U2 has rescheduled its canceled North American dates for 2011, including a July 5 date at Soldier Field.
The band was forced to cancel 16 shows this summer when Bono underwent back surgery after injuring himself last May while rehearsing for the tour in Munich, Germany. The singer is back in action for the Irish quartet’s European dates this month. The U2 360 tour began its North American run at Soldier Field in September 2009 and was scheduled to return to the stadium July 6.
Tickets bought for the 2010 show will be honored at next year’s rescheduled dates. Refunds are available at point of purchase.
Here are the 2011 rescheduled dates for U2’s North American tour:
What are the best rock movies of all time? The question’s on my mind because I’ll be cohosting an evening devoted to the theme Friday at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee with my "Sound Opinions" colleague and Chicago Sun-Times counterpart Jim DeRogatis. We’ll discuss our favorites and show clips of key scenes. Mine include those listed below. Further down, you’ll find the rock movies that I definitely won’t be endorsing.
My top five rock movies, listed chronologically:
“Don’t Look Back” (1967): D.A. Pennebaker documents Bob Dylan’s 1965 solo tour of the U.K., and illuminates the inscrutable poet-rock star like no movie or book has since. Dylan’s in the midst of a career turning point, and he’s in a prickly mood, jousting with everyone from journalists to Joan Baez. He emerges as a driven genius who sometimes acts like a jerk.
“Gimme Shelter” (1970): Harrowing account of the Rolling Stones’ 1969 North American tour and its climactic free concert at the Altamont Speedway in California. The on-screen slaying of a fan at the hands of the Hell’s Angels biker gang, hired as concert “security,” still sends chills. Directors Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin lay out the evidence without pontificating or judging, yet no one – including the Stones -- is exonerated.
“Stop Making Sense” (1984): It’ll make you want to jump out of your seat and dance. This is the Talking Heads at the height of their powers, with the concert as a journey that incrementally builds in audacity and physical impact. Jonathan Demme captures the infectious interaction of the large band by situating his cameras at a comfortable distance to provide perspective, instead of resorting to the jumpy cuts, close-ups and audience reaction shots that bog down so many concert films.
“This is Spinal Tap” (1984): Rob Reiner’s mockumentary of a fictional heavy-metal band on the way down tells us more about Rock Inc. than any movie ever made, with a punch line nearly every minute: “It's such a fine line between stupid and clever”; “Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year -- it's just not really widely reported”; “These go to 11.”
“Some Kind of Monster” (2004): Metallica is led by two opposites -- gruff, macho James Hetfield and garrulous, frequently full-of-himself Lars Ulrich. They fight, their band nearly unravels, and a $40,000-a-month “performance coach” is called in to mediate. Metallica financed this warts-and-more movie, which is either perversely courageous or akin to sanctioning a “Spinal Tap”-like evisceration of your own career. In any case, it’s a jaw-dropper in this era of micro-managed, spin-the-message celebrity.
A scene from "Shine a Light."
And here are five rock movies that fell flat:
“The Song Remains the Same” (1976): Golden gods (Led Zeppelin) on a less-than-god-like night.
“U2: Rattle and Hum” (1988): Bono on a mission to rescue America.
“Imagine: John Lennon” (1988): In response to Albert Goldman’s scathing biography of her late husband, Yoko Ono hatched this fawning snooze-fest.
“Meeting People is Easy” (1998): Radiohead is a terrific band, but this documentary reduces them to dull whiners.
“Shine a Light” (2008): I suppose it’s silly of me to expect a great movie out of the Rolling Stones at this late stage, but with Martin Scorsese directing I was hoping for the best. I was wrong.
Bono performs at Soldier Field on September 12, 2009. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
The U2 “spaceship,” as Bono describes the Irish band’s monster stage, will land again in Soldier Field next year, on July 6.
U2, which opened the North American leg of its massive “360 Tour” at Soldier Field last September, announced October 26 that it will extend the tour through America and Europe next year. The July 6 date at Soldier Field is set between a July 3 appearance in Toronto and a July 9 show in Miami, suggesting the band may add an additional Chicago date if ticket demand exists.
The show is set on a circular stage underneath a 90-foot-tall, four-pronged canopy that suggests an alien invader from "War of the Worlds." The steel structure takes four days to build (there are three stages used on the tour), and houses a 150-foot pylon and a 54-ton cylindrical video screen.
As stadium events go, the tour is said to be the largest and most expensive of its kind, requiring an army of 2,500 people to stage (500 traveling with the band, and 2,000 local personnel at each stop).
Tickets for the Chicago 2010 show went on sale Monday, November 9, through Ticketmaster/Live Nation. Further details are available at U2.com.
Bono was lit up Saturday for the opening of U2’s North American tour at Soldier Field.
