My general rule regarding two-night concert stands in any given city is simple: Always trust the second show. No matter the band, the first night is typically the standard, straightforward set the group has been perfecting the entire tour. Night 2 will usually have more variety, and the band tends to pull out the stops—and rare songs. So, give me the second night.
Unless, of course, I can go to both.
I was lucky enough this week to see U2’s two shows at the MCI Center. After purchasing general admission floor tickets for Night 2 way back in March, I managed to scoop up a single for Night 1 day of show through Ticketmaster (not a scalper), something I’d never tried before. Let’s be honest: This has basically been U2005 for me, and I didn’t want all that built-up angst and anticipation to ride on one night. And as this stop in the nation’s capital proved, it’s amazing how the vibe can change from one show to the next. Those little differences—they’re everything.
U2 has been at this playing live thing for a quarter century now, so they know their way around a venue. You could probably count the “off” nights for an entire tour on a few fingers—and we’re talking, what, 100-plus shows in 2005? That’s some feat. The band is always in search of the “perfect” setlist, with a precise placement of songs in order to create an overall theme and flow that sums up exactly where U2 is at this point in their career. Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave much room for improvisation, the “tour debuts” so sought after by hardcore fans.
Wednesday night’s outing was essentially the “basic” Vertigo 2005 show, which is not a complaint. “Basic” by U2’s standards is what most bands could only hope for on their best-of-the-best days. From my stellar seat (20 rows up on Edge’s side at what would be center court for a Wizards game), I had a perfect vantage point for all that makes up this tour: The lights, the movement, etc. The stage setup is very similar to 2001’s Elevation tour, only this time the catwalk that extends out from either end of the stage into the center of the floor is rounded off rather than heart-shaped. (As a side note, this setup is pure genius on so many levels. It allows Bono—whose persona is too big for the venue, much less a stage—freedom to roam and spread his wings. Also, it breaks up the mob on the floor and relieves some of the pressure by essentially creating twice as many front-row “seats.” And it gives everyone something interesting to look at other than just lights and four guys standing on stage.)
Night 1 was standard U2 excellence. Bono’s voice really has undergone an amazing resurgence in the four years since the band toured in support of 2000’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”; in fact, his voice actually gets stronger through the course of a show. Bono believes it was his father’s dying gift to his son, and who am I to argue? The visuals are great, with chandelier-style light fixtures hanging from the rafters alongside curtains of lights that drop periodically and are also capable of showing images. Meanwhile, the main stage has a bull’s-eye-type light pattern and the catwalk also has running lights. All in all, U2 has perfected their live presentation, combining elements of both the stripped-down early years as well as the glam ZooTV and PopMart shows into one healthy whole that summarizes their entire career and at the same time, with the addition of the catwalk, pushes them forward into new territory. As with the Elevation shows, here the production only enhances the music, rather than overwhelming it.
Since walking out of MCI Thursday night, the song I’ve listened to most often isn’t even from U2—it’s “Wake Up” by The Arcade Fire, which has got to be one of the best walk-on songs I’ve ever heard. The Fire’s riff blares out from the speakers as the house lights go down and the chandeliers light up in red, crowd going absolutely berserk. The eye is drawn to the stage, obviously, as Edge, Larry and Adam walk in and strap on under spotlights; however, who is that little man in sunglasses at the point of the ellipse? Oh, yes, there’s Bono, arms upraised in exultation as confetti drops from the rafters and Edge kicks into the opening strain of “City of Blinding Lights,” one of the best songs from U2’s latest album, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.” When I first saw way back in the spring that U2 was using “City” as an opener I really didn’t understand why. It has a slow build and a spacious, “epic” quality that seemed suited more for a slot late in the first set, a la “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Of course, stupid me didn’t remember U2 used to open with “Streets” as well, and after seeing the way they choreograph their entrance, I can’t think of a better hello than “City”—everybody screaming “Oh! You look so BEAU-TI-FUL tonight!”
From there the show rockets into the stratosphere with a succession of uptempo rawkers. “Vertigo” is in the No. 2 slot, and it absolutely blows the doors off the building—one of the group’s best live songs, hands down. Couple that with another crowd-pleaser, “Elevation,” and back-to-back tracks from U2’s first album, “Boy” (wow, tagging the Who’s “See Me, Feel Me” at the end of “The Electric Co.” is a goosebump moment!) and I’m not sure how they can keep this pace up.
Turns out, they can’t.
The band takes a breather with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which is probably necessary after that initial missive (remember, these guys aren’t kids anymore), and serves the dual purpose of giving the audience a song everyone can (and does) sing along to. But the energy picks up again with the next couplet: the now classic “Beautiful Day” and its cousin from “Atomic Bomb,” “Miracle Drug.”
Here Bono ventures back out onto the catwalk for one of my personal favorites, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own,” dedicated to his father and one of the only songs in which the singer removes his trademark Bulgari sunglasses. This is one of the best moments in the entire show, because there’s always a bit of anxiety about whether Bono will actually be able to hit the operatic “SIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGG” during the climax. After staying off to the side of the ellipse for most of the song, Bono makes his way down to the point for this part and it seems as though he has to twist his whole body up and then explode outward in order to hit it, but somehow he does.
