Concert Review

U2
June 29, 2015 @ United Center

By Dave Miller

U2 performed well enough on its past couple tours, but it was a case of gradually diminishing returns. Yes, the shows were still entertaining, but much in them had been seen before, even if not on the monstrous claw stage from their last stadium tour. While the band, along with its live show, still cast a big shadow, one got a sense the band's best days were behind it.

That trajectory looked to be continuing with the release of the band's new album, Songs of Innocence. The manner of the release, showing up for free in every iTunes user's library, caused considerable backlash among non-fans and overshadowed the material. The album focuses on the band members' roots and formative years, but, for all of the personal lyrical nature, the recorded versions of the songs were underwhelming.

Early tour reports were positive, but I couldn't help be a bit skeptical going to the fourth show of the five-night stand Monday night at the United Center. As it turned out, I was not only surprised, but wowed. The show soared in all aspects -- performance, sound, video and innovation. Unlike the past couple tours, this show didn't merely continue the band's legacy. It added to it.

The band came out firing right from the opener, "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)." Each of the members were engaged, seemingly out to prove they can still deliver the passion they had when they began their journey as a band in 1976. Their contributions were sharpened by an innovating surround speaker system that had music coming at you from all sides. It was clear and powerful from the middle of the floor, and made you wonder why it's taken this long for a band to do this in an arena.

This was not a greatest hits show. Six of the 24 songs played were from the new album. "This is our story, even though I have the microphone," Bono said. "It's basically four Irish men inhabiting four teen-aged boys. It's very raw." It was as if the band was re-dedicating itself to its rock-and-roll mission, and the new songs were a biographical look at its roots in Ireland. Even "Pride (In the Name of Love)" sounded fresh with Bono name-checking not only Dr Martin Luther King, but Baltimore and Ferguson and Charleston. By the song's send, after his bandmates had finished, Edge was still squeezing a last sustaining note out of his guitar with the wonder of a kid jamming in his garage.

During "Invisible," Bono interjected the modern civil rights cry of "I can't breathe." More than once, the singer told the crowd how he viewed America. "You're not just a country," he said. "You're an idea. Please don't forget that."

It was a show that those who saw it won't forget anytime soon. Bono was in fine, strong voice. On some past tours, I've heard his voice start to give out at the two-hour mark, but it held up the whole time and the frontman dug deep to sing emotionally throughout the show. Edge filled the arena with more soundscapes than you'd think one guitarist could. Larry Mullen Jr. hit the drums as hard and crisply as I've ever seen him do. Adam Clayton added rumbling colors on the bottom end like a punk painter.

The staging was basic, but a technological marvel at the same time. A long runway connected the main stage to a satellite one. The band worked the lengthy setup like it was the most natural thing in the world, and performed in the tight quarters of the satellite stage as if in a club. A long video screen not only stretched across the top of the runway, but was mobile, lowering at one point to divide the audience in two, which worked as a symbol, on a smaller, personal scale, for how people are divided by the band, but, on a more universal level, how the world is divided in so many ways.

The band entered the arena after the lights went down and Patti Smith's "People Have the Power" played. At the end of the show, the band members left the stage one by one. When they disappeared from sight, Bono repeated the "people have the power" line twice.

U2 still has the power, too.

The setlist:

The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
The Electric Co.
Vertigo
I Will Follow
Iris (Hold Me Close)
Cedarwood Road
Song for Someone
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Raised by Wolves
Until the End of the World
(intermission)
Invisible
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
The Crystal Ballroom
Sweetest Thing
Every Breaking Wave
Bullet the Blue Sky
Pride (In The Name of Love)
Beautiful Day
With or Without You
-----------------------------
City of Blinding Lights
Where the Streets Have No Name
Happy Birthday
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Start: 8:20 p.m./Finish: 10:36 p.m. (includes four-minute intermission)
Totals: 24 songs, two hours 12 minutes of music

Concert Review

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