From: li%polari@uunet.UU.NET (liralen li) 
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 10:31:34 PDT 
Subject: U2 
Message-Id: <9204241031.AA10809@polari.uucp>

	When I'd first heard about the U2 concert, I was unsure as to
wheither or not I really wanted tickets.  I'd heard about the glitz and
glitter, I'd heard about the 30 minute sell out of the Florida show,
I'd heard about the pizzas in L.A., and, of course, I'd heard about the
new 'image' U2 seemed to be trying to project with the Zoo TV concert
tour. I was quite impressed with the blitz, but very uncertain about
wanting to actually see such a spectacle. The whole hoopla over the
ticket sales almost felt as if they were as much a sales gimick as they
were for their professed reason, to prevent scalpers from getting as
large a share.  I'd even heard rumors that the Portland show had been
moved to Seattle because one of the Portland radio stations had leaked
ticket sales information before they were supposed to. It was a weird
mix of materialism and fan appreciation.

	I mean, when I hear 'U2' I usually think about the raw power
and emotion of their "Bloody Sunday" video or the lyrical, haunting
tunes and the cut-to-the-heart songs that used to grace their albums.
It was the defiance they showed in trying to film "Streets Without a
Name" in L.A..  I admired their ability to not only show what is wrong
with the world but the defiance they show in the face of hopelessness.
I'd heard Rattle and Hum and seen the video and hadn't been impressed,
they had felt forced, pressed into a commercial format that didn't suit
them or their music.  I didn't think that this concert would be all
that much better.  I mean, really, leather pants and shades on Bono?

	Then I got offered a pair of tickets that Michael Baker had
bought with a good deal of determination. He'd been in his car and
heard that the tickets were going on sale in 15 minutes.  He'd raced
over to the nearest outlet and gotten into line and bought eight
tickets. And with all the local hype I just jumped on the chance,
thanking the gods for the fact that it would be on the week that I had
off between jobs. I went home with the tickets and John expressed most
of the doubts that I'd had before I got them, and I thought about
having Michael sell the tickets again instead of selling them to me;
but I was curious.  I'll readily admit it, I fell for the hype and the
hoopla.  Grin.  I wanted to see what it was all about.

	I'm glad that I did.

	ART IS MANIPULATION

	It was a very powerful show.  Again, there was the raw power
that I usually associate with U2.  No real instrumental brilliance, no
attempt at that, and a whole lot of stage technology.  And, as I had
hoped, a whole lot of the emotional impact *in* the performance and the
fact that it was before an audience that loved them.  The Dark Beast
ate from Bono's hand and gave him every response he asked for.

	The crowd manipulation was magnificent.  The time period
between the opening band and the staging of U2 was filled with a DJ
that announced and played some real crowd pleasers, mostly the local
grunge bands, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, and Nirvana.  Fairly soon the
crowd was singing along, by the end of the waiting period they were
already mostly on their feet, loosened up and enjoying themselves and
more than ready to rock when the band showed up.

	The crowd was on its feet for the entire performance, dancing,
singing, screaming, applauding and interacting with the band and with
the performance.  The Dome was in full roar and the energy of the
audience reflected the energy of Bono's performances.  The band didn't
let the energy let down for the entire performance, taking only the one
break before the encore/final set.

	The first set entirely satisfied all the pre-show hype.  The
video manipulations were right on touch. There were four banks of video
screens in the background of the stage and an overhead giant screen, as
well as screens scattered around the stage.  There were a set of half a
dozen cars suspended from a frame around the stage, providing some of
the lighting, as well as a silver car suspended from the Tacoma Dome's
ceiling.  There were at least three cameras that were being fed to the
vid-sets and they were also able to pick up satellite video feed and
showed some of that during the first set.  Bono showed up in leather
pants, black jacket and wrap around black shades and posed and pranced
and basically made it all into a rock video production.

	Each of the beginning songs was a polished video production.
Each of them had all the glitz and glitter and trappings of a
commercial success... but...

	"EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG"

	It was like seeing a ghost... like seeing the form and the
swirling non-substance around the essance of what was once familiar.
One of the video productions simply showed a whole bunch of phrases,
words, flashed in high speed on the screen.  Impact, frentic pacing to
keep the attention, and in the core of it was what U2 has been saying
for all it's existance.  There are a hell of a lot of things you know
are wrong; but you have the power to change them.  And it was done in
such a fashion that the audience had to think through all that was
being given to them and find their own emphasis, their own
interpretation and how it impacted their own belief system. It was like
looking at a movie star and suddenly seeing an old high school friend
who used to be the skinny, tall, gentle, and gawky one there amid the
makeup, the sex appeal dress, and insanely high heels; and finding that
they are the same person with the same gentle personality.

	U2 seems to be in the process of finding its capabilities with
the entire medium that they have available to them.  They don't seem to
mind poking fun at a lot of it; and then using it to full advantage but
with the same wariness of 'the establishment' that they have always
had. Losing the gawkyness without losing their personality, becoming
commercial and balancing the fine line between salability and becoming
something measured by only monetary profits.

	"REBELLION IS PREPACKAGED"

	As the show progressed, it lost many of it's trappings.  The
show moved more and more into the audience, with only an overhead
cam'ed camera.  The screens went dark, the cars were pulled up behind
the huge bank of speakers, and more and more of U2's lyrical pieces
came out.  It went all the way to the entire band performing an
unrecorded, entirely new song (I *think* it was called "In the Shadow
of Her Regard") out in the middle of the audience with a set of bongos
and their acoustics.  It was another ballad and Bono laughingly
introduced it as something in the finest traditions of the local grunge
bands.

	Much of the concert had Bono out in the crowd, along the
walkway that they'd made for that purpose.  When he wasn't on the
walkway, he was mostly on the edge of the stage, touching the fans that
reached towards him, reaching out to the crowd.  There was one song
where he pulled a woman out of the crowd and just slow danced with her
as he sang, telling her it'd be all right.  :)  And a body could feel
every woman in the crowd thinking, that might be me.

	There was one interesting section where Bono pulled out a
champagne bottle and proceeded to tell the crowd about how he had been
ill and the doctor had prescribed some medication and had warned him to
not drink alcohol with it, "and *really* weird shit happens if you
drink champagne with it."  He then proceeded to shower the audience
with champagne saying "I guess I've always been a rebel." and rolled
into a performance of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."
that segued into "Lean on Me" in a way I still haven't figured out.

	"You should cry more often"

	I cried.  During "In the Name of Love" and at all the voices
raised during that song while they played the clip of Dr. Martin Luther
King's "I have a dream" speech.  It's the emotional impact. I could see
exactly how they manipulated the inputs and generated the emotions, but
I also experienced those emotions. I felt things that I haven't touched
in a long time and in a way I don't think I could have without the
performance, without the band and the interaction of a huge crowd of
human beings.

	I don't know if U2 has sold out, still, even as they've sold
out every single show that they've given.  I only know that they did
what they probably set out to do, which was entertain their audience,
give them something to feel, something to think about, and something to
dream.

	It was a wonderful concert.



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