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Elevation Tour April 6th 2001--Denver Colorado ***LOVED IT***Apr 08 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line An amazing performance from a band still in their prime; see this show, even if you have to travel for hours to see it.
Is this concert worth an eight-hour drive? YES. Is it worth a couple of hundred dollars for me and my wife to be able to see our favorite band? YES. Is it worth trying to follow our friend through the labyrinthine streets of Denver so we don't lose him? Well, we may have been better off losing him than stressing out about running down innocent Denverites, but YES. Last Friday, we made the eight-hour drive from Salt Lake City to Denver across Wyoming, whose stretch of I-80 is the most uninteresting drive in the Union. The sole purpose of the trip was to see our favorite band, U2. I would have gladly driven twice as far and paid twice as much for the show we got. I've only known about U2 since about 1997; up until that point I hadn't heard much music that was made post-1970, a result of my upbringing and my own self-imposed isolation. In the four years since I started listening to them, they've become my favorite group. I saw the Pop-Mart Tour when it came to Salt Lake City in 1997, and was amazed at how they transformed a football stadium into a spectacle, with 35-foot-high television screens, a giant yellow arch (think 1/2 of McDonald's), and a lemon-shaped mirrorball. Greater than the spectacle was the performance by Bono and the boys; it was an unforgettable concert. Thus, when I heard that their "Elevation Tour" would be a scaled-down concert tour for them, I was wondering what I'd see. It turns out that "scaled-down" for U2 is still jaw-droppingly visual. Instead of playing open-air stadiums, they've cut back to only doing indoor performances. We caught them at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. The Pepsi Center seats about 19,000, plus had a couple of thousand people on the floor in general admission. We were literally four rows from the Very Top of the arena, and I was expecting to be a little disappointed in what we could see, or even hear. Their opening act was P.J. Harvey, who I don't know anything about. Well, now I know that I don't really like her music. Her sound system was pretty bad--couldn't understand anything she was singing or even saying, so that intensified my fears about what our U2 experience would be. After about an hour, she was done, though, and out of sight, out of mind. By the end of the first song, all my doubts evaporated. They opened with "Elevation", which my current favorite from their new album "All That You Can't Leave Behind". They started the song after taking the stage unannounced--the house lights were still up, and it took a few beats to catch what exactly was happening. An awesome beginning. That song got the crowd on their feet, and got the band energized to keep going for the 22-song set. Bono is known for being an egomaniac, a ham, and a great performer, so the combination of those three with this song had him jumping all over the stage, and had us all jumping with him. Even four rows from the top of the arena. The sound was fine--I guess P.J. Harvey's stuff wasn't suited for the arena or something, but U2's went off without a hitch. I guess I should say something about the stage--their last two tours have been HUGE, overblown affairs that pushed audiences into sensory overload; this was scaled back, but still impressive. Above the stage were four large screens, which showed close-ups of the band (helpful in these huge concerts). They were black and white, which I found odd at first, but it was evocative of most of their album covers--Joshua Tree, Rattle & Hum, Unforgettable Fire, Pop, and All That You Can't Leave Behind all had black-and-white photos on their covers. So it's how I'm used to seeing the boys most often. I liked it. Below the screens you have the stage, which was pretty standard, all one level. At the back of the stage, you have another bank of screens, which were dormant for most of the concert, but for some songs would burst forth colors, images, words, and could be elevated or lowered; they ranged from a wall about three feet tall to about twelve feet tall. The most-used and most-appreciated element of the stage was a heart-shaped ramp that jutted out into the audience about 100 feet. There were several hundred fans within the heart, and thousands more outside it. It gave Bono and the Edge a chance to run out into the fans, close enough to touch hands with them, but keeping them separated enough that they could continue to perform without being completely mobbed. Here's a list of the entire set, which went on for just over two hours: Elevation Beautiful Day End of the World Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of Gone Discotheque Staring At The Sun New York I Will Follow Sunday Bloody Sunday The Sweetest Thing In A Little While The Ground Beneath Her Feet Bad Where The Streets Have No Name Mysterious Ways The Fly Bullet The Blue Sky With Or Without You One Walk On It was a great sampling of their twenty-year library, a look at the highs of my favorite band (speaking of high, there was a WHOLE lotta weed goin' up in smoke...couldn't see any of it, but smelled like teen spirit all over the place). Here are the songs that stuck out: Beautiful Day --the one that's all over the radio these days was great live! The Edge's guitars on it were awesome, but not as soaring as Bono's voice. Great to see them in action. