U2's "Elevation" in Cleveland 5/3/01
May 05 '01
The Bottom Line Put aside any hesitation at the ticket price and catch U2 on this tour. It will be money well spent.
With U2 being one of my favourite bands, the decision to catch multiple dates of their "Elevation" tour was easy. Despite the show being a 3-hour drive away in Cleveland, Ohio at Gund Arena, I snatched up two tickets for the show soon after they went on sale in late January.
PJ Harvey, the opening artist, was either a love or hate type artist. Not being a fan, many of her songs sounded quite a bit like the others. The time she was on stage was excellent for people watching, stage studying, and getting more excited for the upcoming show.
The stage setup was unlike the typical setup. In addition to the normal stage, a red heart shaped catwalk extended from the stage, out into the arena itself. Black and white video monitors were hung above the stage, which featured shots of the band members during parts of the show. Gauzy white sheets were also hung from above the stage, dropped down and used to reflect patterns for several of the songs played.
In true U2 style, the heart was lit at certain times with bright white lights that surrounded the heart, as well as glowing green lighting on both the inside and outside of the heart.
Large video monitors that rose up above the back of the stage featured clips of Charlton Heston (before Bullet the Blue Sky) as well as a shadow image of a belly dancer during Mysterious Ways.
As with all of the shows on the Elevation tour, ticket prices ranged from $45 (floor) to $85 (back of the arena as well as the upper sides) to $130 ("Gold Circle", the first level sides of the arena). Our two $130 tickets provided us with a great view of the whole stage, being at a higher level than the arena floor. Those lucky enough to be the first 300 in line (not to mention those with enough stamina to stay in line since mid-morning) were allowed to be in the middle of the heart, allowing for an up close and “personal” show.
From the moment U2 went on stage, the almost sold out arena was alternating between screaming, singing along to the songs, and general bouncing. It was quite amazing to hear almost 20,000 people singing the lyrics to their favourite songs or clapping along to the beats. The crowd clearly adored the band and their music.
Of course, as with most shows, there are those who just don’t “get it” – something tells me the cheers to Charlton Heston were not the intended effect (as U2 have been known to be quite anti-gun ownership) nor was it “comforting” (or more than laughable) to see the several stripper-eqsue women dancing to Stay (a song about domestic violence) like it was their favourite song to strip to. Throughout Bono talking about Joey Ramone (late front man of the influential band The Ramones) several people could be heard asking others (and I do quote) “Who the hell is that?” and general confused looks on their faces.
Thankfully, however, the majority of the fans gave both respects to the music as well as understood that it was not very nice to whistle loudly with 19,000 people singing along to the classic lyrics of 40 (which plea for an end of violence).
Unlike the 1997/1998 PopMart Tour, the 2001 Elevation tour saw U2 playing a mix of both the old, well loved songs, as well as the new loved songs, much to the delight of most fans.
The set list, spanning slightly over two hours and including two encores, was the true highlight of the show -
Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until the End of the World
New Year's Day
Kite
New York
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday/Get Up Stand Up
Stuck in a Moment
In a Little While
Desire
Stay
Bad/Ruby Tuesday/40
Where the Streets Have No Name
Mysterious Ways
The Fly
Bullet the Blue Sky
With or Without You
Pride
One
I Remember You
Walk On
The sound throughout the show was excellent. While many sports arenas "feature" awful sound for concerts, the combination of excellent sound engineers, perfect sound level, and good acoustics of the arena allowed an extremely crisp sound, with no muddled vocals.
To quote my non-fan boyfriend, “Sound like that is what makes the band professional.”
U2 clearly gave their all for this show, as they seem to do with most of their shows. The energy level throughout the whole set was simply amazing, and the emotion put into the lyrics of songs such as Bad, One, and the tribute to Joey Ramone - I Will Remember You, was actually touching, a hard thing to do when in front of 20,000 anonymous fans.
Bono, spending a great deal of time at the bottom “v” of the heart catwalk interacted with the fans much to the delight of the whole arena, not just those at the tip of the heart. Edge also frequently traveled onto the catwalk, to interact with Bono, all while playing his guitar flawlessly. Adam (on bass guitar) and Larry (on drums) also played flawlessly, complementing the guitar and vocals in a way that is simply not “caught” on a studio recording.
After the show, it was fairly safe to say that no one walked away from this show disappointed at the band or the ticket price. The band played to their fullest extent, and managed to put together a terrific set list to please all of their fans.
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