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Artist: U2 Venue: The Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield Date:
20 August 2009
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If you’re being honest, most bands have a creative peak that lasts for three or maybe four albums. Certainly, many bands can continue beyond this but with diminishing returns in terms of creativity and commercial success. One band who can stand unsurpassed on these points is U2. Love them or loathe them no one can dispute that they have maintained a huge level of success going back an incredible 30 years while also maintaining an almost uniformly high standard of creativity bar one or two blips (Zooropa anyone?). With their latest release No Line on the Horizon going to Number 1 across the globe and the ensuing world tour breaking box office records across all continents there appears to be no let up in their unprecedented run.
The fabled 360 Degree Tour finally arrived on the shores of the UK complete with the “in the round” style stage and the enormous stage enveloping claw and as the U2 publicity machine moved into overdrive it was time at last to see if the hype was justified. Like Rush, U2 thrive on performing new material on stage rather than relying on their bulging back catalogue. This tour is no different as the band kicked off with no fewer than four songs from the new album with the soaring “Magnificent” being the pick of the bunch. It wasn’t however, until the anthemic roar of “Beautiful Day” that the band started hitting their stride and the atmosphere inside the sold out stadium moved up a notch. At
first, the claw stage seemed a little less than impressive and seemed to
be shadowed by the uber stages featured on the Zoo TV and Popmart tours
however, as the sun dipped below the horizon, the full impact of the new
stage set was finally revealed. During
the simply jaw dropping “The Unforgettable Fire”, one of U2 finest
ever moments, the video and lighting effects to the centre of the stage
and the illumination around the legs of the claw was spellbinding
creating the perfect image for such a dramatic song.
Similarly “City of There’s so much more to U2 than fancy stage shows and extravagant lighting and video rigs, they have songs to lift the soul. “Vertigo” has the stadium bouncing and singing in one huge, throbbing mass, while “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, featuring a cheeky snippet of Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army”, sees a sea of hands thrusting skywards.
Songs like “Pride” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” were built for such an occasion and reached out to the farthest person in the crowd. As usual there’s a political slant to U2 shows as the band were joined on stage by a line of people wearing masks of Aung San Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest in Burma, as thousands more in the crowd donned their masks during “Walk On”. Archbishop Desmond Tutu provided the intro to one of the truly great ballads of our time, “One”, which saw Bono slightly change the vocal arrangement.
“Where The Streets Have No Name” closed the main part of the set on a pulsating high, however the ballad heavy encores seemed to lower the mood when the band should have moved into top gear. Sure “Ultraviolet”, “With or Without You” and the newy “Moment of Surrender” all ooze quality and passion but they just lack that final oomph that a stadium show needs to send the crowd off on a high. Maybe a “New Years Day”, “I Will Follow” or maybe “Wire” could have ended the show with a real bang rather than on such a mellow, albeit classy note. U2 are never going to be able to please everyone. With such an illustrious heritage someone’s favourite song will always be omitted but U2`s unpredictable yet quality filled set list and extravagant stage show meant a fresh and invigorating performance by Bono and the boys thrilled more than they disappointed and once again U2 had reaffirmed why they are one of the biggest bands on the planet. Review by Mick Burgess |
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