Punch a hole straight through the night

You know,

One of the recurring arguments that occasionally pops up between me and my friends is: "Is Bono a wanker?"

I think the answer, as much as it pains me (and, probably, you) to say, is probably yes. I mean, the last time I saw U2 live, thirteen years ago (!), was the ZOOTV tour, which I found to be a much more 'structured' show than the Vertigo tour (and also a more 'polished' show, although I was much more in thrall with U2 back then, so my 14-year old self may not be a reliable witness, your honour). It seemed to have a continuous theme that ran throughout the show. Halfway through the show, Bono became 'Mephisto', a sort of over-the-top parody of rock `n roll arrogance. This time round, Bono didn't put on any makeup, but his character was barely distinguishable from yesteryear's satire. It's possible that some of his over-the-top persona was intentionally ironic, but unfortunately not enough for him to avoid the wanker appellation.

But that's okay, we forgive Bono his sins, because it's U2, and U2, after all these years, still rock. And rock they did, very much so.

I guess there's two schools of thought on the whole 'opening band' thing. The first is that you want to give the audience the chance to hear an act they wouldn't normally be exposed to, to give a smaller band the chance to hit the big time. Certainly Marilyn Manson would not be the name he is if Nine Inch Nails hadn't invited them to tour with them and open their shows (curse them! [shakes fist]). The second theory is that you want the most bang for thier buck, so you book other big acts to play their greatest hits back-catalog. U2 definitely went for the latter option with a pretty impressive opening lineup of Ash & Idlewild. I totally missed Idlewild, which sucks as 'American English' is one of my favourite songs and I would have loved to have seen it live. However I did catch Ash's set and was suprised how, even though I've never owned an Ash album or sat down to listen to an Ash song, I somehow knew all the words to every song they played. It was a very solid set which I really enjoyed, along with the atmosphere that comes with being in such a huge venue. [Er, which was Twickenham, btw, an open-topped Rugby Stadium)

Then the boys themselves, opening, as you'd expect, with a barnstorming rendition of 'Vertigo' (which, oddly, they closed with, as well, which I thought was an odd decision. I guess it's the first song they've written in a while that out-and-out fucking rocks, and they want to get all the mileage they can out of it), which led neatly into 'Electric Co', which was great. Y'know, it's odd that, when they almost broke up after Rattle & Hum, it was because some of the band felt like they were becoming 'The U2 Greatest Hits Machine'. Because really, they definitely broke out every great U2 song that you'd expect to hear at a live show, y'know? All the classics were all lined up, they definitely didn't hold back on the old favourites.

The concert started to fall apart a little, as they do, about halfway through, when Bono started banging on about Africa and G8 and Bob Geldof. Like, don't get me wrong, that's part and parcel of the Bono package and I wouldn't have it any other way, but I thought he was pushing it a little too far when, at the crescendo of 'One', he told the entire audience to get out thier phones and text 80205, and then suddenly on the monitors there were these gigantic instructions to text 80205, but not really any detail as to why, or what you were getting yourself into. I found it all a bit creepily Hitler-rally-esque and it kind of took me out of the mood of the show for a bit, like: "Hmm, I thought I was, like, paying him money to, y'know, sing `n stuff, now he's like, giving me orders."

However, he did make an amusing verbal gaffe when he was ranting on about the Declaration of Human Rights, he says, this is quite funny, he goes:

"..cause you know, the American dream, it's not just an American dream, it's a Human dream....and an Asian dream...."

Other higlights were 'Running to Stand Still', which practically had me crying in the aisles, 'Zoo Station', oh, and 'City of Blinding Lights' was good, too- that's when the big light-wall activated for the first time and freaked me out with its coolness.

So: great night (although the three-hour trip home was a bitch. Let me tell you: when 75,000 people all try and board the same train at once, it ain't pretty. It was like War of the frickin' Worlds) Check out some of my super-far-away photos here. If you watch them in slideshow mode while listening to Rattle & Hum, it's just like being there!