A Year In The Making: U2 360 Salt Lake City
U2 are the band that it seems everyone, of every age, has a fervently held opinion about, either positive or negative. It’s possible, maybe even fashionable, to be deeply cynical about them now, especially when they show up with 27 semis and build a UFO in a football stadium, preach at you between songs (am I buggin’ you?) and charge a hundred bucks per ticket for the privilege of hearing them do so. That kind of thing can turn people off.
And on top of all that, when you delay the concert for a year while your primadonna lead singer recuperates from a bad back (damaged while shouldering the cares of the world no doubt) you better think twice before hauling your sorry ass into town and asking people to dust off their year-old tickets and show up to your over-late, over-blown traveling circus of a show.
And yet. U2 are just that band for me. That band because I first fell in love with them listening to a borrowed copy of Wide Awake In America on my battered car stereo while driving to and from ski resorts as a budding ski bum in the 80s and watching a rented copy of Under A Blood Red Sky curled up in a dark basement.
Fell in love with them again in 1987 as a college sophomore teaching English in China when a bootlegged copy of The Joshua Tree felt like my only lifeline to civilization.
Went to Rattle and Hum when I got home and loved every cliched minute.
Fell in love with them again in law school when Achtung Baby was the only thing I ever listened to in the my red Corolla commuting from Tacoma to Olympia and back in the dark.
I was there for the Zoo TV tour on the sixth row. The Pop Mart tour in the nosebleed section. The Elevation tour just after 9/11 when it felt like Bono was our national funeral director and head cheerleader. I watched U23D in the theater three times. I mean, I love these guys, man. But can a love like that continue into middle age, or does it lose something over the years? Could this show live up to all the delayed expectations, or would it just be a disappointing retread?
I took my 14 year old daughter to the show, because she was excited about it and she has never seen U2. That concept is hard for me to wrap my head around. I used to sing her to sleep with this little lullaby when she was a baby:
As soon as we got into the stadium, the fun started. Even the ticket checkers were having a good time:
As it turned out, I was glad she was there with me.
The Fray opened and, coming fresh off their hometown appearance in Denver, they were charged up. Frontman Isaac Slade was engaging, marvelling at the size of his image on the jumbotron and the length of time it took to take a lap on the the enormous circular stage. He mentioned that his songs are primarily failed interventions and said they were working on a whole set of new ones.
It took almost an hour to reset after The Fray, during which time we were entertained by messages crawling accross the jumbotron. They were educational, telling us the time in various locations, as well as a number of obscure but interesting facts. For instance, did you know that no US President has ever been an only child? Or that the world will run out of oil in 15,500 or so days? Now you do.
U2 took the stage to the opening sounds of “Major Tom” and launched directly into “Even Better Than the Real Thing”, which was appropriate, since the two hour setlist leaned heavily toward Achtung Baby material:
Even Better Than The Real Thing
I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Elevation
Until The End Of The World
All I Want Is You
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Beautiful Day
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Miss Sarajevo
Zooropa
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy / Discotheque
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet
Walk On
Encore 1
One
Where The Streets Have No Name
Encore 2
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender
The “Walk On” portion of the show was kicked off by a message from recently freed political prisoner and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She gave credit to U2 and Amnesty International for her release. Another portion of the show saw Bono reminding the audience that in some places, “dancing will earn you a life sentence, (and in some places it should).” Images on the screen evoked the Arab Spring, while the iconic drumline and guitar of (this song is NOT a rebel song, this song is…) “Sunday Bloody Sunday” charged into the night.
But all that is just the expected trappings that go along with a U2 concert. The thing that sets U2 apart from every other rock band is the theatrics. All that gimckrackery that they haul around with them in their trucks to every city. It has the potential for being an annoying distraction, but instead, in this case all that technology was seamlessly wedded to the artistry of the show. The setlist was almost irrelevant because the show seemed like a unified artistic whole that flowed flawlessly, even when Bono took time out to sing happy birthday to Bob Dylan or read a poem about Utah with three groupies from the audience.
The band members themselves have never looked better, nor has Bono ever been in better Vox. The enormous stage was a challenge, but Bono circumnavigated it several times, as did the others, which may account for why they are all in such great shape. Larry, in particular, looked like he could walk through a brick wall unscathed as he waltzed out from behind his drumkit playing his very own conga while jamming to “I’ll Go Crazy.” Edge was actually pogo-ing while playing guitar at times, which you don’t really expect to see this side of Blink 182. This band has energy, folks, and they’re not afraid to use it.
