Moving night in Washington with tributes to the late Eunice Shriver and Teddy Kennedy and respect going out to political movers and shakers in DC more than a few of whom seem to be here.

http://www.u2tourfans.com/

Published in the Monday, September 28, 2009 Edition of By Chris Dewey

Arrogance? Check. Socially conscious anthems? More than you can imagine. Brogues? You ‘betcha. A night of consistent entertainment? Without a doubt. On Sept. 20, U2 rolled into Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium to give fans, both young and old, all of this and more within a two hour, 23-song set.

Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton, and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. arrived on stage as David Bowie’s dreary “Space Oddity” poured out of the sound system. The stage, a circular monstrosity with ramps that lead the band farther into the audience, was described by the band as their own spaceship. At various points during the show, it changed color and emitted bursts of smoke.

The band kicked off the night with a quartet of songs from their latest album No Line on The Horizon, beginning with the upbeat rocker “Breathe.” Although the album was only moderately embraced by the American public, each of these songs sounded much more vibrant live, even the inane “Get on Your Boots,” a boneheaded track perfectly designed for stadium shows. It was a risky move opening with four new tracks, but U2 managed to pull it off effortlessly.

The set did an admirable job providing the crowd with ample offerings of both new and old. Harder songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” sat comfortably beside more mellow tunes like “MLK.” U2 demonstrated that they are not a band that relies on hits from the past. Recent radio staples like “Vertigo” and “Beautiful Day” were received just as enthusiastically as an old classics like “New Years Day.” By playing about half of their latest album, they made it clear that they are making music today because they’re still driven, not just as an excuse to tour.

The night was marked by a few epic surprises as well. “The Unforgettable Fire,” a song from the underrated 1984 album of the same name, provided audiences with a dose of droning 1980s textured new wave as well as an impressive psychedelic light show. Also, it was somewhat shocking when the second encore began with “Ultraviolet (Light My Way),” a minor track from the album Achtung Baby.

The two encores provided what may have been the one setlist snafu of the night. Initially, Bono and co. returned to stage and launched into a one-two punch of megahits “One” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The crowd was dancing and singing exuberantly to what could have been a perfect end to the show. Instead, the second encore featured “With or Without You,” one of the band’s biggest sing-along tracks, sandwiched in between the aforementioned “Ultraviolet” and “Moment of Surrender” from the new album. Though none of these songs flopped, it was almost painfully obvious that the two sets should have been flip-flopped for maximum effectiveness.

Each member of the band brought everything they had to the show. If Bono’s voice has lost any range or power over the years it was not apparent that night at Gillette. Similarly, The Edge, who has never been considered a legendary guitar hero, played admirably all night as he drenched audiences in waves of his signature shimmering guitar tone. However, as some reviewers have noted throughout the tour, the expansive stage does present a bit of a drawback in that it removes some of the interaction and intimacy between band members.

Sure, you can argue that it would have been great to hear some of the other classics like “Bad” or “Pride (In the Name of Love),” but on a tour that attempts to combine the bulk of a new album with a catalogue full of popular hits, it is not surprising that a few well known tunes would be excluded. Nearly 30 years after releasing their debut album, it is still very apparent why U2 remains one of the most powerful and enduring musical acts in our lifetime.

http://media.www.bcheights.com/

Image: U2.com

Great opening set from Muse, whose new album is topping charts worldwide this week, Larry Mullen Jnr led U2 on stage and ‘Breathe’ set the scene for a memorable night. The ‘funky stuff’ came with Mysterious Ways and the surprise inclusion of ‘She’s The One’, for Springsteen, led into ‘Desire’.

Breathe
Magnificent
Get on Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
She’s The One/Desire
Elevation
Your Blue Room
Beautiful Day
No Line on the Horizon
New Year’s Day
Stuck in a Moment
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy – Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name

Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

http://www.u2.com/

Image U2.com

U2 smashed the house record tonight at Giants Stadium. The previous attendance record was held by Pope John Paul II after his visit to the stadium in 1995.

With gig goers in excess of 84472 it was a fantastic night at Giants. Speaking from the stage at the end of the night Bono said, “News just in. We’ve broken every record for attendance in this stadium – including the Pope. Sorry Bruce – we know its your birthday and all”. Before adding later, “I know they’re knocking this place down…we probably won’t be here again before the wrecking ball but it was a magic place for us as well as the Giants”

http://www.u2.com/

U2 ExaminerJill Marino

Sunday night debut in Boston. Photo: U2.com

Irish crowds were calling for U2 as they played to enthusiastic crowds in Boston on Sunday and Monday night as their “360” world tour moves its orbit through North America.

One of my favorite sites, U2gigs.com, has the setlist from Sunday night and there was a little bit of Beatles action going on. “Vertigo” had a piece of “She Loves You” attached to it, while “Where the Streets” found a partner with “All You Need is Love”, and “Beautiful Day” came together with “Blackbird”. Anyone else hoping a “U2 Rock Band” should be in the works?

