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| |  Bono, Continental Arena, 6/21/01
Photo by Glenn Emerstone © 2001 NY Rock
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U2
Get Sweaty with the Masses at the Continental Arena
by Glenn Emerstone
U2 redeemed themselves at the Continental Arena last month. Loose and in your face, they yanked back the chains on the political correctness that branded their tours of late. And the oversized venue's cold steel and concrete never felt quite so warm and at ease in the process.
Preacher Bono was loose lipped at the pulpit as he extolled the virtues of peace, love and justice. This time around, however, he kept the sermon in check and let the music do the talking.
For a four-piece band, U2 sound amazingly full. Guitarist Edge's terse, choppy, reverb-laden crunch filled the gaps between the grinding rhythms provided by stone-faced bassist Adam Clayton and band-founder/percussionist Larry Mullins Jr. Bass and drums beat in an easy 4/4 time, while a soulful Bono worked the crowd like the ringleader of the rock 'n' roll church. Dressed in downtown black, Bono strutted across a heart-shaped catwalk that jutted out from the main stage and encircled a small crowd of lucky fans who most likely paid big bucks for the privilege.
 Bono, Continental Arena, 6/21/01
Photo by Glenn Emerstone © 2001 NY Rock
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Opening with "Elevation" from All That You Can't Leave Behind, the band's strongest outing since 1991's Auctung Baby, U2 plowed through recent material like proud new poppas. "Beautiful Day" and "Mysterious Ways" were delivered like rock hymns as Bono took to his flock, getting sweaty with the masses and sharing in the high on redemption and the power of rock.
During "New York," strobe lights flickered creating a blinding numbness as Bono seduced the crowd on gotham. Loungy and sparse at first, the tune turned into a roaring take on mid-life crises and the city's cultural diversity and swampy summers. Then the syncopated rhythms of Mullins Jr., countered by the jangled fuzz of Edge's guitar work, kicked off their classic hit, "Sunday Bloody Sunday." The anthem once again reminded us of the bloodshed in Northern Ireland, while Irish flags waved in sync to verses of Bob Marley's "Get Up Stand Up."
| |  Bono, Continental Arena, 6/21/01
Photo by Glenn Emerstone, © 2001 NY Rock
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"Desire" was delivered like an unplugged gospel number at the foot of the heart-shaped walkway with drummer Mullins Jr. playing minimally on a sole-floor tom. It morphed into "Gloria," "Not Fade Away" and back through a spiritual bent as Bono took a bluesy vamp on harmonica. "Bad" was a tribal romp in the dark that built into an orgasmic finale, with hoots and chants that beckoned the almighty. Then "Fly" had Bono bug-eyed and running the circular stage, finally ending the song at screen side, plastered to it like the proverbial fly to the wall.
Onscreen, NRA spokesman, Planet of the Ape-man and right-wing mouthpiece, Charlton Heston extolled the virtues and joys of gun ownership as the band took on "Bullet the Blue Sky" in the first of many encores. Throughout the song's psychedelic beat and the twisted feedback-laden sounds of the Edge, U2 attacked our nation's ill and dated gun policy, reminding us that we live in a country where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness includes a loaded firearm.
Images of body bags, death and destruction flickered onscreen as shaman Bono wailed John Lennon's killer's name, Mark David Chapman, more than a few times, as if to exorcise him – and perhaps all of us – in the process.
"Walk On" ended the evening on a positive note, the song's message mirroring U2's rise from the ashes of self-righteousness back to their current place as one of the greatest rock acts of all time.
July 2001
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