By Christopher David<\/p>\n
Being a U2 fan requires patience. Lots and lots of patience. Typically, the Irish foursome will hit\u00a0the studio, record a bunch of songs, sit on them for a while, go back, and essentially rewrite\u00a0them. This has happened numerous times before look\u00a0no further than \u201cVertigo,\u201d the band\u2019s\u00a0monster 2004 single, which spent the first two years of its life as the politicallycharged\u00a0\u201cNative\u00a0Son\u201d before the band decided to take it somewhere else entirely. As a U2 fan of nearly thirty\u00a0years, I have come to learn the band\u2019s process and to remain patient (…barely) and confident\u00a0that the band will, as it always has, emerge with a record full of heart and complexity, as well as\u00a0a tour that sets a new standard for how arenas can be utilized to bring massive numbers of\u00a0strangers together in a previously unthought of\u00a0way.<\/p>\n
My combination of patience and confidence paid off during U2\u2019s five night\u00a0stand at the United\u00a0Center in June and July.<\/p>\n
U2 tours have always aspired to more than just a cookie cutter\u00a0set of twenty or so well known\u00a0songs dropped into whatever arena happens to be the host on a given night. If you know the\u00a0band well, you already know that U2 shows tend to be more like globetrotting art projects,\u00a0reaching toward some sort of new ground in an effort to, as the band has often remarked, get\u00a0closer to the fans. And indeed, every tour since 2001\u2019s Elevation has seen the band selling\u00a0lower priced\u00a0general admission floor seats, as well as reinventing staging to span large amounts\u00a0of real estate on the arena floor in an effort to get more people close to the band members as\u00a0they stalk the catwalks and stages. \u00a0U2 shows are events to\u00a0some, deeply affecting on a\u00a0nearly spiritual level, and to others, just a great time with a band that prides itself on delivering\u00a0an unforgettable show. As such, the enthusiasm of a U2 crowd tends to influence the potency\u00a0of the show itself, elevating a good show to a great show, a great show to a legendary one.\u00a0Fortunately, U2 fans are nothing if not enthusiastic, and for those five nights at the United\u00a0Center, fans delivered everything they had, with the band giving it right back.<\/p>\n
The iNNOCENCE & eXPERIENCE tour (dubbed \u2018i+e\u2019 for short) landed in Chicago on June 24th,\u00a0and for each subsequent night (6\/25, 6\/28, 6\/29, and 7\/2), the band took full advantage of its\u00a0stunning new stage, another Willie Williams crackerjack designed to integrate technology in the\u00a0most visually dazzling but thematically organic way possible. U2 tours tend to run on a theme,\u00a0from Zoo TV\u2019s media circus to Elevation\u2019s focus on heart and soul, and i+e is firmly rooted in the\u00a0band\u2019s exploration of innocence and experience as themes with a capital T, spawned from\u00a02014\u2019s Songs of Innocence. ( Songs of Experience, the second half of this idea, is supposedly\u00a0set for release this year or next, though again…that patience thing.)<\/p>\n
Innocence digs deep into the band\u2019s personal histories, of growing up in a country often on the\u00a0brink of civil war while discovering first loves, rock n\u2019 roll, and what it means to learn who you\u00a0are. To that end, it made sense that the first \u2018act\u2019 of the i+e show leaned on that new material,\u00a0from opener \u201cThe Miracle (of Joey Ramone)\u201d to the longing verses of \u201cSong for Someone\u201d\u00a0(written for Bono\u2019s then girlfriend,\u00a0now wife\u00a0of 30+ years, Alison Stewart) to the singer\u2019s\u00a0witnessing an IRA car bombing as a child, documented in the searing \u201cRaised by Wolves.\u201d The\u00a0new material stood tall (and indeed made sense) alongside welcome revisitations of classics\u00a0like \u201cI Will Follow,\u201d \u201cGloria\u201d (played for the first time since 2005), \u201cThe Electric Co.,\u201d and \u201cOut of\u00a0Control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Images can tell a powerful story, and the imagery accompanying the selections from Songs of\u00a0Innocence was integrated into the live show more seamlessly than anything since 1993\u2019s\u00a0ZooTV tour. The technological star of i+e was the hollow, movie screen\u00a0style cage hovering\u00a0over the massive catwalk, allowing the illusion of Bono walking down the aforementioned\u00a0\u201cCedarwood Road\u201d as images of his childhood blew past. The cage became a facsimile Berlin\u00a0Wall during the show\u2019s intermission (a nod to the Achtung Baby and Zooropa days), and turned\u00a0into a living soundwave for \u201cInvisible\u201d as the four band members appeared through blips and\u00a0static, housed inside the screen. The devil is in the design details for this tour, as the screen\u2019s\u00a0position over the catwalk that spans the arena floor (and connects the main stage with the\u00a0smaller \u201ce\u201d stage at the other end) is such that it can be viewed equally on both sides of the\u00a0venue. Car bombs erupted in violent flashes at the conclusion of a funeral march remaining\u00a0of \u201cSunday Bloody Sunday,\u201d the most powerful that particular song has sounded in years, as\u00a0images of the fallen appear among pencil sketched\u00a0Dublin neighborhoods. Bono\u2019s face\u00a0appeared on the screen, larger than life, as Edge walked inside the screen during \u201cUntil the End\u00a0of the World,\u201d allowing a seeminglygiant\u00a0Bono to coyly spit water at what appears to be a very\u00a0tiny guitar player.<\/p>\n