In short, this may be the best U2 show ever. My first one will always hold a special place in my heart, and it’s hard to beat the feeling that pervaded the arena in 2001 when the roll call of the dead climbed the wall and Bono opened his star-spangled heart, but if it’s possible for a rock show in a football stadium to feel (dare I say it) intimate, this show achieved that. It’s not often you can say things like this about a rock band, and God knows, it may make some cynics want to put their eyes out to read it, but this show actually made me want to be a better person. How many rock concerts can you say that about?
Posted on May 25, 2011, in Live Shows, Music and tagged 360, Salt Lake City, U2. Bookmark the permalink. 30 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
arandomjohn
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
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MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
Ben
McQ, judging from the usher we both walked by, you and I must have been in the same section.
Great show. They definitely bring the energy. Any idea what that Utah poem was, by the way? The most impressive technical effect was the enormous disco ball some 300 fee above ground shining infinite rays of light down on the crowd during With or Without You. That was really amazing. Also amazing that those of gathered there last night managed to free a Burmese prisoner with the power of our minds. Good for us.
The poem was “Utah” by Minnie J Hardy. Here it is in its entirety:
Utah
I’m glad to be here where the mountains rise
Dazzling white ‘neath the clear blue skys
From crimson dawn ’til the dear day dies
Way out west in Utah.
Where the mountain air is pure and sweet,
Where fresh, cool water flows down the street
And the climate! Friend, it can’t be beat;
Delightful, magnificent Utah.
God made Utah and He made it grand,
The beauty spot of His glorious land,
Where plenty supplies with a generous hand
All of our needs and wants in Utah.
Mighty mountains, sylvian vales,
Picturesque canyons and rugged trails,
Joy’s your companion, health never fails,
Happiness dwells in Utah.
-Minnie J. Hardy
I believe it was written in 1945.
Great write-up, MCQ. U2 is, I think, the definitive concert rock band today (possibly Arcade Fire could vie for the title, but not yet).
I could hear songs from my apartment near the U. Sounded the same as when I saw them 5 years ago.
MCQ, did you get an email I sent you a few days ago? Sent to comcast address.
SG: I’d take Bruce. But we’ve been having this argument for 10 years now.
If you look to the left of the dancing ticket takers in your picture, a few rows up behind the AT&T sign? That was us. The show was phenomenal. Mysterious Ways was the stand out for me, but to hear All I Want Is You live? Man. We loved it. It was totally worth the trek south on a ‘school’ night!
It pains me that I missed this tour. Great write up.
Thanks guys.
Cantinflas, I just found it and responded. sorry I didn’t see it earlier.
gabby, it’s funny how many people were there that I know. We should have had a tailgate party before the concert. You can probably tell from the pictures that we were sitting right next to an entry portal, so we were waving to people we knew all night.
Susan, 18 more dates left on the tour. You can still see it!
I actually got your picture and my direction wrong (not at all shocking, really!). I think we were MUCH closer to you than I thought. Just a couple of sections away, really.
And, yeah. We knew a surprising number of people as well! Crazy. I stopped talking about it because it took so long for it to materialize!
Can’t do a $100 ticket.
I think there are actually much cheaper seats than that, Susan, and general admission on the floor looked awesome. If you get one of those tickets and especially if you get there early, it would be fun and not that expensive.
I also think the ticket prices are way too high, but I understand the high price for this show a lot more than others because the stage itself is so amazing.
The cheaper seats are sold out from what I can tell. If I’d known they were making a point of having $30 tickets on this tour I’d have jumped at it, but I didn’t find that out until this week!
My secret shame is somehow never being able to go to a U2 concert in my life. Every time something comes up…
Oh man, this sounds like an awesome concert! I was a huge U2 fan, I would go to a little record shop near Tempe, AZ to buy bootleg import U2 CDs, and got a few online back in the early-mid 90s (luckily and surprisingly I never got ripped off on those sketchy sites) – and bought most of the singles for the B-sides before they release the compilation.
I went to the Pop Mart tour @ Mile High when they were in Denver on May 1st 1997 (I remember dates pretty well). It was rainy and cold and the concert was awful – they played about 60 minutes of almost all the Pop stuff and didn’t come back out for an encore, but left the lights off and let us scream for one for 30 minutes before they lit up the “get out” lights.
