Curve Dominant Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 Just got back from First Union Center, and WOW!!! What a great show! Those guys are still the best (and perhaps the last truly great) rock and roll band on the planet. Everything about it was perfect: the sound, the staging & lighting, the program - they seguéd songs together in really unexpected and cool ways. The arena was packed and exploding with energy. The visuals for "Mysterious Ways" were smashing, baby! Bono treated us all like we were a bunch of old friends showing up for a party, and sang his f*cking heart out, man. No one, NO ONE plays guitar like the Edge - he just screamed and shimmered his rig effortlessly all night, and Larry and Adam chugged away like a freight train as usual. Every song was a sing-along, especially "One" during the last encore. INTENSE! PJ Harvey opened, and she was absolutely dynomite, and I am IN LUV!!! I remember someone here comparing her to Patti Smith, and that is just so way off base it's pathetic. Stylistically, there are some similiarities in the musical execution, but the comparison ends right there. PJ is a much better singer and guitarist, has much more vocal range and talent as a performer and a songwriter, and her sexuality is not clouded by punk/feminist politics the way Smith's was. PJ is an absolutely stunning woman, and her sexuality is completely self-assured and uninhibited, and totally in control. Smith was kinda skanky, but PJ could be a Bond girl. It's fucking scary, man, She looked killer in a black patent-leather microskirt and a see-through shirt. Half-way through the set, she broke off the spike heel of one of her black boots, so she unzipped them and performed the rest of her set barefoot. I have to go take a shower just thinking back on it. Catch this concert if it comes your way - they don't make 'em like this anymore. curvedominant Eric Vincent (ASCAP) www.curvedominant.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip OKeefe Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 I've seen U2 five times, and they were great each time. Definitely a great live band that knows how to put on a good show. Glad you had fun Curve! Phil O'KeefeSound Sanctuary RecordingRiverside CA http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html pokeefe777@msn.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbox Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 Curve, Im glad you enjoyed U2s concert so much. When I saw U2 perform, it was one of the best concert experiences I ever had. I want to share what happened with you. It was during the last year I lived in the Phoenix area. U2 had a new album called "Joshua Tree" that they were getting ready to tour in support of. They decided to kick off the tour in Tempe (the college town in which I grew up, which is part of the Phoenix area), and they rehearsed in Arizona for a week prior to the first concert date. The concert was to be at the Sun Devil basketball stadium (now Wells Fargo Arena), a 14,198-seat facility on the campus of Arizona State University. As Im sure you know, Phoenix is a desert town. The air is very dry there. After a week of rehearsals, Bono lost his voice. Instead of canceling the first date of the "Joshua Tree" tour, U2 took the stage and Bono tried valiantly to sing; but after a song or two, he explained the problem to the crowd and pointed the mic out to the audience, asking them to sing. Mind you, at that point the only Top 40 hit U2 had ever had in the US was "Pride (In The Name Of Love)," which topped out at #33 on the Billboard charts. However, the crowd seemed to know every word of every song U2 had ever recorded and they sang out strong for Bono. The rest of the concert followed that pattern, Bono would sing a few lines and the audience would carry on with the tune. It was like we were singing a series of duets with Bono! I realized that night, that I was there for the dawn of something big! "Joshua Tree" went on to be a smashing success with two number one hits, "I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For" and "With Or Without You," which went on to be the number one song of 1987 in the US. It transformed U2 into the superstars they are today. Bono has said since then that it was his favorite concert he ever gave. It was certainly one of my favorites! This message has been edited by soapbox on 06-13-2001 at 05:47 AM Enthusiasm powers the world. Craig Anderton's Archiving Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiraga Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 GREAT Curvey!!! Nuffin' like a good concert! Please DO check out everything PJ Harvey has done, the latest album and "Dry" is a good place. She beyond wicked on "Dry".. and beyond Patti Smith too.. (Oh no, now Lee's commin' after me!) And yeah, I fell in love with her too! Seen her three times now.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 You've all probably heard this one: Guy dies and goes to heaven,One of the angels is showing him around and introducing him to the people there. All of a sudden the guy grabs the angel by the arm and says, "HEY...that's Bono over there...he's not dead yet"!!! The angel says, "No, that's God...he just THINKS he's Bono". This message has been edited by miroslav on 06-13-2001 at 09:28 AM miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curve Dominant Posted June 14, 2001 Author Share Posted June 14, 2001 Bono loses his voice quite a bit. Soap, your story matches precisely a concert they gave here in Philly years ago. Last night, Bono told us his voice was dying and asked us all to help him out, which we did, of course. He did sound like he was hurtin' a bit, and he didn't look too good for the first half of the show, either. At one point he went back stage for a minute, and then came back out wailing like a f*cking banshee. He must have gotten a blast of ThroatCoat or a steroid injection or something, or just worked his energy up. I think Bono just partys a lot after a good show, and so he's hurtin' the next day. I'm no Bono, but I know what that's like. The most powerful moment of the show: They all came out to the point of the catwalk for a semi-unplugged version of "Desire." During the intro, Bono introduced his mates, and began relating how they were all teenagers when they started the band, just four kids in Ireland. Motioning to his mates, he said, "We had nothing... But together, we had EVERYTHING!" I dunno, maybe you had to be there, but it was deep. F*cking great concert, man. I'm still feeling it. curve Eric Vincent (ASCAP) www.curvedominant.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP3 Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 U2's playing in about an hour at the MCI Center in DC. I'm pissed that it was sold out before I ever heard about it. I did have the great fortune to work at the Bayou in Georgetown (RIP) back when U2 played their 1st gig in the states. They played to about 35 people and were fucking great!! I'd guess they were 17-18 at the time. I haven't had the luck to see them since. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/frown.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uh Clem Posted June 21, 2001 Share Posted June 21, 2001 Thanks Curve for your glowing review of the show - as a result, I decided to make an effort to take my wife to see them at MSG on Tuesday (we just happened to be in NYC this week). Getting tickets was a little touch and go, but worth the effort. Killer show and it was really great to see PJ sounding and looking fabulous - I've been a fan of hers since way back when all you got was ???? when you mentioned her to anyone - OK, so not much has changed, but I thought it was a very cool line-up. U2 was also great - I agree that they are the last really decent big show rock act left going. If you like gigantic guitar, the Edge delivers - what a rig. Next best thing to Pink Floyd that I've seen in a while, but I don't do the big concert thing much anymore - too much of a Zoo. Other cool musics we saw while in town: John Zorn's Masada and also "The Gift" (Zorn with Mark Ribot) at Tonic, and then we also saw Mark Ribot's Cubanos Postizos another night at KF and an Athens/Atlanta band of my buddie's called Baghouse - they'll be at KF for the next two Fridays again. Steve Powell - Bull Moon Digital www.bullmoondigital.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emile Posted June 22, 2001 Share Posted June 22, 2001 I saw them about 2-3 weeks ago in Montreal and had a similar experience. They played 2 nights in a row and apparently the first night was awesome. i went went the second day and Bono's voice was not all there but still gave a good performance along with the rest of the band who were just stellar. Great lighting too. Not over the top but just clever. AND I happily re-discovered PJ Harvey. I heard an album a few years ago: didn't do anything for me, at all. But live, phew! Three songs and I was sold. And for me that's the bottom line. If you can move me live and I don't know the songs, in a crappy arena-opening-act-sound, something is going on.Good musicians make good music happen, anyhow. Emile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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