U2 Review: The God I believe in isn't short on cash, Mister.
Let's start with the opener: The Institute. They sucked. They were in fact terribly terribly bad. The Institute is the new project for former Bush lead singer & current Gwen Stefani hubby Gavin Rossdale. Here's a hint Gavin - if you are trying to prove that you can do it without your old bandmates, then you should:
[A] not write songs that sound like bad Bush B-sides.
[B] not sing Bush songs, even if it is the only time anyone applauds.
Yech, it was terrible. Arguably the worst opener I have seen since the infamous Colette so many years ago, to make a reference that only tigerlily_blue will get.
Fortunately, the headliner was the current media-dubbed best band in rock & roll, U2. While I personally think they aren't nearly as good as the Boss, I have to admit that U2 puts on a hell of a show. This time around they had a big oval ( last time it was a heart ) that extended very far out into the crowd and allowed Bono & company to stand among those of their adoring fans who were willing to pay $500+ for floor seats. Their light display was pretty cool - it consisted of 5 banks of dangling LEDs that allowed many different patterns to be displayed quickly. The lights moved up and down for different parts of the show. The overall effect was sort of like having one of those bead doorways with little lights in each bead. Sweet. The video monitors were split into 4 sections, with one camera on each band member for the vast majority of the show, so if Bono's antics got tiresome ( and they did get tiresome at points ) you could check out what Larry, Adam or the Edge were doing at any time.
The set list was nicely balanced between newer items from the last two items and old favorites. Bono has definitely moved much farther into save the world territory. In fact, at times he came close to being a parody of the televangelists U2 mocks in Bullet the Blue Sky. On the other hand, at least he's doing some good. The cynic in me is interested in knowing how much of the ridiculous money charged for T-shirts and other merch, not to mention tickets, goes to charities.
All in all, it was fun but I'm sure glad I didn't have to pay for it. And if I did have to pay for it, I would not be the poorer for missing it. It was much better when I saw them on the last tour, probably because there was less 'save-the-world' and a lot more rock & roll.
[A] not write songs that sound like bad Bush B-sides.
[B] not sing Bush songs, even if it is the only time anyone applauds.
Yech, it was terrible. Arguably the worst opener I have seen since the infamous Colette so many years ago, to make a reference that only tigerlily_blue will get.
Fortunately, the headliner was the current media-dubbed best band in rock & roll, U2. While I personally think they aren't nearly as good as the Boss, I have to admit that U2 puts on a hell of a show. This time around they had a big oval ( last time it was a heart ) that extended very far out into the crowd and allowed Bono & company to stand among those of their adoring fans who were willing to pay $500+ for floor seats. Their light display was pretty cool - it consisted of 5 banks of dangling LEDs that allowed many different patterns to be displayed quickly. The lights moved up and down for different parts of the show. The overall effect was sort of like having one of those bead doorways with little lights in each bead. Sweet. The video monitors were split into 4 sections, with one camera on each band member for the vast majority of the show, so if Bono's antics got tiresome ( and they did get tiresome at points ) you could check out what Larry, Adam or the Edge were doing at any time.
The set list was nicely balanced between newer items from the last two items and old favorites. Bono has definitely moved much farther into save the world territory. In fact, at times he came close to being a parody of the televangelists U2 mocks in Bullet the Blue Sky. On the other hand, at least he's doing some good. The cynic in me is interested in knowing how much of the ridiculous money charged for T-shirts and other merch, not to mention tickets, goes to charities.
All in all, it was fun but I'm sure glad I didn't have to pay for it. And if I did have to pay for it, I would not be the poorer for missing it. It was much better when I saw them on the last tour, probably because there was less 'save-the-world' and a lot more rock & roll.