extraordinary city, extraordinary state, extraordinary university." Again....awwwww! He begins to thank all the local people that have helped with various things and all the local musicians they had met with the day before. He then goes on to talk about a day years ago when they came into town to do some philanthropy stuff. He talks about who was at the meeting, mostly local musicians, and how there were no AIDS drugs in Africa then, but now because of the US 4 million lives have been saved. "Not just a country, America. It's a great idea."

He goes on with some more thank you's before telling us we're going to make the spacestation disappear and turn this place into the Milky Way. He asks us to take out our phones and then asks Willie (U2's stage and lighting designer and director) to turn out the lights. The place is absolutely beautiful lit by a thousands of phones and my iPod Touch. He intros "Moment of Surrender" by saying it's the theme of their whole show. I don't think I knew this one beforehand either, but it's very emotionally packed and I really like it. Edge plays guitar and piano on this one as he's done at other points during the night. I really find it amazing how talented he is and can juggle so much at once. Bono ends the song with a rap-style repeated refrain of "Where were you when they crucified my Lord?"

When it ends he says a few more thank you Nashville's and thanks us for our patience before calling us unbelievable people. Big Awwwww! The boys gather at the front of the stage and wrap their arms around each other as they wave and take a bit of a bow. And then the most surprising, moving, and amazing moment of the night happens. Now Bono is known for both wandering on stage as well as disappearing in the past, although I don't think he does it much any more. So the boys begin to leave the stage, all together, just like they came in. I'm busy trying to get a last few close up pictures and don't even realize that Bono has gone missing. But then you can hear his voice and he's having a conversation with someone, but you can only hear his side of the conversation. It takes a moment for all of us to realize what's going on, including the rest of the band. First Adam stops in his tracks and starts searching for Bono, then when he spots him, he grabs Edge, who grabs Larry and they head back to the front of the stage. I can't really see Bono that well as he's moved to the absolute edge of the stage and is talking to a fan. He calls out to the other guys saying, "Hold on gents, we have a surprise guest." Again, I can hear him, but not the person he's talking to. At this point I'm thinking, great, some Nashville celebrity is going to sing with them. I have to admit, the idea didn't really thrill me; seemed too cliche. Little did I know this was anything but cliche. It was interesting though to see how the band members soaked in what was going on and began to make sense of it. Adam immediately grasps enough of what's going on to return to his spot, put his earpiece in, and wait for his bass to be brought to him, realizing Bono is pulling a classic Bono and giving the audience a special moment. Larry looks so confused that it's actually funny. He returns to his drumkit and puts his earpiece in, but remains bewildered looking for the longest. Edge stands at the back of the stage with his hands on his hips, taking it all in until he decides to step over to the keyboard. As all of this in unfolding, Bono asks the crew to bring this "dude" out a guitar, not just any guitar, Bono's accoustic green, personalized guitar that I mentioned earlier. When the guy finally makes it to the stage, we realize it's not a country music star as I had feared but a fan. And I think well now, this is very cool. Bono had asked him earlier what song he wanted to play but that was before the guy was mic'ed so we're all clueless as to what's about to go down. They guy dedicates the song to his wife and then tells Bono he is very nervous, causing us all to laugh. He starts playing "All I Want is You" and Bono sings along for a bit before all the other guys join in on their instruments. The "dude" as Bono calls him, is really good so Bono motions for them to keep going and they make it all the way through the song. Bono hugs the guy and gives him his guitar, much to the fan's shock and excitement. Bono takes the guy's hand and leads him back to the stage. At that point, Steve and I are talking about how cool this is but don't pick up on the fact that Bono holding his hand and leading him is a little odd. See, what we didn't know until the next day is that "dude" was blind. He was in the front row holding up a sign that said blind guitar player and I guess it touched Bono enough that he asked the guy up on stage. What a spectacular moment to end an absolutely awesome concert. Bono and the guys do one final wave and then head off the stage. Elton John's "Rocket Man" starts to play as the lights go up and we realize that it's now 11:15! I can't believe it lasted that long! These guys really give their absolute all to the fans. In fact, they played past the 11:00 city noise cut off. Considering how they praised Nashville and Vanderbilt though, the city let it slide.

Hubby took me to look at the t-shirts afterwards. I didn't want to spend more than $20 and there was only one that fell in that price range and I wasn't too excited about it, so I decided it would mean more to me to spend the same amount of money online on a Rattle and Hum tshirt like the one I had when I was a kid. It came yesterday and I was so excited to get it! The concert definitely renewed and amped up my love for U2. I've read their autobiography and am working my way through another biography on them. They aren't just a brilliantly talented group, but also an extremely interesting group of people. Their story really does make a good read. I've also decided to make the girls Zooropa kid-like alien tshirts this weekend. Can't wait to see how they turn out. I also ordered the Euro version of "Achtung Baby" on eBay and hope it has the cover it's supposed to as you can't get that one here in the US. Shall we say it's a shining moment for my favorite, Adam. >:) So, if you stuck with me through all of this...thank you!

Here's a few pictures hubby and I took.