U2 Live in Chicago

Last night we saw U2 at the United Center in Chicago. It’s part of the third leg of their Vertigo World Tour. I must say they were awesome. It was my first time seeing U2 live, even though I’ve been a long-time fan. The LED lighting was amazingly high-tech and incredible. I was really impressed with that aspect of the show. They had these sheets of LED lights that would unfold and fold up again at different points in the show. What I had seen of still photos of them before the concert, I was expecting mostly solid blocks of color. But they used this lo-res high-tech lighting to display all sorts of pulsing colors and symbols and videos and gosh, damn it, it was just frigging cool.

I think my favorite part of the show was when Bono told a little story about the Edge, their guitarist. He said, “The Edge is from the future.” He went on to explain that a space ship had landed down in northern Dublin, and out walked the Edge. Larry and Adam asked the Edge questions in the story. Finally Adam asked the Edge, “What’s the future like?” The Edge replied, “It’s better there.” A message of hope from Bono. I think that’s one of the enduring symbols that make U2 such a standard—a positive message.

During the song Yahweh, they were showing symbols of Christianity, Islam, and Judiasm. Bono talked during that song about some graffiti he had seen in Iowa that said, “Co-exist.” Co-exist, indeed.

Most rock concerts don’t offer much in terms of a message, but we walked away from the U2 show thinking about the things we had heard and seen. There was video of a woman reading from the Declaration of Human Rights. There were images of the flags of African nations. There were obligatory sermons by Bono.

I first started listening to U2 in 1985 with Under a Blood Red Sky. I remember watching the U2 Live At Red Rocks video of their show outside Denver on the War tour in the early 1980s. I remember the way my spine tingled with the emotion of the event—even just watching a videotape of the concert. Last night there were similar spine tingling moments—a signal to me that this thing, whatever it is, is good.

Julie, who has seen U2 four times, said she was surprised by the song choices last night. They played songs going back to even their first album, like “An Cat Dubh,” which was definitely an interesting choice. The band played some new material, but they didn’t dwell on the new album. They had a few old standbys that they have to perform, but there were lots of “a-ha!” moments last night as they would go into yet another song that no one was expecting.

They played two encores, and we were out on the streets of Chicago by midnight. A good time was had by all.

Update: From the U2.com website, here is the set list for the night. Read it and weep all ye who missed U2.

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Electric Co.
The Ocean (the song from 1980’s Boy I listed above as An Cat Dubh)
Wild Horses
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Yahweh
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have no Name
One

First encore:
Bad
Original of the Species
With or Without You

Second Encore:
Fast Cars (this track is on the ultra deluxe version of their latest album. also the song where Bono chose a pretty girl from the front row to dance per standard operating procedure.)
All Because of You
40