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of --Bono dedicated this one to his friend Michael Hutchence, who was the lead singer of INXS and who committed suicide a few years ago. Very touching, and gave depth to a song that I already liked. Almost brought tears to these cynical eyes. Discotheque --I seem to be one of the few U2 fans who LIKED the Pop album, so it was refreshing to see this technified U2 song, even if a lot of people didn't recognize it at first. Very upbeat, very fast, liked it a lot. New York --for this one, they brought down giant scrims of gauzy fabric, that they then projected silhouettes of the band members onto. Made for an effective, haunting mood for the slower, moodier song, and set it apart from the other songs. Sunday Bloody Sunday --probably the one that the crowd participated the most in; the last time I saw it, it was performed slowly and quietly; this time it was the regular tempo and the crowd was shouting out the choruses for Bono. Gives me chills just remembering it. The Sweetest Thing --Bono told us that this song was written as a birthday present for his wife when he had forgotten her birthday, and that the Edge eventually put it on the Greatest Hits album. After that, it hit it big on the radio, and deservedly so. Great, happy, summery song, the crowd loved this one too. In A Little While --this song opens with Edge playing a little guitar riff that I REALLY like; what was astounding was that when he first started it, you could have heard a pin drop in that crowd of 21,000. It's a slower more intimate song, and for that brief shining moment, it was like it was just us. Just Bono, the band, and me and my wife. Great moment. Oh yeah, and the pot-smokers. Where The Streets Have No Name --just a great performance, period, that had Bono sprinting around that giant heart and getting the entire crowd there with him, loving every word coming from his panting mouth. Mysterious Ways --replacing the belly dancer from the Zoo TV tour and the cross-dressing belly dancer from the Pop Mart tour was an electronic silhouette of a belly dancer on those mobile wallscreens at the back of the stage. Bono is seduced by her, sings to her, as she eventually becomes an army of women all dancing to his words. A great concept, flawlessly executed. Bullet The Blue Sky --not my favorite song, but well done, with video of atrocities committed all over the world displayed on the screens behind the band. It opened with a statement from Charlton Heston, as President of the NRA saying that men with guns aren't bad...probably a controversial statement U2 was making, but considering the venue, that students from Columbine Highschool were probably at, it was one of the safest places to make it. Great way to make their point, and a stunning performance from Bono. They closed with three of my favorite songs: With Or Without You --pretty standard performance, but what makes this song is the end, and as 21,000 other humans joined me in singing the aria at the end, it gave me chills and brought tears to my li'l blue eyes. It helped that that song is as close as anything to "Our Song" for me and my wife. One --another favorite, and U2 uses it these days to emphasize love between one group of humanity and another, not necessarily just a man and a woman. The idea that love could overcome the boundaries we've built between all of us is hardly original or revolutionary, but the way U2 phrases it and makes it penetrate even MY stony heart does me some good. Walk On --another from their most-recent album, it's about giving one another the strength to continue, even when it seems darkest. People have called it a self-help song, I call it inspirational, especially in that setting. Sometimes it takes courage to keep on going in life, and this song celebrates that courage, while giving it to others. In all, it was a far better concert than the Pop-Mart tour I saw (which was also stunning). They seem to have scaled back on the effects (although the lighting effects and video and all visual elements were still astounding), and concentrated on their music. It made for a much more emotional show than the irony of their last two tours. If the show happens to be coming to your town, and you have tickets, here are a few small pieces of advice: 1) If you're up in the nosebleed section, you're still going to see an AWESOME show. Bring binoculars, or rent some at the show if you want them. Our friends brought some, and I used them a few times, but really, I would have been fine with the whole stage and the video screens. 2) Bring money for souvenirs. With various members of my family unemployed, and with the perpetual poverty of college students, I didn't pick up a t-shirt, but some of our other friends did, and now I have the cankering envy that means I'll end up finding them later on U2.com or eBay. Very cool designs, and nice posters and other schmoo, too. If U2 is coming to your town, and they're not sold out yet, this could be your big chance to see an unparalleled band while they're still in their prime; I think Bono is 39 or 40, and the other members of the band are all right around there...I really don't want to see them break up, but I don't want to see them devolve into Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in another twenty years, either. So see them now. If U2 is coming, and they ARE sold out, an alternative to traditional scalpers is eBay; check out their prices, for some venues you can get them for about what they were through TicketMaster. And the price is worth it. U2 is my favorite band, so I'm biased, but this was an amazing performance. See it if you can.  |
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