| 26th
November, 2006
ADAM
KELSALL
U2 Concert,
Telstra Dome, Melbourne
November
19th, 2006
U2 are the masters
of the micro and macro. Bono’s serendipitous voice and
Edge’s 'punk gnarl' guitar work; songs dedicated to
fathers and brothers in a stadium of over 50,000 people. It
feels like it has to be a joke - four (old) Irishmen who have
been rocking the world for almost 30 years. Surely it was
never meant to be this big?
With
the spring Melbourne air still electric with the G20
summit, protests and the Make Poverty History campaign,
it all went a bit political.
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Opening with City
Of Blinding Lights, the band launched into a series of
songs, somehow maintaining the momentum before a mullet-less
Bono - oozing his usual charisma - dropped it back a notch
and reminisced the crowd with Angel of Harlem (dedicated
to “the arch” - the Archbishop of South Africa
- who was “attending his first rock show tonight in
Melbourne”). Apologies were issued for the “perfectionist”
Edge and his guitar that “sounded a little bit foozzy”.
With the spring Melbourne air still electric with the G20
summit, protests and the Make Poverty History campaign, it
all went a bit political. The happily seated crowd were bought
to their feet as Sunday Bloody Sunday was played
with the energy, passion and the anger of a brand new naughties
song, not as it was, a product of the Eighties. Hendrix was
recreated as the searing, wailing guitars of Bullet The
Blue Sky reminded us that the passion U2 have for peace
has not diminished since that song was written. The screen,
which took up the back third of the stadium, flashed images
of fighter planes and destruction. The political climax came
when we were asked to pull out our mobile phones - “very
powerful these little cell phones” - and “create
our own little galaxy” in a modern take on the tradition
of waving the cigarette lighter. The number for the Make Poverty
History appeared on the screen and we were requested to create
a “texting meltdown at Telstra”.
But the show most go on and before long politics was cast
aside in the name of rock. The two-and-a-quarter hour show
included the classics Beautiful Day, With Or
Without You, One and I Still Haven’t
Found What I’m Looking For. After two encores,
both the band and the crowd still knew that U2 had enough
hits to play for a couple more hours and no one would be begrudge
them for it. But Bono and his musical buddies bade Australia
farewell, leaving us with the perception that, like the band,
our lives can be so much bigger if we dare to dream.
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