(Houston, TX) October 14, 2009. U2’s 360 Tour in promotion of the band’s No Line On The Horizon album was this fall’s hottest ticket in rock — if not the year. It was a pricey event, so it needed to deliver something memorable, that’s for sure. The 360-degree in-the-round stage setup and spaceship monstrosity was a spectacle to behold. Two nights before the Houston, Texas show it played in the new home of the Dallas Cowboys, which reportedly had to raise its multi-million dollar video screen up quite a bit to make room. In between the four arms (or claws) were two rows of several speakers suspended to push the sound throughout the entire stadium. In Houston’s Reliant Stadium the retractable roof was open, which probably helped the sound.
I invited a friend to join me for this show, who had reservations about coming due to his experience at the Popmart tour, which he said “sounded horrible.” I was confident he’d find this one a better experience, since I had seen the Elevation and Vertigo tours and enjoyed fabulous sound. It sounded great from our seats, which faced what would have been the side of the stage had it been a normal front-back-left-right standard platform (at stage right from the performer’s perspective) up about 16 rows up off the stadium floor.
Photo (permission pending) of MUSE's Matt Bellamy by CineSonic
The opening band on this leg of the tour was MUSE, and they delivered an amazing set that culled songs from Absolution, Black Holes & Revelations and their brand new album, The Resistance. New songs, like “The Uprising” didn’t receive the kind of fanfare from the audience that classics like “Starlight,” “Time Is Running Out” and “Hysteria” did, which filled the stadium with dynamic sounds that ranged from throbbing bass to soaring highs and the vocals of Matt Bellamy. Unlike the so-called common practice of “blue-mixing” the opening band with less-than-deserved volume levels, MUSE was shaking the place with its intense modern rock. Kudos to U2 for bringing such a great band out with them (and one that is probably as influenced by the U2 catalog as is Coldplay or Radiohead).
After the MUSE set was over my second photographer fiasco took place. I teach a class on Wednesdays, so I hit the road from Austin to Houston right after class let out around 3 o’clock. Thanks to the higher speed limits of this decade I was able to make great time. However, once I got within 10 miles of the stadium, the traffic was slowed to a crawl. Apparently there was an accident on Highway 610. I patiently watched my window of being escorted into the stadium with my fellow photographers start to run into jeopardy. I made note of the publicist’s phone number and had it ready to dial as soon as I was sure I’d miss my 6:30 meet time.
This whole trip was doubtful from the beginning. I had lost the contact for the band’s label publicist and was advised to go through a concert promotion company. I did so and was met with positive enthusiasm, but also told that I would not find out until a couple days before the show. This made me nervous, because I knew if the answer was “No,” then I’d have too little time to arrange something else. My heart sunk at the possibility. The answer turned out to be, “No.” I politely thanked the person for their help and asked if they had a label contact to appeal to. I sent off an email and they must’ve recognized that we’d given consistent ink to U2 or something, because they turned around and said, “Yes.”
In the midst of the stopped-on-the-freeway traffic, I was even praying prayers like, ‘Lord, if it’s Your will that I see this concert, please make a way. If not, thank You anyway.’ I took a humorous approach, because I knew anything could happen. Once my clock was 10 minutes away from my 6:30 appointment, I made the call to the person handling the media for this show. Traffic was starting to move again after the accident was cleared. She said the photographers were about to go in (early). I told her that I probably wouldn’t make it in time. She told me to meet her at this entrance at 8 pm to get in place for U2’s set. Once I got to highway speed again I saw more red taillights lit up in front of me. I imagine that an over-eager driver sped away from the loosed accident traffic and lost control, because traffic stopped again only a mile or two after the previous mishap. The minutes ticked away. The clock was now nearing the 7 pm show time advertised on the web. After finding parking and getting my ticket, which took a good long while, I met up with my apprehensive-about-the-sound-quality friend, Doug Pinnick, and we headed inside. Normally, I would drop names due to the stupidity of it, but he’s a name that HM readers are used to seeing, so I make an exception.
We make it inside to see almost all of the MUSE set (that started around 7:45 pm), which was great. After not getting replies to my text messages about the exact meeting time, I headed outside to meet up with the other photographers. Once on the ramp outside the doors and on my way down, I was told, “Where are you? We’re going in. You’re going to miss it.” I begged for mercy and even started running on my surgically-repaired knee down the ramps. Bless her heart, she had 25 photographers ready to go in and get stationed before the U2 set, which was 40 minutes away. If I was a cursing man, I would certainly have cursed her. Her advice was good, though: “You’ve got tickets. Go in and enjoy the show.”
I had purposefully resisted the temptation to peek at the previous shows’ setlists before this concert, because I wanted to be surprised, but I couldn’t help but read the cover story in the new Rolling Stone, which tipped me off to the intro music of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” As soon as that song came over the sound system, I knew it was time to rock. Back to the review:
Drummer Larry Mullen strode onstage with a spotlight leading the way as the crowd erupted in cheers. He did a nice solo intro and then the band came on for “Breathe.” It was kind of a raw and primal way to start off an arena show, but it worked. The building percussive crescendo exploded with The Edge’s bombastic power chords. Along with several dozen thousands of fans, I was a foot off the ground in musical joy. All the stress of getting to the show and not being able to photograph up close and personal started to fade away as the football stadium became as close to an intimate room as was possible.
