Have I said too much? Just go if you have the cash if not, wait for the concert film. The band can wander from one end to the other of the arena, sometimes while inside a video wall that rises 40 feet in the air. It’s anti-ZooTV tour and still mind-blowing. Oh, speaking of the stage - well, I don’t want to ruin too much for those going to the shows later this week but the set is a revelation. Like a marching drummer without his fife player, Mullen marched across the stage pounding away for “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” DeVilles and Jonny Bucklands cower in the wake of his chunk-chink in “Vertigo” and a single delayed, distorted strum of “Bullet the Blue Sky” and the plain, absolutely heartbreaking arpeggio of “Sunday Blood Sunday.”Īnd let’s not forget the thump and boom of Larry Mullen Jr. Each reinvented the instrument and the Edge’s innovations could be heard in his distinct, simple parts and signature sonics. In my ears and soul, there are five guitarists who changed rock: Hendrix, Page, Garcia, Van Halen and the Edge. Me and nearly 20,000 bought what he sold for “With or Without You” and “City of Blinding Lights” and “Beautiful Day.” When the sloganeering got too severe he dug deep for “Bullet the Blue Sky” with a reminder that America is a perfect dream and bloody reality. A Viagra Boys driving bass line meets U2’s Bullet the Blue Sky on Holy Rejection. There is the Beach House/Future Islands feel of Death City Drive. He shined like a star in the summer night. In what would be the final side of vinyl album number two you begin to have no idea what’s coming.
The greatest frontman of the past 30 years, Bono remains half Jim Morrison and half Don Draper - OK, maybe a big dose of JFK and a dash of Jimmy Swaggart too. But they opened with “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)” and “Electric Company” back to back and the musical thread was clear. We like to think U2 has evolved over those shows. Twenty-three times we’ve played this city.” “The four men on this stage are playing a hometown show,” Bono said. The band that broke in America a few T stops away at the Paradise in 1980 came home. I remember their peers guzzled Jack Daniels and deflowered groupies and they championed peace and justice.įriday the Irish icons took the stage at the TD Garden for the first of four sold-out shows. When Bono sings “Bad” and the Edge clicks on his genius guitar rig, I remember they spent their first couple of decades blowing my young mind with perfect rock ’n’ roll. They champion Joey Ramone and shill for Apple.īut when they get on stage all is forgiven. They preach about global poverty while using the Netherlands as a tax shelter. U2 spent the last couple of decades driving me (and millions of other fans) bonkers.