Bono is without question the most magnetic, dynamic frontman I’ve ever seen. His outsized personality makes a 20,000-seat venue feel like an intimate club; I’ve heard stories of people sitting at the top of MCI behind the stage who were still moved by the show. There aren’t many in this business who can make that happen, but Bono is the best of the best. You simply cannot take your eyes off him the entire night, because there’s no telling what he might do, and you certainly don’t want to miss anything. Is that symptomatic of an egomaniac? Sure. But without that, U2 certainly wouldn’t be what it is today.
Never is that more apparent than the next song in the lineup, “Love and Peace Or Else,” which features Bono and Larry—yes, Larry Mullen Jr.—at the point. Larry wanders out to play a simple drum-and-cymbal setup while Bono rips through the song. Midway through, Larry retreats to his comfort zone behind the big kit at the back of the main stage, while Bono grabs the sticks at the ellipse and attempts to beat the living crap out of the drum to end the song; it sounds stupid secondhand, but it’s another of those Bono moments that you just have to be there to get.
“Love and Peace” is the first of this tour’s anti-violence suite, completed by two warhorses, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Bullet the Blue Sky,” and a rarity that has been enjoying the spotlight lately, the beautiful “Miss Sarajevo.”
It’s interesting, though, that the latter, in which Bono nails the opera section originally recorded by Pavarotti, also signals the beginning of what ultimately proves Vertigo 2005’s fatal flaw. As “Sarajevo” concludes, the video screens broadcast the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it leads to what feels like a 20-minute public service announcement with, oh yeah, a few of U2’s best songs thrown in.
On paper, the trilogy of “Pride,” “Streets” and “One” seems almost overwhelming in its power. But, like “Bloody Sunday,” Bono has reimagined these three songs as part of his drive for debt and AIDS relief around the world—especially Africa. He makes that point abundantly clear during Vertigo 2005.
It’s no secret Bono is prone to “speechifying” (his word)—that’s who he is. Without his passion for world issues, he wouldn’t be the man and the musician he is, so U2 fans have always taken his preaching with understanding. Bono has been speechifying in concerts for his entire career, some people just don’t know it. That’s why “Rattle and Hum” is the band’s worst received effort to date; critics were turned off by, among many things, Bono’s anti-apartheid speech during the bridge in “Silver and Gold.” I wasn’t a fan back then, but I’m guessing fan reaction to such criticisms was something like, “Uh, duh. That’s just Bono.”
But nearly two decades later, everyone—and I mean everyone—agrees: Bono! Enough already.
These three songs that close the main set are overrun by speechifying, and the concert’s momentum and power suffers for it. From a certain point of view I’m OK with it, because it’s a credit to the quality of the songs that they can be adapted—20 years later, in the case of “Pride”—to meet new times and convey new meanings; this actually seems necessary, in certain respect, because I’d rather Bono reimagine his songs than simply blow through them like some kind of Irish jukebox. But I just don’t need an image of Africa up on the light curtains during “Streets.” And I certainly don’t need a 10-minute speech about Bono’s ONE campaign leading into the organization’s namesake (and one of my favorite songs of all time)—the rambling was so long Wednesday night, Larry actually put his sticks down and started timing his singer. It was ridiculous and excessive and overshadowed the music—and at these ticket prices, that’s a crime.
Thankfully, they totally salvaged the show with the encores.
The final six or seven songs of Vertigo 2005 get fans all jumpy, because this section of the show is most open to improvisation and surprises. Wednesday’s first encore began with an acoustic version of “The First Time,” a quiet gem from 1993’s “Zooropa” that until this fall 2005 leg had only been played nine times in the band’s history. It’s just Bono and Edge for this one; they start from opposite ends of the catwalk and meet in the middle to begin the second acoustic song, a fantastic version of “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” I hadn’t particularly liked this song four years ago (I dubbed it “momentum killer” during the Elevation tour), but then I heard the acoustic version recorded for the “7” EP released exclusively through Target stores, and it totally won me over. Stripped down to its essence, “Stuck in a Moment” is a gorgeous song, and this version was no different, as Larry and Adam snuck onstage toward the end to finish out the number as a full band. This intimate first encore concludes with “With Or Without You,” deceptive in its epic qualities. It starts out small—with Bono bringing a girl up out of the crowd onto the catwalk for a personal dance/serenade—but by the time he returns to the main stage and Edge kicks into the full-on final solo, it’s an enrapturing moment.
The second encore begins on an up note with “All Because of You,” one of the rockers from “Atomic Bomb.” An acoustic version of “Yahweh” follows, another instance of instrumentation and production killing a song on record. “Yahweh” is just OK as the closer for “Atomic Bomb,” but played this way, it’s heartbreaking.
