by TBoneNYC

Yeah, I'm going to start a fight. First off, let's get something straight. I have seen U2 at least 25 times. I picked up on them on the "Boy" Tour and have adored them ever since. I am not a casual fan. I am not a hater. Here's an honest assessment of the first Giants Stadium show:

Schlock. Plain and simple schlock. The song selection was so weak, and the crowd so flat that Bono said "Well lets try this one" as the lead in to Mysterious Ways. Follow that up with I Still Haven't Found? Its set list by Sybil !! A successful rock show has one thing always. A sense of urgency. This show had the urgency of me calling my Doctor and getting Prozac for my mood swings. Oh, wait, thats not me, thats the set list. Don't even get me started on "She's The One". I've seen Bruce seven times in the last two years alone. You ain't Bruce, Bono. Don't even try. And if you do, make sure you can pull off a passable version of a beloved song. Did you guys actually notice that the crowd was scratching their collective heads on that song? Most of them weren't familiar with it. Bono's voice is completely shot. He didn't even come close to hitting a high note. He barely made a mid-range note. Amazing Grace was actually painful. Put down your Guinness, stop jumping around and actually listen to the show fans and you'd agree. A nice long vacation and some hot tea before the 2nd leg of the American tour would have done wonders for his voice. But nooooo...no rest. That would interrupt the money grab that is the 360 tour.

Here's another little personal tidbit. I've seen roughly 2,600 rock shows in the course of my life. That equals experience. The "Spaceship" stage is really not that special. It's a lot of lighting rigs, a variation of of a flat screen and a bunch of LED's. Wow...the bridges move! Revolutionary! Not. What that stage does do is what the 360 Tour is supposed to do. Make money. The core stage is pulled out to the 30-yard line, the claws/ canopy is thrown up and gee, we can sell the back of the house at 100 bucks a throw. I sat backstage. eleven rows off the field. No one in the band would know it because they pretty much ignored the back of the house. I didn't say completely ignored. Each member showed up once. Wow, Adam sauntered back, hit three chords and wandered back to the front. Oh hell, is that Larry strolling by on a variation of the same encircling runway from two tours ago playing the bongos? I dunno, because there he goes... Thanks for singing a WHOLE verse from the rear staircase Bono ! You better get out front where the paying fans are. Edge, you didn't even bother walking back as far as the runway. If you're going to do a money grab and sell the back of the house, or play in the round per se, then you include the back of the house in the show plain and simple. Rock 101. U2 failed. The stage is so sprawling, so obnoxious, so egotistical that the band gets completely lost on it. Which leads me to this personal observation:

U2 fails miserably in a stadium setting. They did on PopMart, they do on 360. The shear intimacy of their brilliant lyrics and the commanding stage presence of each band member plays much better in an arena setting. Should have rest up and came back to play The Garden instead of Giants guys. Quit the money grab and give the fans what they deserve.

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