|
|
U2 Elevation Tour: Left Me Speechless, And That's A Near Impossible FeatJun 15 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Music
The Bottom Line The best concert EVER, and you have to see it to believe it.
There is something about watching U2 live in concert that feels as though God has dived headfirst into you and shown you something truly amazing, like a miracle that nobody can genuinely understand unless they experienced it for themselves. Seeing U2 perform their "Elevation Tour" concert is the closest thing I've ever had to a religious experience, and this is coming from a skeptic. You may be scratching your head right about now, and wondering "How is seeing some music concert possibly so powerful and inspiring?." All I can say to that, is witness them for yourself and I guarantee you will understand without a shadow of a doubt, why this is the best concert I have EVER seen, and I'm not even worried about hyping it up too much because there is no way it can possibly disappoint you. The funny part is, I wasn't even planning on going. My best friend's birthday is this summer, and she is a HUGE u2 fan, like the kind that would sleep outside a concert just to be lucky enough to hear a second of a song when someone opened the door to the arena. Rather than subject her to this sort of torture, I decided to surprise her with 2 tickets to the sold out show in Albany, New York, at Pepsi Arena on June 2nd. Now I won't lie--these tickets are rather pricey at $150 each, but if I had a chance to go all over again, I'd pay double or triple that. It is worth every single penny. Ok, Why Is This Concert So Amazing? Bono is such an amazing performer, that he has the ability to suck energy out of every person and make it impossible to divert your eyes off him, for even a moment. He launched the two hour set with "Elevation", which was just a taste of what was to come. I was amazed to hear that they sound INCREDIBLE live, like even better than their records, as though that were possible. I've seen a ton of concerts in my life, but they blew all of them out of the water. The stage setup was really creative, as it had a heart shaped walkway extending off the stage and into part of the general admission group. This was very cool because Bono and some of the band members would walk onto it and practically be inside of their crowd of fans. People would throw their hands at Bono, like do ANYTHING they could to get a touch of the musical genius. It was a nice touch because it allowed U2 to be really close to their fans, and made them a little more human. They played a bunch of songs from their new album, which I thought were decent before seeing the concert (I'm really a total fan of their older stuff, from the "joshua tree", etc) but hearing them live gave me a whole new love for their newer stuff. "Beautiful day" is a great song to hear live, because the music just absorbs into you and I like how it starts off slow and then gets a little louder towards the chorus. People would be all relaxed and mellow and then start jumping around and dancing with the chorus, it was very amusing to watch. About halfway through the concert, I remember thinking "Wow, this is so awesome, I love U2 and they're not even playing their older stuff! This is definitely one of my favorite concerts ever." Then BOOM- like the best gift you've ever received- they started playing a whole bunch of their older songs. I have never seen an audience so stirred up and excited as when they played "sunday bloody sunday", and let me tell you, it is unbelievably good live. They also played "pride- in the name of love", "where the streets have no name", "with or without you", "One", "Mysterious Ways", etc. There were honestly moments of listening to these songs that made me choke up and nearly start crying, I felt so overwhelmed with happiness that I got all emotional about it. I thought I was some sort of freak but I looked over and saw another lady balling, so I guess I wasn't alone. One of the best things about the concert was how involved the audience got into it. I would constantly look over and across the stadium to see how people were responding to it, and everyone was swaying and moving and smiling and clapping in total harmony, as though none of us were strangers. My hands were totally numb from clapping and I couldn't stop, and hardly anyone sat down the entire time they were on stage. Another really cool thing about the concert, is how they incorporated their political beliefs into segments of the show. Right after singing "Pride- In the name of love", which talks about the fatal shooting of Martin Luther King, Bono spoke about how there are so many unfortunate people in other countries that are treated horribly- and we are all supposed to be created equal- and he encouraged us to write letters to our senators, congressmen, etc and take an active role in helping others. Everyone was cheering very loudly for him using his fame for a good cause and being a good role model. There was also a part where we thought the concert was over, but then he surprised us with a big screen showing Charlton Heston speaking about guns, saying something along the lines of "Guns aren't bad, they're only bad if they get into the hands of bad people", and then there was a clip of a little girl finding a gun in the home of her living room, right as U2 went into singing "Bullet the blue sky." It was very intense and powerful. I think my favorite thing Bono said all night was when he thanked the audience for "giving them (u2) such a good life." I really melted when he said that. The set was very cool too, without being too flashy or over the top. They had a pretty colorful lights flashing and during "Mysterious Ways" there was a rainbow screen of the outline of a girl dancing, which was really neat. The best part was during the last song of the show, "Walk On" when they started flashing the words to the song across the stadium towards the end. The whole thing just felt like some sort of dream sequence or fantasy you tripped into- it was so good it was almost surreal. The opening act was PJ Harvey, who honestly I felt pretty sorry for. She had a 45 minute set, and after a few songs, a bunch of people were chanting "Bono! Bono!". I am not really familiar with her music, but she had some decent songs. There was something a little wrong with her speakers though, because it was very hard to hear what she was singing and it seemed overtly loud. I would have to say that the opening act was the low point of the show, but then again, you have to give the girl kudos for having the balls to open for a sensation like U2, knowing that people were just going to want her to leave the stage to see the real reason they came to the show. Final Thoughts In conclusion, this concert was unbelievably good and I hope my review gave you a little taste of it. I recommend all of you to see it, regardless of the high cost, you will get your money's worth. Not only will it be the best concert you ever see, but it will be an incredible memory to have for the rest of your life.  |
| Read all comments (4)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
by George_Chabot
by starcollector
by PacManY2J
![Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast Reviews](http://di2.shopping.com/images/pi/95/a4/8a/2006752046-100x100-0-0.jpg?p=p4.2dba8e0062b206f026ad&a=2&c=1&l=8071320&t=120602231345&r=1)
