by Bene

Elevation 2001, August 6th, Sportpaleis Antwerp

Last time I saw U2 was July 1993, the second time they visited Belgium with Zooropa. At that time, the band was trying lots of new stuff, after the release of "Achtung Baby". Though most of their new songs were okay then, the music drowned a bit in the high-tech effects on stage. I was impressed, but had the feeling that Bono and the guys were outgrowing their success.
The fact that I missed Popmart had a lot to do with that - though re-exams were the main reason that kept me at home in the summer of '97 *grin*.

However, when "All that you can't leave behind" came out last autumn, it was clear that U2 have taken a sort of new U-turn: back to pure music, without artificial pose. I was quite sure that their new tour would show a "new sort" of U2 - which is in fact nothing more than... good old U2.

They opened their show on August 6th with such phlegm, that nothing on earth could've turned it into a bad concert. The mixture of current hitsingles and "golden oldies" was a delight to hear. The lightshow and stage concept were sober, but nonetheless very impressive. (esp. if you make the comparison with previous tours). This proves that after twenty years in business, U2 can still "convince" an audience with music from the heart. They've left a couple of things behind in the last decades - but they've proven that the traditional line up and quality songs will always be there. It's something you can only be very, very happy about.

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