Bono told the crowd, which included Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Cameron Diaz, “Great to be back home in Boston.”

At home for night two on Monday had the band use “Magnificent” as the opener instead of “Breathe” (major change on the tour so far). “Your Blue Room” and “Stay” were in the show as well. “Breathe” wasn’t performed at all! “Mofo” and “Stories for Boys” found their way into the show as snippets. U2gigs.com also has amazing photos as well, so please check them out.

Tomorrow the band hits Giants Stadium for a two-night stand. Finally it’s my turn to see “360”! I have been furiously checking the weather and Accuweather.com has the forecast I prefer to happen for the next two days. Passing evening shower for Wednesday, and rain Thursday afternoon with clear skies at night. Anyone who has been to a “360” show so far, has the weather held up for you? If it was drizzling rain, the show went on?

Blackberry’s anticipated “U2 Mobile Album” is ready for download. Visit the Blackberry website to get the download link emailed to you, or purchase it on your phone using the Blackberry App Store. And make sure your phone is the right model to support the mobile album. Mine isn’t so now I have to go get some card to make it work for my phone.

Set your TiVO’s this Saturday, because U2 will be the musical guest on the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live” on NBC. Check your local listings so you don’t miss out! It airs at 11:30pm on the East. I hope U2 is put in a skit! Megan Fox will be hosting, but does that really matter when U2 is the musical guest?

Here’s some of “Vertigo/She Loves You” from Sunday night in Boston.

http://www.examiner.com/

About five months and three weeks shy of St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish rock band U2 is set to perform two concerts at Giants Stadium, with a massive stage and blizzard of lights complementing a raw sound that borders on rock ‘n’ roll religion.

U2'S The Edge, left and Bono perform at the Rogers Center

“What I love about U2, besides their incredible musical talent, is the fact that they are rock stars with soul. They’re all high school friends who came together through their love of music. They’re not manufactured by a big music producer, they didn’t answer an ad in the paper, they came together as friends who enjoyed playing music and remain friends to this day.[0xa0]That’s what it means to have soul. They’re family men who realize family (in whatever sense you believe that to be) is more important than money or any of the luxuries that come with it.[0xa0]

“If all the fame and fortune went away, they’d be just as happy – that’s soul.

“They understand their fans are the ones who have gotten them where they are today, not their music. They thank their fans for blessing them with the life they’ve gotten to live – that’s soul.

“They are the only ones who can sell out stadiums across the globe, and can unite thousands of people though music. They know, in those crowds, there are friends and foes. They know if enemies can share one commonality, they could become friends – that’s soul.

“Having had the opportunity to meet the band last March in New York City, they treat their fans as friends. I’ve never witnessed anything like that in my life.

“How lucky we are to have a group such as U2 to bring the world together and to show up-and-coming musicians what it takes to be a rock star.”

“My wife, Mary, and I are huge fans of U2. We went to two concerts when they did their ‘Vertigo’ tour, one at the Meadowlands and one at Madison Square Garden. I?thought that album was great, and they were the best concerts I’ve been to, and I’ve seen some of the great rock acts. We own many of their albums, including the new one, ‘No Line on the Horizon.’

“As it turns out, my wife and I made the decision not to attend one of the upcoming concerts because we were largely unimpressed by the new album. There were a couple of decent songs (the title track and “Magnificent”), but too many that just didn’t grab us.

“Unlike ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’ and ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ and ‘The Joshua Tree,’ all of which have many excellent and very listenable tunes, this album reminds me of ‘Zooropa’ or ‘Pop’: artistic and different, but not necessarily their best work.

“We saw U2 perform songs from ‘No Line …’ on the Letterman show in the late winter, then bought and listened to the album. We just didn’t feel like making the investment for a concert that would feature an album we were not that into.

“That being said, I’m really looking forward to seeing them as the musical guest on the season-opening ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Hopefully they’ll do one of their oldie but goodies.”

“U2’s music replenishes my soul.

“Their passion and bond as a band are inspiring. Although Bono is the frontman, they all share the spotlight – Larry on drums, Adam on bass and The Edge on guitar, supporting each other with no grandstanding among them.

“I love the fact they willed themselves to become the artists they are today: from their early beginnings as a band in 1978, they poured their collective heart and souls into making music that resonates.

“I came on board late to see them live. My first show was the ‘Vertigo’ tour at Madison Square Garden, Oct. 14, 2005 – it was High Mass. Not only are they consummate performers live and their stage design, sound and visuals on the cutting edge of technology, but to hear the ‘choral’ accompaniment of the audience singing along is about as close to euphoria as I will ever experience.

“Going to see U2 in concert was truly an amazing experience.

