by Michael Albuquerque

ATLANTA 3/30/01 - No giant lemon. No 40-foot high TV screens. No belly dancers – well, at least not the flesh and blood type. No smoke and mirrors tonight. Just pure, unadulterated rock and roll. And just to let the crowd know they meant business, U2 continued their theme of opening the show under the glare of the house lights.

No disco ball or pyrotechnics to hide behind tonight. No need to hide. Friendship was the theme of tonight's show, Bono told the crowd early into the evening, but it could just have easily been about four mates from Dublin and the stripped down truth. U2 turned Phillips Arena into a large garage tonight and turned in a glorious performance as the best garage band in the world.

Bono announced earlier in the year that U2 were reapplying for the job as “Best Band in the World.” Spread the word. Others need not apply; the position has been filled. And I have 19,999 other witnesses who can back me up on this one.

The crowd seemed a little uneasy as the band walked onstage and started “Elevation” without the cover of darkness. Had someone forgot to turn the lights off? What should we do? Does this seem right? However, the music quickly took over and no one cared anymore. In fact everyone was so into the music that midway through the song, when the house lights finally gave way to the familiar darkness of a rock concert, no one seemed to even notice much.

“Beautiful Day” came next, giving the crowd barely a chance to catch their breath. A manic version of “Until The End Of The World” followed, with Bono and Edge playfully reenacting a bullfight scene on the end of the catwalk. Bono used his fingers as mock horns while the Edge played matador, all the while churning out some wicked chops on his guitar. Appropriately, Bono ended the song with a few snippets of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Two Tribes.”

The frenetic pace continued as Adam Clayton plucked to the instantly recognizable bass lines to “New Year’s Day,” sending the crowd over the top. The crowd then seemed to lull a little as the band played two songs from the under appreciated Pop album, “Gone” and a revamped version of “Discotheque.” Bono even added a few lines from Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” onto the end of the latter for good measure.

Bono then spoke to the crowd for the first time, declaring it a night of friendship. He mentioned that U2 had a lot of friends in “this town.” Then, without mentioning them by name, took a playful jab at members of R.E.M., who were in attendance tonight, and smilingly said, “I just heard their new album, and it sucks.”

He then dedicated the next song, “Stuck In A Moment,” to their good friend Michael Hutchence, the now deceased singer of INXS who was Bono’s creative impetus for writing this song about a friend’s suicidal thoughts.

“New York” came next with the band trying to regain it’s footing during the show, as the crowd seemed to show disinterest in this one. However, guided by the persistent, rhythmic drumming of Larry Mullen Jr., the band righted itself and finished the song strongly. Bono also reignited the crowd with a mock visual impersonation of Robert DeNiro in Taxidriver that would’ve made him proud (What? You talkin’ ta me?)

The Edge drove the band back into familiar territory with a ragged by right version of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” played a full step lower in pitch than previously performed, perhaps a nod that Bono can’t quite hit the high notes anymore. In another homage to one of U2’s favorite inspirations, Bono sang a few snippets of Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved?” and “Get Up Stand Up” at the end.

A rousing rendition of “I Will Follow” followed and really got the crowd jumping, before Bono tried his hands at the keyboards and sang the bittersweet ballad “The Sweetest Thing” with the audience singing along to the chorus with unbridled enthusiasm.

Bono then took a few minutes to introduce the band one-by-one as each member took a turn strolling out to meet him at the edge of the catwalk: Larry Mullen Jr. (“just to prove that he has legs”), Adam Clayton (“the man with the largest ‘instrument’ in the band”), and The Edge (“his brain’s so big he has to wear a hat to keep it all inside.”)

What followed was a beautiful semi-acoustic rendition of “In A Little While” which Bono dedicated “to my wife Ali, who’s here tonight with a baby in her belly.” The Edge and Bono then prowled the catwalk and sang the harmonies together on Bono’s microphone. At the beginning of the song, Adam and Larry returned to the main stage and, on Bono’s signal, started playing the rhythm halfway through the song. The song ended with Bono’s nod to Van Morrison as he sang “Crazy Love” sweetly and softly until fading silently into the crowd’s applause.

A show-stopping, acoustic version of “The Ground Beneath Her Feet” came next with Bono’s introduction, “when you’re this big, you can write a love song. Salmon Rushdie wrote this song with U2. Here’s a man so big he’s got a whole religion after him.”

The Irish foursome then regrouped on the main stage before bringing the house down with an amazing version of “Bad.” With several minutes of the chorus of “40” tacked on the end, Bono coaxed the crowd into a lead-and-follow sing-a-long.

Next, the band launched into a pulsating version of “Where The Streets Have No Name” which had the crowd jumping and the concrete stadium literally bouncing under the sheer force of it all.

The Edge, Adam, and Larry then mesmerized the crowd with the hypnotic sounds of “Mysterious Ways” while Bono sang and gyrated to the Technicolor shadows of belly dancers on the small video screens, which alternately rose and fell behind the band at the back of the catwalk. This segued into Bono’s a capella intro to an absolute grunge version of “The Fly.” This is how the song would sound if Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails got together and played it – INCREDIBLE! Bono stage-dived into the crowd at the end and continued singing as he was hustled out the back by security guards.

After a short break, the encores began with a video montage featuring the evil Charlton Heston in a very ignorant sound bite extolling the virtues of guns. A collage of pictures showing the brutal affects of guns and warfare ended with a very small girl walking down the hall in her house and picking up a gun out of a bag on the floor. Instantly, Edge cranked the opening chord of a loud, angry version of “Bullet The Blue Sky,” which continues to take on a life of its own every time they play it live. Bono ended the song with a few plaintive strains of David Bowie’s “Young Americans.”

A rather hasty version of “With Or Without You” came next but clearly captivated the audience. In acknowledgement to the Atlanta crowd, Bono then dedicated “One” to Martin Luther King, calling him “my hero when I was a teenager.” Another nod to Atlanta came at the end of the song as Bono sang a few snippets of “Losing My Religion” before ending it with two additional R.E.M. words – “Everybody Huuuurrrts.”

Finally, the show ended with the current single and perhaps the best song on the new album, “Walk On.” Projected on the walls of the stadium and the crowd in white letters were the words “Leave It Behind.” While they certainly have left some things behind, U2 chose to keep the best parts with them and brought them along on this tour.

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