Worst concert I’ve ever been to. Someday, I’d like to see them again, but it’s not at the top of my list anymore.
Wow, that sucks, Darin. Surprising too since they’re usually so awesome live.
I used to go to an import record shop in Seattle and get their import vinyl. I have the Japanese release of WAR, a Japanese single from October that was never released in the US (“A Celebration”), a four-pack of early singles from Ireland (including their very first single, “Another Day”–Bono did the artwork). I have some awesome 12″ stuff, too. And all the Joshua Tree singles, best b-sides ever!
The first time I saw them live was on this tour:
That’s an odd set list. Definitely not the songs I would have chosen, if it were up to me.
But, you know, no one asked me, or cares about my strongly held opinions about U2 songs.
BTD Greg, I care about your strongly held opinions about U2 songs, so I’m asking: What songs would you have chosen if it were up to you?
Seriously, I’d like to know.
I’d love New Year’s Day to be performed live along with Bad. I’d be pretty disappointed if those two were left out.
Yeah, let’s do our perfect U2 setlist. Personally, I was upset they didn’t play “Bad” or “Bullet The Blue Sky” which I love, and they seem to never play “Running to Stand Still,” which I also love, or “Always” which is amazing.
They did play some of my favorites: Real Thing, I Will Follow, Magnificent, End of the World (I think they played that on purpose given the recent news), All I Want Is You (awesome), Beautiful Day, Pride, City of Blinding Lights, Sunday Bloody Sunday, One, Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You. All in all, a very good setlist, for me. Some songs are better live than you remember from the album. City of Blinding Lights is unbelievable live, for example.
My perfect setlist would look something like this:
Even Better Than The Real Thing
I Will Follow
40
Bad
MLK
A Sort of Homecoming
Magnificent
Bullet the Blue Sky
Gloria
Unknown Caller
Until The End Of The World
All I Want Is You
Beautiful Day
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
City Of Blinding Lights
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Walk On
Breathe
The Sweetest Thing
Always
Encore 1
Running to Stand Still
One
Where The Streets Have No Name
Encore 2
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
With Or Without You
Kite
Clark, they don’t play “New Year’s Day” that much because Larry doesn’t like it. He’s never been happy with the drumline in that song.
You’re list is pretty great, MCQ. I think “Bad” is the greatest U2 song ever, so that’s a huge omission from the setlist for me. I would move it to the end of one of the encores.
A few years back they were thinking of doing a tour oriented around New Year’s Day. (Trying to find the reference – it was around the time of Beautiful Day)
That meant they were going to start the tour on New Year’s Day, Clark, not play that song. (Kidding)
Yeah, Greg, I would probably mess with the order a bit. “Bad” is one of my favorites and, for a while, it was awesome because they played it in every concert. Bono apparently made it a point to always include that song in the setlist, because he felt it was an important song for the band. But then sometime in the last five years or so they got tired of it or something because they stopped playing it. I guess when you play the same song live every time for 15 years it gets old.
The song I’d probably most want to hear is “A Sort of Homecoming.”
Yeah, I wonder how long it’s been since they played that?
To me they’d have to play The Unforgettable Fire. Great song, especially love the bridge. “And if the mountain should crumble, or tumble into the sea, not a tear no not I…”
Also, you just convinced me to get tickets for Anaheim Stadium. Haven’t seen them since the Achtung Baby tour.
That is a great song, Matt. And it’s also another one they rarely play. I’m trying to think of the last time I heard them play anything from that album. They did play “Bad” in most of the other concderts I’ve seen, but other than that, I don’t think they play songs from that album much, which is sad.
I’m really excited for you to see them in Anaheim. Let us know how it goes. Would love to hear if the setlist changes.
“Ultraviolet” was amazing when I saw them in Atlanta, so I’m sad to see it dropped from the setlist. Also, I really liked “Breathe” as the the opener, which was a much better song live, IMO. But then again, you can’t go wrong with “Even Better Than the Real Thing”.
I keep hoping at some point they’ll throw the third verse of “With or Without You” back in, but I’m totally biased because that is my favorite U2 song.
Breathe is awesome. Probably the best song on the new album. I wish they played it, but I like Real Thing too.
Here’s a link to a great live version of Breathe:
http://youtu.be/ueFTz3owufQ