“They did not disappoint the 20,000 fans at Madison Square Garden on an October night in 2005. They rocked the place, and the fans were on their feet from start to finish as the band played many of their classic hits as well as the hits from their current album at the time, ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.’ I’ll never forget that night for a great concert, and the 10-plus inches of rain we had here in the mid-Hudson Valley.

“As an added bonus, my wife, Nora, and I had the opportunity to see a pretty good unknown opening act back then on that night at the Garden – Keane.”

Reach John W. Barry at jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com or 845-437-4822.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

U2 Concert Setlist: September 20, 2009 at Boston MA

Venue: Gillette Stadium

Opening Act(s): Snow Patrol

Main Set:

Breathe
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet)
Elevation
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)
Unknown Caller
New Year’s Day
Stuck In A Moment
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight / Two Tribes (snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
MLK
Walk On
One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name

Encore(s):

Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Mike Doherty, Weekend Post

Brett Gundlock / National Post Just one man in a stadium: Bono serenading via his great circular catwalk on Wednesday night at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

It’s no secret ambition bites the nails of success – or so Bono likes to tell us. And after taking on world famine, war, and pestilence, he and his U2 bandmates have set themselves arguably their biggest task yet: trying to make a stadium show feel intimate.

On their 360 Tour, they’ve spared no expense to do so: they’ve commissioned a 150-foot steel structure housing a 54-ton video screen made up of a million separate pieces, all of which takes four days to put together (and reputedly 120 trucks to cart across North America, although this was the one figure their tour publicist declined to confirm – justifying their carbon footprint to the press, it seems, would be one miracle too many).

But why should it take so much effort, material, and money to create intimacy? The rock ‘n’ roll stadium show has always been a strange beast, created from commercial and logistical, rather than artistic, concerns. Thrust into an enormous space designed for sporting events, what’s a band to do?

When the original stadium band toured across North America, no one had a clue how it would work, and thus expectations were low. Footage of The Beatles’ famous first concert at Shea Stadium reveals how little it took to make large numbers of young fans scream in 1965. The band played for a mere half-hour on an unadorned stage near second base on an otherwise empty baseball field, using a direly inadequate sound system – they couldn’t hear each other play, and the 55,000 in attendance saw very little, and heard nothing but their own prolonged hormonal shrieks.

Dissatisfied, the Fab Four retired from live performance just a year later, leaving their successors to cope with fans who had higher demands. In the early ’70s, video screens sprang up above stages to ensure that stars always looked larger-than-life. At first, the strategy had problems: a 1971 Billboard magazine article lamented that the black-and-white screen projections at a concert by the band Chicago “created an impression in the rear seats that we were being fobbed off with a low-budget TV show. High-budget visuals, though, have since proved difficult to resist. In 1988, The Edge told Rolling Stone, “With U2, it’s the music that makes the atmosphere. There’s no laser show, no special effects.” Four years later, on the Zoo TV tour, he and his bandmates would appear on stage flanked by 36 video screens showing a flashy jumble of images. 1997’s PopMart Tour used an 8000-square-foot next-generation LED screen as a backdrop, and the 360 Tour has a 14,000-square-foot cylindrical video screen made up whose interlocking segments can detach from one another and expand into a giant cocoon.

And yet, one doesn’t want to lose the human figure entirely; intimacy shouldn’t only be an illusion created by the proximity of screens. But how to bring the artists physically closer to their fans? In 1974, David Bowie sang Space Oddity from a crane suspended above his audience – which worked brilliantly, apart from when it failed to retract and he had to crawl back to the stage along its arm. Recently, Coldplay have taken to serenading punters in the nosebleed sections directly, by running up to the aisles with acoustic guitars. U2 have always been better at swaggering than sprinting; for Zoo TV, they built their first “b-stage,” where they could go and strum stripped-down songs, pretending they were still that little band from Dublin in the early ‘80s. The 360 Tour, with performances in the round, finds them reaching out onto the stadium floor with a great circular catwalk.

So once you have managed to be seen by the masses while maintaining your common humanity, the next step is to entertain, usually by playing with concepts of scale. Since the mid-’70s, bands have gleefully trotted out giant versions of animals or objects that look as though they’d be normal-sized if they were right in front of you. Pink Floyd had immense pigs that flew (and a pyramid that wasn’t supposed to but did anyway, if the wind was strong enough); The Rolling Stones commissioned gargantuan inflatable lips and a gigantic yellow dog; Fleetwood Mac built a 70-foot penguin that would never properly inflate. For PopMart, U2 erected a 100-foot swizzle-stick, a 12-foot olive, and a 40-foot lemon out of which they would emerge – when it didn’t get stuck, forcing them to sneak out an “escape hatch.”