The curtain that wrapped around the circumference of the center of the round stage just above Mullens’ drumset was tightly compressed like a giant lampshade turned upside-down, displaying well-chosen images of each of the band members. Even though we were close enough to see what was happening on the stage, it was hard not to glance up and watch from that screen. “Get On Your Boots” kept the show moving along at a brisk pace as the band continued to explore their large stage. A giant circular catwalk wrapped around the stage, providing several hundred lucky and patient fans with a confined space around the stage. Two perpendicular catwalk “arms” rotated around the stage on urethane wheels managed by stage hands that connected the stage to the catwalk at various locations like the hands on a clock dial. It was a cool gimmick that gave the audience something else to watch without being a distraction. I had to wonder if Bono was going to fall on purpose from the railing of this catwalk as he sprawled himself over it as he crooned to the crowd.
“Magnificent,” with its worshipful lyrics wrapped up the first segment of three brand new songs that started the show. Bono introduced the band to the crowd and declared like an astronaut on his spaceship stage, “Houston, we have no problem.” They romped through the groove-heavy and soulful “Mysterious Ways” that gave way to “Beautiful Day.” The audience sang all the words to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which seemed to close the deal that audience and band were one on this night.
The obscure B-side track “Your Blue Room” amplified the space theme with a video hookup and verse recitation from a real-live astronaut from the International Space Station on the wrap-around video screen. It made a cool juxtaposition between the stadium becoming a small club to a visual connection between an explorer in the universe to each of us at this show. “Until The End Of The World” echoed back to the adventurous middle phase of U2’s career and then the video curtain started descending as the band went into the old title track from The Unforgettable Fire. The atmospheric sounds of this early collaboration between the band and producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois was another high point in a must-see show. The skipping and bouncing guitar notes rang out with trails of reverb as the hexagon-shaped video panels separated from one another until they almost reached the stage. This elliptical cylinder of a video screen spun red and multi-colored lights around and around to great effect. It was a nice touch that reinforced the song’s melodic and somber mood.
“City of Blinding Lights” utilized many more colors from the spectrum of light and made sure the stage setup was noticed. After that it compressed back up after a rousing version of “Vertigo” to showcase images of the band members’ bobbing heads as a remix of “I’ll Go Crazy” played through the sound system. It was a humorous twist that underscored the irony of a band playing a pre-recorded remix at a stadium show.
Around this time an older couple that had come in and sat down next to us late in the show started motioning to leave. I told the woman, “Oh, you can’t leave now! You at least need to stay to hear “Where The Streets Have No Name.” I can’t believe I was so brazen to suggest that. They patiently waited a few more songs and then headed out after asking me, “Where do you think the manager is sitting?” I instinctively knew that she was speaking of U2’s manager, whom the couple had met at a museum during their Houston sight-seeing. I pointed out that he was probably either in a luxury box, behind the soundboard, or backstage. They politely bowed out of the show and I realized how nice of a gesture Paul McGuiness had paid to this couple that he’d run into.
The lengthy set turned political with “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” which Bono introduced with a call out to those listening (as if they could) to pirate radio broadcasts in Iran. The anthem composed for Ireland’s religious-based conflict became the backdrop for a nation that is precariously held between freedom and slavery. The whispery and mesmerizing “MLK” played its ominous tones to bring a dynamic shift of quiet to the place, and then the band showed another innovative twist by shining the spotlight on Burma’s exiled president-behind-bars, Aung San Suu Kyi. Volunteer members of the One Campaign and Amnesty International came out on the catwalk, standing side by side until they wrapped around the circular platform, each holding a cut-out mask of the democratic activist. It was a powerful demonstration that promoted prayer on her behalf, which was neat to be a part of.
Bishop Desmond Tutu introduced the next song with a short speech about the struggle for freedom always encountering roadblocks to peace, but encouraged us to march on and remember that we are one. You’ll never guess which numerically-titled song the band played next. After this moment the band segued into “Where The Streets Have No Name,” which has to be the greatest building crescendo in all of rock. The band said good night, but everyone knew that a few more songs lay ahead. They peaked out with another rarely-performed tune, “Ultraviolet,” which the band seemed to tip its own hat to with the melodic cries of “Baby, baby, baby” in the bridge of their “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” single.
“With Or Without You” was the second encore and then the band finished things off with a spiritual exclamation point, as they traditionally do at the end of a show. Previous tours used “40” or “Yahweh,” and this one was capped off with “Moment of Surrender.”
And that was it. Quite a memorable show. Living up to its hype and the anticipation of U2 fans everywhere. It’s all documented (all 2 hours and 21 minutes) on rebroadcasts of its YouTube historical stream-cast from Pasadena, California’s show that happened later in October. Some of my friends that sat higher in the stadium close to the ceiling complained about the sound bouncing around up there. In my mind it’s certainly one of those shows what you just have to see, but I think the band failed to exceed the height of the musical bar they set with the Vertigo Tour a few years prior. Visually, they topped themselves, to be sure; and this one was no musical slouch. I just remember the afterglow of that tour lasting a few days longer than this one. Which is not a bad “problem” to have. (he he) The teacher in me would still give ’em an “A.”
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