In a high-tech show beneath a four-pronged, 90-foot-tall canopy that he referred to as “our spaceship,” Bono dressed for the occasion in a jacket outlined in neon and dangled from a glowing, steering-wheel-shaped microphone as the band kicked into its encore. As he twirled madly during “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” and then more lazily during “With or Without You,” the two-hour, 10-minute concert took on a surreal air, with a disco ball reflecting shards of light against the balconies of Soldier Field, a tiny constellation in a galaxy of sound and glitter. Stadium concerts usually tend to feel puffed up and bombastic, but this was downright strange — and wonderfully so.
On its previous tours, U2 had started to resemble its generation’s answer to the Rolling Stones: a band that had started to become predictable, a stadium act rolling out decades-old hits as its songwriting stagnated. This time, the band reconnected to deeper themes in its music and reinforced a recent development in its sound: groove.
There was also the inescapable Godzilla in the room: that much-hyped mega stage, which splits the difference between silly contrivance and weird, sometimes awe-inspiring art object. It literally dwarfed everything, and reached out to all corners of the stadium, allowing the four ant-sized band members to play to the crowd on all sides. The setting often made for compelling theater, though it wasn’t on par with the band’s 1992-93 Zoo TV tour, a multimedia barrage that mirrored the chaos and anxiety harnessed by its 1991 “Achtung Baby” album. Ever since, U2 has been searching for the right mix of spectacle and intimacy, pizzazz and poignance on the big stage, but Zoo TV remains the finest supersized tour mounted by any band in the last two decades.
The centerpiece of this year’s stadium model, dubbed the 360 Tour in honor of the circular stage, was the Irish quartet’s latest hit-and-miss studio album, “No Line on the Horizon”; seven of its songs were performed, out of 23 on the set list. Though there was no salvaging thin material such as the brash but empty “Get on Your Boots” and the convoluted “Unknown Caller,” the atmospheric yet expansive tone of the title track connected U2 to the spiritual quest of its 1984 album “The Unforgettable Fire.”
Hence the “spaceship” concept and the embrace of infinite possibility in the songs, ideas amplified by the video images of Desmond Tutu and Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, who both appeared on a 54-ton cylindrical screen. At times, the stage set-up seemed more like a garish, environmentally challenged cover-up, as if to distract from the band’s recent, less riveting music. But it also dazzled, especially when a spire of lights shot skyward during “City of Blinding Lights.”
The band was on its game. Not usually applauded for its sense of swing, U2 has shown an underappreciated affinity for getting down since “Mysterious Ways” bellydanced its way into discos during the early ‘90s. Because bassist Adam Clayton owns the best moments on “No Line on the Horizon,” it was only fitting that the rhythm section ruled Saturday. Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen amped up the dance beats, and even Bono’s vocals took on a more rhythmic sing-speak cadence. Even a well-tested crowd-pleaser such as “Where the Streets Have No Name” sounded refreshed, with the Edge’s metallic-toned guitar taking a ride on the bass-drums rhythm train. An even bigger surprise was the transformation of the otherwise annoyingly trite “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” into a full-on house rave-up, fitting given Chicago’s rich club culture.
The stadium did indeed resemble a big outdoor club during the encore, when the show’s outsized ambitions produced a neon-lit moment that nearly justified the entire costly enterprise. Bono, in fine voice all night, sang with fervor during “Ultra Violet,” crooned like a wounded David Lynch lounge lizard in “With or Without You” and then channeled his inner Otis Redding on the hymn-like closer, “Moment of Surrender.”
The lights, the songs, the audience all synced up. Sometimes size matters.
Update: In response to readers who have asked about set times for Sunday's show — on Saturday, opening band Snow Patrol started at 7 p.m. and U2 took the stage at 8:40 p.m. and played till 10:50 p.m.
Update 2, from my colleague Kevin Pang: Sunday’s set was practically the same show as Saturday’s — same banter, same Chicago-specific shout outs by Bono, same opening string of songs, same encore. There were a few notable exceptions: the band performed “Your Blue Room” for the first time ever, a track from “Passengers,” the experimental faux-soundtrack recorded with Brian Eno and released in 1995. An astronaut from the International Space Station recited a few verses in a pre-recorded bit. Also added to the set were Zoo TV-era tracks “Until the End of the World” and an acoustic version of “Stay (Faraway, So Close).” Set list posted below.
