Spaceship U2 blasts off
Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass., September 21, 2009
Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz
The U2 spaceship rested comfortably on the grounds of the football stadium. When all was said and done a few hours later, the Irish superstars had not quite launched themselves and their fans into outer space, but the second of two nights of the 360° tour found the quartet doing their usual solid job of mixing songs new and old, connecting with the crowd and lots of visuals.
This night proved a bit different for U2. Typically, they open the show with Breathe but that was replaced by Magnificent, the first of three songs off "No Line of the Horizon," with the title track following and then the big, tough sounding single Get On Your Boots with heavy guitar work from The Edge. He was on target just about the entire tight with less of his chimey side tending to come through, but he sparkled in song after song with solid leads. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. was stellar as well in setting quite a good beat, and bassist Adam Clayton worked with Clayton in establishing the beat.
Older songs Mysterious Ways, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and Elevation followed, and the band seemed on its way to taking the crowd on the spaceship to higher heights.
Only then they decided to play Your Blue Room for only the third time. The song, from 1995's collaboration with Eno as Passengers, was a real clunker that deflated the energy the band built up. The song was too slow, meandering and should be banned from the set list.
U2 recaptured what they had though with It's a Beautiful Day and particularly the new song Unknown Caller where the crowd sang along to words posted on the video screens.
The stage was in the center of the stadium, allowing thousands of fans onto the field in a general admission setting, but also enabling the band to be closer to the fans in the seats, not an easy task. The band played within a circle, but there was also an outer ring that U2 took advantage of along with two movable ramps leading to the ring.
Being that this was a stadium tour, U2 utilized monitors on the sides of the spaceship. While in most cases, a band will use them to help those in the nosebleeds see what is happening on stage, U2's use of the monitors was of artistic merit. The camera work proved to be quite creative and very colorful, particularly of close-ups of Bono.
The monitors themselves extended in length during the show, but this proved to be a negative at one point. While pretty in use of colors on the screens, the problem was that they had gotten so large in coming near the stage that you could barely see the band members at all. In this particular, bigger was not better.
At 2:05 hours, the set felt a bit on the short side, especially given the 90-minute regular set. A band with a history this long could easily be playing a lot longer, a la Bruce Springsteen. The anthemic quality of the songs where they would go on and on with the crowd singing along seemed less prevelant on this evening.
And Bono, of course, has a great reputation in connecting with the audience. But sometimes his mannerisms can grow wearying. His movements about the very very large stage were mannered and purposeful instead of being fresh and of the moment.
Bono and company did not shy away from politics. He spoke out for Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, going so far as having dozens of people from the audience come on stage carrying a cardboard mask of her held over their faces. During a sharp version of Sunday Bloody Sunday pictures from Iran and the Green Revolution were shown on the screens.
This was not the perfect U2 show - they have done better in one of their strongholds fan-wise. But spaceship U2 will keep revolving and evolving.
Scottish rockers Snow Patrol opened the show with a strong set - well at least the final 20 minutes (traffic resulted in getting there late). Lead singer Gary Lightbody has a very strong, powerful voice. His backing mates play just fine, and the band has a bunch of good material.
The band is way more than their big hit Chasing Cars as they demonstrated during their set. Snow Patrol proved to be a perfect compliment to what was to follow.
