Bono, preaching to his disciples at the U2 Vertigo Tour, San Jose, April 9th
I got home at like 2:30am this morning. My wife and I and our friends Scott and Lisa and my brother and his wife went to the U2 show last in San Jose. It was the 5th or 6th time I had seen the band. Concerts are a blur. U2 concerts however are special. I took the photo above from a camera phone. I have a bunch more but they are not transferring well.
They played some old stuff after great renditions of City of Blinding Lights and Vertigo. Electric and An Cat Dubh off of Boy. Then played the usual crowd favorites like New Years Day, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday. Suprisingly they played nothing off of Pop or Rattle and Hum and only played Beautiful Day and Elevation off of All That You Can't Leave Behind. They played a fantastic version of Running to Stand Still, still one of my all-time favorite U2 songs. Funny thing about this performance of Running to Stand Still is when the crowd started to clap slowly to the beat and Bono yelled, "Stop clapping and start singing," and the crowd did instaneously. I wonder what would happen if the man said, "Drink the Kool-Aid!"
The best part of the show was Bono's tribute to the Pope before Miracle Drug. Bono claimed he didn't always agree with him but loved him because he believed in something. He talked about meeting him and referred to him as a "great rock star". He told a great story of how he gave the Pope his shades and how he got his crooked cross. The other great part of the show occurred before One. One was a song that U2 basically used to generate support for stopping AIDS globally. The lights went down and Bono exclaimed he needed 1 million more supporters. He asked for no money but just to text your name from your cellphone. Then he asked the crowd to show the cell phones and thousands of cell phones lit up the arena.
The show closed with probably there 3 most blatantly religious songs: All Because of You, Yah Weh and "40". It was the first show where I had seen them play "40". There was no "With or Without You, Walk On or I Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For in this show but did there really need to be with the prior performances of Running to Stand Still or Sunday Bloody Sunday? As a guitarist, I enjoyed watching The Edge's feet. This guy has an amazing set of pedals and sequencers plus techs off stage programming the sounds and landscapes coming out of his guitar. The most unbelievable thing about the Edge is that he still uses his original Vox amp he bought in Dublin when he started out. To build that sound from starting with something that basic is pretty awesome. He still gets a great sound with that angular Gibson Explorer he played on the old stuff and one Beautiful Day. He mostly played Gibsons last night. I saw him grab a Fender Strat for Bullet the Blue Sky and Gretsch hollow body at one point. I also could see some standard effects pedals aside from his sequencer package.
The show was scaled way back from the electronics of the Zoo TV Tour, which I was happy to enjoy back in 1992. There were a couple of video screens and some lights, the music spoke for itself. The amazing thing about this band is their ability to keep pulling it off after 25 years. They're old guys in Rock N Roll standards but still play a very young, very timeless music. They have had a pretty continuous run with no reunion tours or break ups. No drug offenses or news of wild alcohol adventures through 5 star Hotels or scores of illegitiment kids all over the world. These are not only good musicians with a great message, but they are also great people.
They played some old stuff after great renditions of City of Blinding Lights and Vertigo. Electric and An Cat Dubh off of Boy. Then played the usual crowd favorites like New Years Day, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday. Suprisingly they played nothing off of Pop or Rattle and Hum and only played Beautiful Day and Elevation off of All That You Can't Leave Behind. They played a fantastic version of Running to Stand Still, still one of my all-time favorite U2 songs. Funny thing about this performance of Running to Stand Still is when the crowd started to clap slowly to the beat and Bono yelled, "Stop clapping and start singing," and the crowd did instaneously. I wonder what would happen if the man said, "Drink the Kool-Aid!"
The best part of the show was Bono's tribute to the Pope before Miracle Drug. Bono claimed he didn't always agree with him but loved him because he believed in something. He talked about meeting him and referred to him as a "great rock star". He told a great story of how he gave the Pope his shades and how he got his crooked cross. The other great part of the show occurred before One. One was a song that U2 basically used to generate support for stopping AIDS globally. The lights went down and Bono exclaimed he needed 1 million more supporters. He asked for no money but just to text your name from your cellphone. Then he asked the crowd to show the cell phones and thousands of cell phones lit up the arena.
The show closed with probably there 3 most blatantly religious songs: All Because of You, Yah Weh and "40". It was the first show where I had seen them play "40". There was no "With or Without You, Walk On or I Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For in this show but did there really need to be with the prior performances of Running to Stand Still or Sunday Bloody Sunday? As a guitarist, I enjoyed watching The Edge's feet. This guy has an amazing set of pedals and sequencers plus techs off stage programming the sounds and landscapes coming out of his guitar. The most unbelievable thing about the Edge is that he still uses his original Vox amp he bought in Dublin when he started out. To build that sound from starting with something that basic is pretty awesome. He still gets a great sound with that angular Gibson Explorer he played on the old stuff and one Beautiful Day. He mostly played Gibsons last night. I saw him grab a Fender Strat for Bullet the Blue Sky and Gretsch hollow body at one point. I also could see some standard effects pedals aside from his sequencer package.
The show was scaled way back from the electronics of the Zoo TV Tour, which I was happy to enjoy back in 1992. There were a couple of video screens and some lights, the music spoke for itself. The amazing thing about this band is their ability to keep pulling it off after 25 years. They're old guys in Rock N Roll standards but still play a very young, very timeless music. They have had a pretty continuous run with no reunion tours or break ups. No drug offenses or news of wild alcohol adventures through 5 star Hotels or scores of illegitiment kids all over the world. These are not only good musicians with a great message, but they are also great people.
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