greg@gregkot.com
Video by Kevin Pang; Tribune photo by Chris Sweda
U2 set list Saturday at Soldier Field
1 Breathe 2 No Line on the Horizon 3 Get On Your Boots 4 Magnificent 5 Beautiful Day/Blackbird (Beatles snippet) 6 Elevation 7 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/Stand By Me (Ben E. King snippet) 8 Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of 9 Unknown Caller 10 The Unforgettable Fire 11 City Of Blinding Lights 12 Vertigo 13 I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight 14 Sunday Bloody Sunday/Oliver's Army (Elvis Costello snippet) 15 Pride (In The Name Of Love) 16 MLK 17 Walk On/You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet) 18 Where The Streets Have No Name
Encore 19 One 20 Bad/40 (snippet)
Second encore 21 Ultra Violet (Light My Way) 22 With Or Without You 23 Moment of Surrender
U2 set list Sunday at Soldier Field
1. Breathe 2. No Line on the Horizon 3. Get on Your Boots 4. Magnificent 5. Beautiful Day 6. I Still Haven't Found What I’m Looking For 7. Elevation 8. Your Blue Room 9. Unknown Caller 10. Until the End of the World 11. Stay (Faraway, So Close) 12. The Unforgettable Fire 13. City of Blinding Lights 14. Vertigo 15. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight 16. Sunday Bloody Sunday 17. MLK 18. Walk On
Encore 19. One/Amazing Grace 20. Where the Streets Have No Name
Encore 2 21. Ultraviolet (Light My Way) 22. With or Without You 23. Moment of Surrender
U2’s 360 tour, which makes its North American debut Saturday at Soldier Field, is a good old-fashioned stadium-rock extravaganza, only bigger.
The numbers are staggering: Three 90-foot-tall custom-built stages containing a 54-ton cylindrical video screen and 500 personnel are being hauled around the country by a fleet of 189 trucks and buses. In addition, the band is expected to pile up 70,000 miles jetting around the world by the time the two-year tour concludes in 2010.
In part because U2 and its singer Bono have been famously outspoken on numerous social and political causes, the band drew criticism during its European tour over the summer for the environmental impact of such a massive undertaking.
Carbonfootprint.com, a company which assesses environmental damage, estimates the tour will pile up 65,000 tons in carbon emissions.
David Byrne recently blogged, "Those stadium shows may possibly be the most extravagant and expensive (production-wise) ever: $40 million to build the stage and, having done the math, we estimate 200 semi-trucks crisscrossing Europe for the duration. It could be professional envy speaking here, but it sure looks like, well, overkill, and just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all."
But the band says it’s not ignoring those concerns. In an interview with the BBC recently, guitarist The Edge said, "It's probably unfair to single out rock 'n' roll. There's many other things that are in the same category but as it happens we have a program to offset whatever carbon footprint we have."
Edge was vague on details, perhaps because the program was in its early stages. But U2 does have an environmental plan in place for the current tour, which includes having tour promoter Live Nation pay for programs to offset the carbon impact, according to an environmentalist working with the tour.
Earlier this year, U2 and Live Nation hired the greening company MusicMatters and EFFECT Partners to accompany the tour and work on cutting emissions and other damaging side effects of staging big rock concerts. Already, says MusicMatters CEO Michael Martin, the tour has cut the number of vehicles by 10 percent. Other changes include having tour staff use canteens rather than disposable water bottles. Venues such as Soldier Field are being encouraged to use everything from environmentally friendly soap and toilet paper to offering discount parking for hybrid vehicles.
At the end of the tour, Martin and his team will offer a handful of proposals to the band and tour promoter about how they can offset the environmental damage. “There are myriad options at myriad price points, from 8 dollars a ton to 25 dollars a ton, in projects they can fund around the world to offset the carbon footprint,” Martin says. “Proceeds from the tour will be used to pay for these projects, which shows commendable responsibility on their part.”
Martin says he expects the specific projects to be made public by the end of the year.
Turn It Up takes an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at U2's 360 Tour, which launches its North American leg at Soldier Field Saturday. Video by Kevin Pang.
U2's stage takes shape in Soldier Field. (Tribune photo by Abel Uribe / Sept. 11, 2009)
U2 is bringing the heavy metal to Soldier Field for its two concerts this weekend.
The Irish quartet will open its North American tour Saturday on a circular stage underneath a 90-foot-tall, four-pronged canopy that suggests an alien invader from "War of the Worlds." The steel structure took four days to build, and will house not only the band but a 150-foot pylon and a 54-ton cylindrical video screen that should light up the stadium, if not the entire South Side. Sunglasses are optional, apparently.
When the fans aren't staring at this monstrosity, U2 is expected to occupy their attention for about two hours with 22 to 24 songs spanning its career. Saturday's show is sold out, tour promoter Live Nation says, but tickets – ranging from $30 to $250 (plus service fees) – are still available for Sunday.
Stats on the stage:
Designed by Willie Williams (his 10th U2 production)
Architect is Mark Fisher (his 6th U2 production)
Built by Belgian company Stageco using high-pressure hydraulic systems.
