When this reviewer attended the opening night of U2’s iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE in Vancouver last May, the tour’s artistic director Gavin Friday was sitting just a couple of seats down in the 20,000-capacity Rogers Arena. The former Virgin Prune spent the entire gig furiously scribbling notes. Afterwards, he sent an apologetic text, explaining that he hadn’t come over because he’d been too busy looking after “Baby.” He added that it usually takes at least six shows before “Baby is fully Achtung.”
Fast forward almost six months and close to 60 gigs have been played throughout the US and Europe – and U2’s ‘Baby’ is now about as tight, well-oiled and Achtung as it’s ever going to get. Tonight’s gig in the London O2 is the last of six sold-out performances in the UK capital and, aided by awe-inspiring technology, is a master-class in both old school rock ‘n’ roll and superbly choreographed contemporary showmanship.
The opening section, played under a single swinging lightbulb, remains pretty much unchanged from Vancouver (though Bono appears to have stopped punkishly spitting water all over Edge). Kicking off with ‘The Miracle Of (Joey Ramone)’ from their latest album, Songs Of Innocence, U2 quickly delve back into their earliest days with ‘Gloria’, fast forward to ‘Vertigo’ (which the audience enthusiastically counts in, in pigeon Spanish), and then jump back in time again for a blistering ‘I Will Follow’. If their teenage selves could see them now...
The massive overhanging video screens/stage kick into action for ‘Iris’, which ends with Bono on his knees at the far stage, howling for his late mother. Of course, 60 shows in, the theatrical impact is powerful… the kind that sends shivers down the spine.
This being London, the heart of the show comes in the acoustic ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ – Larry’s impassioned militaristic drumming its chilling centrepiece – followed by ‘Raised By Wolves’ (about the Dublin bombings of 1973). There’s already controversy brewing in the North over this particular song – a former Belfast Lord Mayor is concerned that it might cause a riot – but, speaking to Hot Press backstage before the show, bassist Adam Clayton expressed mild annoyance at that suggestion. In any event, they’re unlikely to drop it from the set list when they play Ireland later this month.
The crowd are eating from the palm of U2’s hand by this point, and the band happily feed them the hits – ‘Mysterious Ways’, ‘Desire’, ‘Even Better Than the Real Thing’, etc. ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’ is a real standout tonight. And the breathtaking ‘Every Breaking Wave’ still leaves much of the audience in a state of emotional wreckage.
‘One’ isn’t played, but some unexpected older songs pop up. ‘Party Girl’ sounds surprisingly fresh, and even ‘October’ gets an eerie outing. The only album which hasn’t been represented on this tour is now Pop (though I’ll eat Edge’s hat if they don’t play ‘Please’ in Belfast).
What has changed from that first Vancouver outing is that the onscreen visuals are tighter and seem more developed, and also that all of the band make better use of the overhanging stage. It’s almost a shame that there’s so much YouTube footage out there by now. The visual effect of seeing Bono and co walking through the graphics remains astonishingly impressive, but the surprise element is gone.
Noel Gallagher and some of One Direction were backstage earlier, but there are no special guest appearances on this occasion. Truth be told, they probably would have been a distraction. Tonight is all about U2. And, if you were lucky enough to be in attendance, about you, too.
Roll on Belfast and Dublin. Irish fans are in for a real treat.