From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: Rock and U2
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 16:31:48 GMT


Hum... ho... all this talk about U2 got me to dig up something I wrote when
I went to the concert last... hmmm... April?  Yup...  Sorry, C. I can't get
you a cap, but here are my impressions and my thoughts about the concert
and the hoopla before it.

In my not so humble opinion, for a concert, Rush is better in it's sheer 
technical and musical brilliance, Peter Gabriel is better in his capability
to make pure emotional impact, and Paul Simon is better with ballads.  But
then, as I write here, U2 is starting to learn what it really *can* do.
U2 was a flop, commercially, until they understood that they *were*
commercial.  Now, they're finally losing their self-consciousness and
finding out their capabilities.

-----

        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 was from 
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.

-- 
Liralen Li           | "Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
aka Phyllis Rostykus |  are the dreams made solid, the dreams made real"
li@inigo.Data-IO.com |                       - Peter Gabriel, _So_
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