Steel structure is 90 feet tall
Center pylon reaches 150 feet
Designed to support 180 tons
Cylindrical video screen weighs 54 tons opening to 14,000 square feet (as big as 2 doubles tennis courts).
Video screen is made up of 1 million pieces.(500,000 pixels, 320,000 fasteners, 30,000 cables, 150,000 machined pieces).
Takes four days to build
Takes 12 hours to load in screen, stage and universal production equipment
Takes six hours for production to dismantle stage and 48 hours to dismantle and load it out of the stadium.
U2 360 tour: 7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday with Snow Patrol at Soldier Field, $250, $95, $55, $30; ticketmaster.com.
U2 sold out 65,000 tickets to its Sept. 12 Soldier Field concert in a matter of minutes Monday, and then announced a second Soldier Field show Sept. 13.
Tickets ($250, $95, $55, $30) for the second show will go on sale at 10 a.m. April 6 via LiveNation.com, Ticketmaster.com and phone, 800-745-3000. Tickets for the first show were popping up on secondary ticket sites, selling for as high as $3,000.
Besides Chicago, the Irish quartet sold out concerts in New York (82,000 tickets) and Boston (72,000), setting the largest single-day attendance record in each city, tour producer Live Nation said in a statement.
There were two keeper lines from U2’s sit-down, all-talk and no-play promotional visit Tuesday to Metro:
1) “Don’t touch my mike,” was host Shirley Manson’s mantra throughout the one-hour live broadcast. Manson, the former Garbage lead singer-turned-radio host, had personality to burn as she orchestrated questions from an enthused but hardly frantic crowd of invited guests.
2) “It’s a shame that we’re here and we don’t have guitars,” said the Edge, the skull-capped guitarist.
You can say that again. Instead of rocking the house, the Irish quartet lounged on leather couches and played DJ for the radio audience. The few hundred invitees inside the venerable rock club were nearly matched in number by the people waiting outside for the band to enter on a rain-soaked evening.
While the radio audience heard the likes of the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” (chosen by drummer Larry Mullen) and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (one of Bono’s picks), the fans inside asked questions, only one of which could be termed indelicate, regarding the 2005 ticket fiasco that saw dues-paying fan club members edged out by scalpers for prime seats. “We’re convinced we have people in place who won’t let it happen again,” the Edge said. Bono apologized for the “debacle” and said the band’s stadium tour, which arrives in Solider Field on Sept. 12, is designed to ensure that more fans will have access to more tickets, with some of the best seats starting at $30.
Besides that we found out that Mullen is jealous of Arcade Fire for having written a song as good as “Rebellion (Lies),” and that Edge’s tip for any Irishman marrying an American woman is “learn a lot about sports.” Bono toasted Smashing Pumpkins by singing the praises of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and gave a thumb’s up to Billy Corgan’s testimony in Congress earlier in the day advocating artist royalties for radio airplay: “I like the idea of musicians being in control of their own destiny.”
It was over in an hour but it seemed like longer. Yes, U2 has a new album out. Yes, they’re touring. And, yes, they should’ve brought their guitars.
greg@gregkot.com
U2's DJ picks:
Larry Mullen: Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated" ("We wouldn't be around without the Ramones"); Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" ("It gave me incredible hope ... and made me extremely jealous").
The Edge: Van Morrison's 'Brown Eyed Girl" ("the first Irish rock 'n' roll star"); the Waterboys' "The Whole of the Moon" ("Three shows changed my life: The Clash in 1978, Bruce Springsteen, and the Waterboys").
Adam Clayton: Airborne Toxic Event's "Sometime Around Midnight" ("I don't like listening to that old stuff"); the Klaxons' "Golden Skans" (the bass lines "gave me inspiration and energy").
Bono: Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" ("Rage is at the heart of every great rock 'n' roll band"); Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" ("It's about King David, the first blues man").
U2 will be in the house Tuesday at Metro, the landmark Clark Street rock club, but promoters say the Irish quartet won’t be bringing their instruments and they won’t be swinging open the doors to the public.
They’ll be doing an hour-long interview with Garbage singer-turned-radio host Shirley Manson, to be broadcast on radio stations nationwide. The audience will consist of a few hundred radio-station contest winners and other invited guests. Security is tight, so promoters are advising anyone without a ticket not to show up at the club.
The event is designed to promote U2’s latest album, “No Line on the Horizon,” and upcoming tour, which will launch its U.S. leg Sept. 12 at Soldier Field. No ticket sale date has been set for the tour.
Clicking on the green links will direct you to a third-party Web site. Bloggers and staff writers are in no way affiliated with these links that are placed by an e-commerce specialist only after stories and posts have been published.