"VH-1
Legends"
It
started out simply enough. Tape an as yet unseen U2
special on VH-1 as a lark, no big deal. I'd gotten
away from U2 in recent days, mostly because I didn't
care much for their last cd Pop,
nor had I tried to get tickets for the PopMart
tour when it came to Raleigh. I'd already seen the ZooTv
Inside and
Outside Broadcasts once each, Popmart
just seemed like a bigger, glitzier version of ZooTV,
and having done those already, I didn't feel much
like spending the $50+ that it would have cost me to
go. Not to mention that I had just completely
relocated 3000 miles to a new city, and was still
adjusting to that concept; going to see a U2 show,
for an album I wasn't truely crazy about, wasn't
really at the top of my list of priorities right
about then. Just as well, since it eventually was
canceled due to rain (and some say low ticket sales
in the area as well; they only sold about 20,000 for
a venue that seated twice that, read the article from
the N&O about that here) anyway.
I
wasn't anti-U2 by any stretch of the imagination. My
theory, after watching the group do a complete image
change in the time between Rattle
and Hum and Achtung
Baby, is that after a three (major)
album arc, they seem to change gears and go off in a
different direction, based on what they've
experienced since the last album. Boy,
October, and
War was one arc, The
Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and
Rattle and Hum
was a second, with Achtung Baby,
Zooropa,
and Pop
being the third arc.
I
figured that after Pop,
they would be right on schedule for the start of
another three album arc, entirely different from the
ideas and concepts of the AchtungZooPop
era. Which suited me just fine. There was some great
music that came out of those albums (even Pop
wasn't ALL bad! :-)), but IMHO, U2 didn't need
all the techno brou-ha-ha that came with it. I
understood the inspiration behind it (and respected
that they had made the music that THEY wanted, and
needed, to make at the time; remaining true to
themselves at the risk of alienating some fans, which
I know they ended up doing, but as Bono once said -
"It's best to just let what's in you come out..."
If that means putting out a song like "Miami",
which didn't do a thing for me, so be it), but was
patiently waiting until their next phase, whatever
and whenever that would be.
And
after the Legends
special peaked my interest again a little, I hopped
onto the internet, surfed around a little, and found
what I was looking for, a little paragraph that said
that U2 was working on a new album, and that for this
one, they were "going back to basics".
Hallelujah, here she comes! The next phase, era, arc,
what have you. Needless to say, I'm all revved up
again. Ready for the new album, ready for the tour,
ready for the laughing gas, ready for the gridlock,
yadda yadda yadda. :-)
"It's
very much a four-legged table..."- The Edge
I
first picked up on U2 back in high school, in 1985,
courtesy of my best bud, Susie, who was a big fan
long before that. I, on the other hand, was a Duranie
(forgive me, I 
knew not what I did!
:-) ), not a shrieking hysterical Duranie, but a
Duranie just the same. And not particularly
interested in this band U2 that she kept talking
about. But one day I agreed to sit down and watch
this U2 video with her, so she showed me this
rockumentary at her house after class one afternoon,
and that was the 
beginning of it all
for me. The vid was U2's "The Unforgettable Fire
Collection", and quite honestly, Bono just
knocked me OUT! He had me absolutely mesmerized. He
was, admittedly, no John Taylor (sorry, Bono! :-)),
but there was definitely something about him. The
music was serious and had heart, but the vid wasn't
ALL serious; all the guys showed a sense of humor,
even back then, and that appealed to me as well. To
anyone who thinks they were too serious in the pre-Achtung
Baby days needs to pull out that tape and FF to
things like Adam's photo shoot, the solar eclipse,
"Okay, Gringo!", and the like. To this day,
I still love that video. (And for those of you who
STILL think of the band as being nothing but serious,
I've got a separate page of nothing but photos
that'll prove you absolutely WRONG! Check that out here.)
"We're
gonna make this aircraft hangar work for us tonight!
We're gonna make it work because the music is worth
it and these people are worth it!" - Bono
It
just worked out that Susie 
had a pair of
tickets to the U2 show at the Cow Palace in Daly City
that year. I swiped her second one, and just like
that, I found myself going to my first concert ever,
and WHAT a first concert! (cheap too, just look at
that price on the ticket stub. A far cry from PopMart,
it is. Of course, that was 14 years ago...) I had
such a great time, I swear I didn't come down for at
least three weeks after that. And no tv screens,
belly dancers, or trabants suspended from the ceiling
were required. Go figure. Click on the Cow Palace
ticket stub at right for a review of that concert.
Early shot of U2, from "The
Unforgettable Fire" tour program
Interlude
- Present Day...
Given
that I'm currently on a big U2 kick, I've started
rewatching some of my collection of videos, starting
with "The Unforgettable Fire Collection",
the "Achtung Baby" Interference vid, the
"Numb" vids, a tape of "Rarities",
courtesy of Ron over on ebay (GREAT tape, dude!), the
new "Best of U2" video, and am currently
working my way through "ZooTV Live From Sydney",
courtesy of Steve, also of ebay. I got as far as New
Years Day before I shut it off
for the night.
A
few thoughts crossed my mind while I was watching it.
Random thought number one? Hopefully the tour for the
new album will have at least SOME reserved seating,
watching all the people squeezed in so close together
in front of the stage like that, all screaming "Bonooooo!!!"
at the top of their lungs, made me claustrophobic.
:-) I said before that I was NOT a shrieking
Durannie; as much as I love U2, I'm also not a
shrieking U2 fan either. I can "Whoooooooo!"
and cheer with the best of them, but a the rest?
Fugetaboutit. (To their credit, not EVERYONE who is
squished into the front rows is a shrieker and a
grabber, I know. I saw at least ONE person on the
Sydney tape who was right in front row, who had her
arms resting on the barricade, just singing along,
like any sane person. :-) )
Random
thought number two? I found it odd that as good as
the music was on the first 7 songs (One
is in my personal top ten list
of favorite U2 songs of all time), the first song to
actually give me a good old fashioned U2 chill (like
you get when the music really hits a vibe) was New
Years Day. Strange... They say
the new album is "
