2009 was the last time U2 performed inside Madison Square
Garden, the performance saw them headline the final night of the 25th
Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since then, they toured with
what could be the world’s largest stage ever assembled during 2009-2011’s 360
Tour, they finally headlined Glastonbury, Bono and Edge funded the Broadway
bomb that was Spiderman: Turn off the Dark. They also gave away their latest
record, Songs of Innocence, for free on iTunes and seemed to piss off half of
the world’s population in doing so. Not to mention Bono was told he may never
be able to play guitar again after being involved in a terrible bicycle
accident. Soldiering through the good times and bad since they were last on the
road, the four men from Ireland that have made the stage their home returned to
a city that has embraced them like their own children.
I have spent the last two nights inside Madison Square
Garden witnessing the power of U2’s current Innocence + Experience tour. The
tour is currently at the halfway mark of its eight-night sold-out run and is
certainly up there as some of the greatest U2 concerts in the history of this
band.
“From the Ritz to Madison Square Garden. New York you make
us feel at home. Yes, we have moved in,” Bono told the crowd both nights. The
band, who first arrived in New York in the early 80’s, debuted in the city at
The Ritz (now Webster Hall). Over 30 years later, they make it a point to still
reflect on where they came from. Yet, it is reflection that is the motif of
this current tour. They are giving fans a chance to see the evolution and
influences that have motivated them through the years.
The stage for this current tour is a far cry from what they
did with 360. Here they are opting for the intimacy they had with the Elevation
and Vertigo Tours of the early 2000’s. Featuring up to four places for the band
to play – a main stage at one end of the arena that looks like a typical set-up
for that venue, a catwalk that leads to a “B” stage that sees the band playing
in the round. Yet, the most interesting thing about the set-up is the massive
wall that is their LED screen hanging above the floor that also dubs as a place
for them to enter and perform.
Opening each night with “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” and
then kicking into a deep classic cut like “Out of Control” or “Electric Co.,”
U2 take their early post-punk garage style from the Dublin homes they crafted
it in to the big playhouse. With impeccable sound and authority, U2 pack a
punch right away. Both nights featured “Vertigo,” “I Will Follow” before going
into new songs like “Iris,” “Cedarwood Road,” “Song for Someone,” that bring
the origin story of this band to life. It is at this point both nights it felt
less like a concert and more like a massive Broadway production. As the giant
LED box screens featured animations of the North and South sides of Dublin
where the band are from and Bono going into the box that houses the screens and
virtually walking through his old neighborhood. From there, they get into
Ireland’s modern political with a stripped down version of “Sunday Bloody
Sunday” and “Raised by Wolves” before closing their first set with “Until the
End of the World.”
As they take a small break, the screen lowers to the catwalk
and drapes fall from the middle of The Garden and it divides the place to look
like the Berlin Wall. For Act II, it becomes their lives from Achtung Baby
onward. As they evolved as people in that era, so did their sound. Act II also
showcases the intimacy of the band performing on that smaller “B” stage where
on Wednesday they brought out Jimmy Fallon to perform “Desire” and The Roots to
play “Angel of Harlem.” For Thursday, it was a fan from Brazil who played with
his idols on “All I Want Is You.” It is on that “B” stage where the intimacy of
this whole experience is brought to life. One of the biggest bands in the world
makes a room that holds nearly 20,000 feel like your living room. Aside from
the effects, songs, and stage personalities they have – that is the real star of
the show – their power to bring everyone in right on them. On that small stage
there are no effects, it is just the raw power of the band surrounded by their
fans.
“Thank you for this life. Thank you for staying with us,”
Bono told the masses. It was the preacher at home in his cathedral surrounded
by his disciples and followers.
For him, Edge, Adam, and Larry, they know when fans come to see them for
the two-and-a-half hours they are on stage it is an experience they are not
going to get elsewhere. Yet, for the members of U2, the shows like these in New
York is why they still push to be the best live band they can be. At this point
in their career they can keep delivering safe greatest hits-filled sets and no
one would chastise them for it, yet, to want to do deep cuts like “Lucifer’s
Hands,” “Sweetest Thing,” “The Wanderer,” it changes the dynamic. It proves why
they have sold out nights in New York and across the world. Each show is
different from the last and the fans walk away knowing they got their monies
worth.