U2 360 Tour at Giants Stadium (September-23-2009) during and just after the show I posted the gig as “OK” now I need to expand on that. For years I have said that the young female pop stars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and others. Have some Pretty Good music I like much of it but when do a live show it is stacked with distractions 40 dancers-lights-explosions-multi video displays. The music is good enough to stand on it’s own I wish they realize that I would love to see any one of them do a acoustic show sit down on a stool pick up a guitar and sing to me. This was the way I felt last night at the Giant Stadium stop of the U2 360 Tour. The stage well it was much more than a stage it was this massive structure that took up probably ¼ of the football field with four legs topped by a giant canvas covering with a tower that looked like a rocket. Rapped around all this was a black video screen that used 4 stationary cameras and a few hand held ones. At times all 4 members of the band were shown in split screen. There were 2 bridges that extended from the center stage to a round catwalk these bridges moved 360o during the set allowing band members to walk over and onto the catwalk. Now onto my point was/ is all this necessary ? U2 as I said I believe is the Worlds 2nd best band behind Mike Peters-James Stevenson-Craig Adams and Steve Grantley collectively The Alarm. U2 can deliver a powerful high energy concert without all the visual distractions Bruce Springsteen is a good example his shows are high profile and high energy without all the pyrotechnics I do not believe all these visuals add to the concert experience I believe it takes away from it. Let’s leave all that nonsense to the pop stars. Come on Bono-Adam-Larry and Edge bring me into a small venue leave the electric instruments home and show me what you got. I have full confidence in you.
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2 comments:
Bill I believe buddy that you are spot on about the over-use of effects. I loved the U2 show here in Glasgow but as I am not really a stadium rock kind of guy I really missed the intimacy that a smaller type show often brought when going to see U2 live (okay, that was a long time ago when I last saw them in such a setting). Their music is that good that they don't really need all the gimmicks.
You are spot on about The Alarm though. Now there is a band that never had to use any gimmicks and still don't. We are a bit spoiled because every year at The Gathering we get to see them perform the ultimate Alarm show (3 Hours plus)and it's just straight forward Rock and Roll. Another fact about an Alarm show is that every show is different from the previous one. The 360 Tour for U2 has been pretty much the same set every night (though they made a few changes in the American dates)and that leaves little room for surprise. With The Alarm there's always a surprise waiting to happen.
On the GT Tour last year they performed in four cities a week for three weeks and each set list was different from the one before. Those were some of the best Alarm gigs I've seen. Now if given the opportunity to see a dozen Alarm shows or a dozen U2 shows I'd go for The Alarm every time.
If you wanted to see a more intimate show, then going to a venue that holds 80,000 may not have been your best move.
The stage was no larger than others I've seen lately, and what it DID do was allow Bono and The Edge to get closer to more concert goers than a smaller stage would have.
That said, they would be remarkable in a smaller venue, but considering where the concert was, to be disappointed because of the size of the show seems unrealistic.
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