U2 shows space-age verve, old-fashioned gratitude
By Carla Meyer
cmeyer@sacbee.com
Oakland — U2 has this spectacle thing wired.
The world’s most popular touring band opened its show Tuesday in Oakland with spirited “Even Better Than the Real Thing” as a 360-degree screen projected images so well-photographed and of such high resolution that they did not seem live. Yet they clearly matched the action on stage.
For a crowd of 69,000 at Overstock.com Coliseum, it was like watching a U2 concert and a U2 concert film simultaneously.
The screen composed part of a giant structure that was part alien and part broadcast tower. Later, a multi-colored spire dominated the stage, seemingly implanting pods behind it multitude of lights and enhancing the general “take me to your LED-er” vibe.
There was no need for transport, however, with Bono right there. The U2 frontman was clearly our leader, his natural sincerity having defeated the smugness that once threatened to overtake his public image.
Recovered from a back injury that forced the band to reschedule the Oakland show from its date a year ago, Bono looked relaxed and pleased to be on stage. His posture behind the microphone — head slightly back, chest pointed toward fans in the upper deck — suggested gratitude along with rock star attitude.
Bono thanked fans for showing up two years after originally buying tickets to the Oakland concert. Such loyal fans have made U2′s current 360 tour the best-selling tour of all time.
This was the earnest Bono who first hooked fans 30 years ago, when his searching vocals combined with the Edge’s bagpipe-vibrant guitar to stoke our interest in The Troubles, and star-crossed lovers, and big emotions in general.
This Bono has shed the pop-star contrivances (though not the shades), toned down the preachiness — tributes Tuesday night to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords were touching and fit seamlessly with the rest of the show — and settled into the simpler role of frontman of an amazing band.
That band, composed of Bono, guitarist the Edge, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton, played a lot of hits Tuesday night while seeming too vital to be a greatest-hits band.
Yes, “One” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” drew more enthusiastic responses than material from U2′s most recent album, “No Line on the Horizon.” But not because the songs from “Horizon” are sub-par. Hearing them played live is just not as instantly electrifying as hearing songs that have been played on the radio for 20 or 25 years.
The well-dressed, hip, mostly middle-aged Coliseum crowd braved the traffic backup on 880 and people-crush of the concourse to hear songs that took them back to their youths, performed by musicians who have maintained a youthfulness.
Back troubles aside, the members of U2, all around 50, are fit and constantly improving as musicians.
Older, anthemic songs such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday” hit so many emotional points that fans might not notice were they not played flawlessly. But they were played perfectly Tuesday night, resulting in a swell of feeling so great it embraced a whole stadium.
Less weighty songs benefitted as well. “Elevation” performed live, for instance, satisfies far more than the studio version, with the Edge’s crunchy guitar adding fullness and bounce.
Otherworldy yet earthy, Edge’s guitar is emblematic of the 2011 iteration of U2 — a mature band whose space-age staging, designed to dazzle a stadium-size crowd, is elaborate without being self-indulgent. The 360 Tour gives fans an appropriate sense of scope without lifting off into too many flights of fancy.
Call The Bee’s Carla Meyer, (916) 321-1118
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