MUSIC REVIEW: U2 - LIVE AT THE ROSE BOWL

Live, Covering All Angles & Looking Beyond The Horizons Of Rock n' Roll

By: Josh Moorhead

October 29, 2009

(Thursday October 29th in Pasadena, California) Hype, excitement, expectations and ticket prices were high for U2′s Rose Bowl concert this past weekend; their last on this leg of the U2 360 tour -- one revolutionary in its presentation and design. Stretching from the red zone to midfield of the Bowl’s grass was the tour’s claw/space station/many-other-things-it’s-been-called. It’s a kind of giant mechanical spider that rests its legs as apexes to walkways made for U2, being, of course, Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton to wander about, on, and vamp to the crowd from.

Above this circle (ooohhhh, I get it -- 360!) is a giant screen that can expand and contract like an accordion. It’s all a little jaw-dropping when you first see it. Maybe it’s the closest thing one could experience to coming across a dinosaur or some other monster, but here I’ve gone and accidentally made it sound horrific. Rather, this claw also resembles a Who-ville skyscraper, something Seussian in its unnecessary but welcome audacity. It is a wonder to behold. And when U2 actually plays under it, it should take flight.

It’s difficult to ascertain if lift-off was truly achieved in Pasadena. U2′s opener, LA’s own Black Eyed Peas, took to the trapeze of the stage and, at one point, were joined by Guns N’ Roses rock guitar icon Slash for a thrashing and…well, slashing version of “Sweet Child Of Mine.” It was electric, and I’ll be damned if the show didn’t make me come off my high horse about the Peas and appreciate their goal and vibe a little bit more (which would be party/party). But the Roses song I was more reminded of, as far as the evening goes overall, was “Every Rose Has Its Thorns.”

You see, U2 is a totally unique, singular, un-replicable and sought-after thing that could have only been produced by the good grace that gives us nature. Somehow, by chance, around 30 years ago, a bunch of middle-schoolers who lived in the same town in Ireland came together, started playing some rock ‘n’ roll with a message, and now, around 30 years later, this natural wonder, the seismic thing that is U2, has cemented its place and stature in the world.

Is U2 that good? Sure. But they are more than good. U2 is important. Bono is not just a lead singer -- not just a Fergie or a Slash -- he is a figure as comfortable in the Oval Office, at the World Bank, in front of the UN, as on the stage. He’s like a kid in school who plays tough and careless while wearing a leather jacket but quietly pulls straight-As and enjoys poetry…except there’s nothing quiet about U2 or, more accurately, Bono. It’s famously evidenced in his music and politics. U2, then, is not just a band but a figurehead of good causes and justice -- their songs anthems and battle hymns.

It should all be enough to make that claw soar. But every rose has its thorns. Other critics of the show — which, to add scope to what was already a behemoth, was broadcast to millions around the world on YouTube -- called these thorns “the new stuff” -- the gripe that gets affixed to any band playing anything beyond the first hit you experienced with them. Poor bands. Could you imagine if, at your job, you performed your task, only to be told by your boss that they “don’t like your new stuff”?

“New” for U2 has meant a lot of things. They have always attempted to be innovative, to genre-mash and bend, to varying degrees of success. Their newest new stuff -- last Spring’s No Line On The Horizon -- didn’t hit as big as U2 usually would. But with the exception of a few slow-burners, there’s some great music on there -- thoroughly U2 in its musicianship, sometimes Dylanesque in its lyricism. On Sunday, U2 played some of the great No Line stuff and one or two head-scratchers. But blame goes both ways, and in some ways, the Pasadena show was an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. The force was U2; the object was the crowd.

An Ohio boy by heart and of home, I have found that, in LA, there’s a lot more to do than in quiet Hartville (yes, a real place where I’m from), but in LA, people get a lot less excited for all their options. U2 gave it all they had, really, but couldn’t always muster the crowd to the levels where the crowd should have been. Ironically, these people out here can’t be bothered to get too buoyant at a U2 show, but will frantically seek shelter and pray for safety when a light rain or a 15 mph wind rolls into town.

As Bono once wrote and sang, though, “the goal is elevation.” But U2 also gave themselves an uphill battle toward meeting their goal with their play-list. While almost all the greats and then some were played, they were in questionable order, making a herky-jerky mood that impeded elevation, let alone transcendence.

The set was a bit bipolar, as was Bono’s voice. I was enthralled when I would hear the opening chords of one of my favorites, but embarrassed when I would go to bombastically sing along, only to find Bono was more or less speaking verses. I hate to say it, but their second or third encore performance of “With Or Without You” was welcome, but just not that good. The music, yes, but by this point -- by choice or fatigue -- Bono was karaoke-ing himself.

Still, I shoulder most of, if not all, the blame on the crowd. Personally, I teared up here and there, and felt more excitement than I had in sometime in LA (I guess it’s beginning to get me too). I sang hard and I thanked my lucky stars. I ogled the spectacle and double-taked on the fact that…could this really be? Am I really finally seeing U2?

The concert was definitely not without its high points; they just came early, like a closer in the third inning. Singing “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” in a crowd of 96 or 97,000 people was something that I will not soon forget and will not experience again. As Bono began the song early in the set, he simply stepped away from the microphone, humbled, as the instrumentals quieted and the crowd, now a congregation, went a capella. Then, at song’s end, Bono delicately floated down into “Stand By Me” along with the crowd. Under the night sky, “and the moon is the only light we see” particularly resonated.

Similarly, in what I believe was the first encore Bono, really went to church, starting “Where The Streets Have No Name” with “Amazing Grace.” Some people in the crowd scoffed, but me, I sang and I sang it good. In the end, this is exactly what U2′s music represents -- something between the classic and sincere pop of “Stand By Me” and the spirituality and reverence of “Amazing Grace.”

But how sweet was the sound? Live and under the claw, it was actually easier for me than it’s ever been to see why some people I know despise U2. Perhaps they can come off as gaudy (the claw), outspoken (references to Iran, Burma, Amnesty International, the continents, a space station and African AIDS relief), or even pretentious (I guess see the aforementioned). But guess what? Just because you don’t like the messenger or how they say what they’re saying, just because perhaps you don’t agree with the level of their success does not mean the message is any less important. While it can feel unnatural to get “Vertigo” or “She Moves In Mysterious Ways” followed by political pleas and a bit of preaching, this is how U2 does their rock n’ roll -- with importance. In fact, at the end of “Vertigo,” I believe Bono sampled The Rolling Stones by singing “I know it’s only rock n’ roll, but I like it.”

Ah, Bono’s trick, then, is saying that but knowing it’s not only rock n’ roll. It’s only rock n’ roll but through the sincere, sometimes soaring vocals of Bono, the din shearing guitar of The Edge, the emphatic drumming of Larry Mullen, Jr. and the anchoring conscious of Adam Clayton’s bass -- through U2, that is, and in front of almost 100,000 and millions worldwide, this is not just rock n’ roll. It is opportunity, not just to entertain and maybe amaze, but to unite, to motivate, yes, maybe even to elevate. That is, if you’d only let yourself go where the streets have no name and find what you’re looking for.

The key, then, is that U2 has the right directions to get there. On Sunday night, I’m not sure where everyone else in the world or in the stadium watching ended up, but I know I ended up in a good place, if not quite the heavens U2 was aiming for. Still, I know they won’t stop trying to get me there.