In spite of an often times highly political show, the band was clearly having fun with the stage\u00a0design, to an even greater extent than 2009\u2019s 360 tour, and that playful spirit was evoked\u00a0during the more spontaneous moments of the set. Fans were brought on stage to play guitar,\u00a0sing along, and dance on the catwalk with Bono as the Edge pumped out the wahwah\u00a0drenched riffs from \u201cMysterious Ways.\u201d On four of the five nights, these lucky fans got to\u00a0broadcast a tune via Bono\u2019s phone using Meercat, a new live streaming\u00a0app that allows for\u00a0realtime\u00a0comments by fans viewing the action at home. The \u201ce\u201d stage saw a lot of excitement\u00a0over the course of U2\u2019s week in Chicago, treating fans to vibrant versions of old favorites like\u00a0\u201cAngel of Harlem\u201d and \u201cThe Sweetest Thing,\u201d as well as newer, deeper cuts like Innocence\u00a0extras \u201cLucifer\u2019s Hands\u201d and \u201cThe Crystal Ballroom,\u201d the latter a fan favorite that traveling packs\u00a0of U2 devotees had been hoping for since the tour kicked off in May.<\/p>\n
The second act of the show rode high on hits \u201cOne,\u201d \u201cBeautiful Day,\u201d \u201cCity of Blinding Lights\u201d\u00a0(one of the more visually stunning moments as bars of fluorescent light descend to the stage in\u00a0abstract patterns), \u201cBad,\u201d an elegantly sad piano take on current single \u201cEvery Breaking Wave,\u201d\u00a0\u201cWith or Without You,\u201d \u201cI Still Haven\u2019t Found What I\u2019m Looking For,\u201d the rarely played \u201cAll I Want\u00a0is You\u201d the\u00a0list goes on. The politics were present but contextually sensible; a nod to Project\u00a0(RED) led into a poignant acoustic cover of Paul Simon\u2019s \u201cMother & Child Reunion,\u201d which led\u00a0directly into \u201cWhere the Streets Have No Name\u201d as the stage was bathed in red light was one of\u00a0numerous highlights. Though previous tours have certainly mixed this cocktail to great ends,\u00a0the balance of visuals, music, and message was honed to a science this time around, solidifying\u00a0the new songs as worthy of their place in the set and providing older, frequently played tunes\u00a0like \u201cPride\u201d and \u201cBullet the Blue Sky\u201d with a vibrant urgency that resonated even with longtime\u00a0fans who may have heard them live many times before.<\/p>\n
For the cynics, it\u2019s easy to think of U2 as rock n\u2019 roll dinosaurs, on par with the Stones (who, in\u00a0my opinion, are still killing it, but that\u2019s a conversation for another day) as a simple result of age\u00a0and marketing clout. But that would be oversimplifying things if\u00a0maintaining their position as\u00a0an arena ready\u00a0beast every 45\u00a0years was U2\u2019s only concern, they really wouldn\u2019t need to go to\u00a0so much trouble to reinvent the wheel each time they hit the road they\u00a0could coast on their\u00a0singles until…well, until the end of the world. There are a lot of great live bands out there certainly\u00a0too many to list here. But even among the greats, there are few who aspire, with each\u00a0new chapter, to something new, something exciting, something to keep the spirit of music\u2019s\u00a0connection to people not just alive, but fresh. As one fan from L.A. (who was traveling to all of\u00a0U2\u2019s North American shows with his girlfriend, a lifelong fan) told me, \u201cI always knew U2 were\u00a0probably a really great live band. But I had no idea until I saw them with her for the first time in\u00a0May, and afterward, I looked at her and said, \u2018okay. I totally get it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Do yourself a favor, friends. If U2 come back to the states in 2016 as they\u2019re rumored to, go\u00a0see them, even if you\u2019re not yet a fan hell,\u00a0even if you\u2019re a skeptic. I\u2019ll lay even odds that, by\u00a0the end of the night, you\u2019ll get it, too.<\/p>\n
Check back soon\u00a0for pictures and videos from each night!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Christopher David Being a U2 fan requires patience. Lots and lots of patience. Typically, the Irish foursome will hit\u00a0the studio, record a bunch of songs, sit on them for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,39,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-music-news","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}