by Ashton Avo

I have seen U2 on every tour they've done in the US going back to the early 80's and I'd have to say that IMHO, their best work seems to be behind them. Their overblown bombastic thing peaked with ZOO TV which was innovative and unlike POP MART, interesting and vibrant. I like kitsch too, but maybe the band will take it to its logical extreme and just have audio animatronic facsimiles perform.

Maybe because it was their third show in as many nights, but the group seemed to me to be phoning this one in. The old standards in particular were really tepid. You know it's a bad thing when you leave the show thinking more about The Edge's karaoke and Bono's tribute to Kraftwerk (vocal intro "Neon Lights") than the new tunes. Get Eno back for the next album!

I saw that other reviewers were down on the Chicago crowd on the 29th, but from my vantage point (main floor Section E) the singalong at many times drowned out the PA. The crowd, which in my section were mainly recent U2 fans, was really into the show.

One has to wonder if U2, like others in "show business", have hit the wall. Where will they go from here? When you go to the limits of outrageous and overproduced, the only place left is to come full circle. Hard core U2 fans can only hope that this is the case.

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