I blogged when I got home from the show but I found what I wrote embarrassing (there may have been some alcohol consumed that evening). So I deleted the blog the next morning. From what I can remember, tho, it was a pretty kick ass show.
It used to everybody liked U2. Just like The Police. There was a time you couldn't really find somebody who would admit to not liking The Police. But now a lot of that old Police stuff does sound kinda shrill, tbh. And now I personally know people who actively dislike U2. I can understand that. Bono's a bit much, so if you're not willing to go with it it might be hard to just be neutral.
Personally I'm not sure how big a U2 fan I'd consider myself in the moment, but I do know they have a pretty freaking impressive collection of songs to pick from for their set list. Some true classics didn't make the cut, but with the exception of the new material pretty much every tune they played was sing-along familiar. And they do know how to rock the stadium show. Of course the sound is not great in BC Place, and the band is far enough away from your seats to make it basically the equivalent of watching them on TV. Watching them on your neighbor's TV, more like (while you're sitting in your own living room). Yet somehow it's still invigorating. I still feel very inspired by it, 48 hours later and stone cold sober.
Black Eyed Peas opened. I hadn't heard of them before "Where Is The Love?" came out, I don't think. That's the first one I remember hearing, anyway, and I thought it was pretty cool. Like a more pop-minded "Arrested Development", with hopefully more staying power. But then they pretty much tanked (not commercially, of course), putting out a series of inanities. They are, for the most part, catchy, but it just seems like maybe they could have accomplished a lot more. But whatever. That "I Got A Feeling" got the whole room hopping just as much as almost anything U2 did. That was pretty impressive. I was surprised how much Will.I.Am ran the show, definitely seemed like it's 100% his band. Except when Fergie did "Big Girls Don't Cry". I think I have more irrational hate for that song than any other song ever recorded. It's not that I think it's a bad song. It just pisses me off for some unknown reason.
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U2: The Band That Killed Concerts For Me.
ReplyDeleteWell, not the band so much as the show. It was 1987 and I saw them at BC Place in Vancouver for their Joshua Tree tour. I had, perhaps, the crappiest seat in the house: level 4, top of the stadium, directly across from the tiny stage way off in the distance. Why I couldn't get a better ticket, I don't remember, but I do remember the sound being terrible, a minimal light show (that might have been be design, I'm not sure) and bringing binoculors like I was at a football game because the musicans may have well been ants. As U2 had been making its way across Canada from east to west I was reading rave reviews from fans and critics alike so my expectations were sky high that night. I was very disappointed and very bored. I enjoyed the songs I liked when the band kicked into them but I just couldn't get into it. Having said all that, I still consider myself to be a U2 fan, but mostly of the "oldies", though I do enjoy hearing some of the newer stuff when I hear it but I don't necessarily search it out.
I hear that this show had a killer stage setup so maybe the people in the nosebleeds had a better time than I did those many years ago....