by Bert

A few thoughts just back from the Oakland show...

It's been almost 30 years now of seeeing U2 shows for me, and interestingly the first time I ever saw the band was in front of an even bigger crowd-at the US Festival in the early 80s. At the time Bono was enthralling the crowd by hauling the huge while flag up a rope ladder to the top of the stage. Of note, Bono still likes to be in high places, and now he has rotating bridges that allow him to stand above portions of the crowd as they bridges move about. Also- a bit of hanging by his fluorescent driver wheel microphone on Kiss Me... could, I suppose, by consider a bit acrobatic. But, that wasn't what this show was about. There were a surprising number of slower-paced songs for a stadium show. With a couple of exceptions, I liked these the best. Similarly, Bono's chatting from the stage was really nice. These elements (in addition the the theater-in-the-round stage helped keep the stadium show more intimate. I don't know, no matter what others say, I still don't think a stadium show can be intimate. Perhaps this is about as close as you can get. There was one moment where I thought it got extremely close- when Bono brought on stage a a guy who had flown 20 hours from Poland to be there. Now, if the band could have launched into People get Ready, and the guy played with them-- we'd be onto something. On the other side of things, the visuals were fantastic. And the political/philosophical messages (both on the screen and from Bono) where apt.
All in all, the show was successful in being a spectacle, and at varying times, it was also spectacular.

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