Finally, a highlight for any U2 fan, “40” closed Wednesday night’s show. After serving as the finale for every U2 concert from 1983 to 1990, the hymnal “40” essentially disappeared among the band’s irony-laden shows of the 1990s, making only a handful of appearances during PopMart. “40” resurfaced on the Elevation trek, but only as a snippet, typically finishing off “Bad.”
But the classic is back in a big way during Vertigo 2005, and it’s a welcome return. Everything is the same—Bono leaves first, followed by Edge and Adam, leaving Larry alone on stage for his final drum solo, an arena full of people screaming “How long to sing this song!” The chant continues long after Larry’s left the stage, ending only when the lights are finally turned on and everyone wanders out of the venue, stunned and exhilarated at what they just saw.
And that was the lesser of two shows in D.C.
While Wednesday night was really, really good, Thursday’s show was, well, nearly transcendent. Nearly.
I don’t know if it was because he had some really good meetings on the Hill, or maybe because of the politically-charged atmosphere of the nation’s capital, maybe it was that old second-night theory of mine, or maybe it was just an illusion because I was standing among the throngs on the floor three feet from the catwalk (Adam’s side). But U2 stepped their game up to another level Thursday, not merely playing but attacking their songs, turning the standard into exemplary.
The buzz was there from the beginning, an indescribable feeling of power and energy, cemented during “Electric Co.” when Bono—only about six feet from me—steps out onto the barricade between the crowd and catwalk and, hanging on to fans’ hands, balances perfectly while gyrating on one foot and singing into his mic. It’s a surreal experience, being that close to the band, which is why the catwalk is such a great invention. This is the second time I’ve had floor seats (Chicago IV in 2001), and I continually found myself not believing, after all the times I’ve seen these guys on TV or video or listened to them on CD, they are actually RIGHT THERE TWO FEET IN FRONT OF ME.
The first audible for Thursday night was a dream-come-true situation: “Out of Control,” which Bono introduced as “our first single.” I absolutely love this song, and even though Bono garbled the lyrics a little, it alone was worth all the money, all the waiting outside shivering in the cold before the show, all the defending my spot in the crowd before the show. It was worth it all. And little did I know what was to come.
The rest of the main set was the same as the previous night, but again, there seemed an extra edge to the performance—a little extra umph (maybe it was because Condoleezza Rice was sitting off to the side of the stage). The speechifying was back, as it has been every night of the tour, but it was thankfully trimmed back a little from Night 1. Still, on a night like this, these breaks were momentum killers and broke the spell of what a U2 concert can be. It’s unfortunate, but it’s also not going away this tour—it’s built into the setlist, so I just deal with it and move on.
And move on we did, this time to another fantastic acoustic duo to open the encore: “Walk On” (a favorite from 2001) and the ultra-rare “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” from 1991’s “Achtung Baby.” Leading into the latter, Bono, standing with Edge at the point, tells us they’re going to try something a little different tonight. “It’s fun, right Edge,” he jokes, getting a big laugh from the crowd (it’s one of my favorite little moments of the night). Well, they absolutely NAIL this song, making me wonder where it’s been all this time.
And instead of closing with the quiet “40,” U2 decided to send us off in a full-throated roar, pulling out what is without a doubt one of their best songs and one of my all-time favorites of any band, much less U2: “Bad”
This is the song that put U2 on the map back in 1985, when Bono went out into the crowd during Live Aid. This is the song that requires mandatory repeat viewings on “Rattle and Hum.” And this is the song that, during Vertigo 2005, anyway, U2 is saving only for special occasions. There’s no better way to close a show, and Bono let it all rip, hitting all the notes and closing the show with a howling “Wide awake! I’m wide awake!” like he was 25 instead of 45. Aside from giving a couple shout-outs to members of Congress (Why, Bono? Why? I’ve been waiting to hear this song for so long! Don’t talk about politicians!), this was a transcendent moment, complete with an excerpt from Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power” (yeah, a little cheesy, but you had to be there), and the crowd knew it.
There’s another theory out there (I can’t take credit for it, though) that your favorite band really isn’t your favorite band if they don’t piss you off every now and then—you have to really care about a group in order to care enough to get mad at them. Did Bono piss me off with his excessive rambling and spell-breaking speechifying? Yes.
But in the hours and days since leaving MCI Center Thursday night, it’s the music and the power of its presentation that sticks with me and keeps me bouncing through my life on an emotional high. I don’t know when exactly it’s going to wear off. I don’t really want it to. This is U2, good, bad and annoying, and they’re unlike anything else I’ve ever seen.
U2
MCI Center, Washington, D.C.
10.19.05
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
The Electric Co./See Me, Feel Me
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
Ol' Man River
First Encore:
The First Time (acoustic)
Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of (acoustic)
With or Without You
Second Encore:
All Because of You
Yahweh (acoustic)
40
10.20.05
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
The Electric Co./See Me, Feel Me
Out of Control
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
First Encore:
Walk On (acoustic)
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (acoustic)
With or Without You
Second Encore:
All Because of You
BAD/People Have the Power
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