For the 360 Tour, the stage set itself is an oversized prop: Bono calls it the “spaceship,” although it looks curiously like a four-limbed version of the spindly-legged alien invaders that Tom Cruise battled in 2005’s War of the Worlds. The band members play inside its mammoth carapace, atop which a pole stretches into the sky, bearing aloft a great disco ball that shines glittering lights all around the stadium.

At the Rogers Centre in Toronto this past Wednesday, it was as if the band had descended to colonize the stadium with their message of intergalactic hope: they beamed in Bowie’s Space Oddity before their set and signed off with a recording of Elton John’s Rocket Man; in between, astronaut Frank DeWinne recited one of the verses to their song Your Blue Room. When you can play music with someone who’s in space, the idea goes, you’re shrinking our corner of the universe down to size.

And in truth, this is what the best stadium shows do – they flabbergast us with special effects, but they also create a feeling of intimacy by bringing everything, and everyone, closer together. In Toronto, U2 offered a few such moments: as Bono backed off the mic for the first verse of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and the audience sang spontaneously along with the Biggest Karaoke Back-Up Band of All Time; as Bono and The Edge cut back on the bombast and hushed us with a unexpectedly moving acoustic duet version of Stay; and at the very end, as all the lights went off and Bono suggested, “Let’s turn this place into the Milky Way.” Hoisting our own video-screen props – our cell-phones – we created a stadium full of tiny stars while the band played the hymn-like Moment of Surrender. Commander Bono may have been resorting to a hoary big-concert cliché, but his strategy worked – it’s a safe bet that everyone in the stadium, at that point, felt as though they were not alone.

http://www.nationalpost.com/

Giant structure being erected in Gillette Stadium for concerts Sunday, Monday
By Frank Mortimer

Published: Thursday, September 17, 2009 9:59 AM EDT

Squeezing the clock no less than the Patriots did in their win over the Bills, construction crews began to prepare the field for the U2 concerts this Sunday and Monday even while football fans were leaving Gillette Stadium.

The goal posts came down first, then the field was covered by a protective surface.

Building commissioner William Casbarra said setting up the “unique” U-2 stage is an event in itself, taking about five days to complete.

“I’ve got three books of structural calculations here,” Casbarra said, referring to the plans his office received for erection of the stage.

The stage, with a cylindrical video screen, resembles a giant, four-legged creature from outer space. It stands 90-feet high tall with a 150-foot center pylon. It has several bridge connections to it with an umbrella type structure, more than 100 feet high, that covers the stage.

“I’ve dealt with complicated structures with the Rolling Stones stage” but this stage is the most elaborate, Casbarra said.

The oval-shape will take up about half the football field.

The event was expected to draw about 65,000 fans each night, including 7,000 on the field.

For both U2 concerts, parking lots are scheduled to open at 3 p.m., stadium gates at 5:30 p.m. The opening act, Snow Patrol, goes on at 7 p.m.

For some area residents, noise may be less of a problem than in past years.

Sound levels may be especially lower across Route 1 in Walpole, where most noise complaints were made in the past.

Casbarra said Patriot Place buildings, notably CBS Scene and the Brigham and Women’s/Mass General Health Care Center, seem to block some of the sound — a pleasant bonus associated with the year-old mall.

He said he’s heard no noise complaints from area neighbors during the current concert season.

During the concert, Casbarra will monitor sound levels outside the stadium’s, responding to any complaints received on the Gillette Stadium hot line (508-543-0350).

TRAFFIC

The New England Patriots’ home season opener also gave police a chance to try out a traffic plan that will be carried over to the two U2 events.

For the first time, the Foxboro Police Department for the first time will be posting detail officers at a number of local intersections under the same model used for Patriots games.

Officers will posted at at number of intersections, including along Mechanic Street; Beach and Meadowview; North Street at Payson Road; and Main Street and Pierce.

Among other traffic duties, detail officers at some locations try to make sure that only residents of those streets or their guests enter the neighborhoods during the peak times for event traffic.

The aim is to keep the event patrons from using the neighborhoods as shortcuts.

With global positioning devices common in vehicles these days, O’Leary said motorists are adept at finding alternate roads.

Officers try to perform this screening duty without unduly slowing the flow of traffic, but some additional delays do occur, he said.

“It was difficult to move people on the roads expeditiously,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said Sunday’s U2 event will, at least, be free of the rush hour traffic that further clogged local roads during this week’s football game. But the second night of the concert, coinciding wish rush hour, is expected to be more of a challenge.

U2 played Foxboro for two nights in 1997 with no unusual incidents, O’Leary said. To minimize tailgating disruptions, the stadium will continue its policy of denying parking lot access to people without tickets.

Venue: Soldier Field

Opening Act(s): Snow Patrol

Main Set:

Breathe
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet)
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Elevation
Your Blue Room
Unknown Caller
Until The End Of The World
Stay (Faraway, So Close)
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
MLK
Walk On
One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet)

Encore(s):

Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender