Classic or Dud: U2

still would love to see them from a relative distance later this year, but i doubt i will make the early wake up call tomorrow required to get the seats of interest.

Larry and Adam both look so incredibly Weekend At Bernie's that I'm questioning if they really did die last year & I forgot

Show me some men who look like old lesbians!

i got tix to see these old chaps in a couple months. good to see bono's upper body is unbroken enough that he can sing. i actually like the new album a lot. shame abt the release though.

http://www.sketchoholic.com/uploads/userfiles/16639/793e256931_Edge__U2.jpg

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/191/cover_493961992009.jpg

U2 played a KROQ show at the World Famous Roxy on Sunset last night.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-u2-500-fans-roxy-20150529-story.html

By Gerrick D. Kennedy contact the reporter

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5568bdec/turbine/u2-rare-club/1550/1550x872

U2's hottest ticket wasn't the Forum, it was at the tiny Roxy Theatre

“I’ve got to catch my breath,” Bono said after ripping through “Vertigo” during U2’s tiny club gig at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on Thursday night.

It was a rare break in the tight, hourlong show, and the frontman had rightfully earned his brief reprieve.

In the 45 minutes leading to this moment, the superstar Irish rockers had already moved through an exhilarating set that saw the band rip through some of their earliest tunes and a few of their defining smashes for just 500 fans.

With Thursday’s show, U2 were making good on their promise to make up for pulling out of KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas in December after its frontman was injured in a bike accident weeks before.

The special show -- tickets were given to contest winners -- came during a whirlwind week for the rock band.

U2’s latest high-tech, high-concept spectacle, the Innocence + Experience Tour, launched a five-night stint at the Forum on Tuesday and the band’s longtime tour manager Dennis Sheehan died of a massive heart attack in L.A. the morning after its first Forum gig.

Tursday’s show was as much about looking back and thrilling fans with a once-in-a-lifetime experience as it was about paying tribute to their fallen comrade.

Opening with “The Ocean” from its 1980 debut “Boy,” Bono & Co. leaned heavily on older cuts -- and the crowd, literally -- for the show.

Thurday's show was crafted for diehard fans. (A few outside the venue even attempted to trade Forum tickets for a wristband.) The bulk of the material came from their debut and 2000's "All That You Can't Leave Behind," with their massive albums "The Joshua Tree" and "Achtung Baby" getting completely overlooked.

While their arena set is a sophisticated wonderland of sprawling catwalks and video screens the size of billboards, their no frills set-up at the Roxy delivered passion, intimacy and energy that no major arena could manage to capture.

When Bono – sporting his signature blue-tinted shades and a black leather motorcycle jacket – dug into the band’s second-ever single, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock,” he leaned into the swath of crowd that hugged the stage as if he was prepping a stage dive.

And that intimacy never waned.

At one point Bono, face aglow from a handful of smartphones pointed only inches from his chiseled face, grabbed a fan’s hand for balance as he climbed atop a speaker.

He used the speaker as a soapbox for a thrashing take of “The Electric Co.” Later in the show he felt comfortable enough to do a trust-fall into the crowd.

Although Bono has pulled fans onstage for years, this time when he hoisted up an adoring fan and put his arms around her to sing “Beautiful Day,” it was easy in this environment to feel like you were in her place.

At one point, the frontman took a gulp of water and hurled it from his mouth, then flung the entire bottle, droplets of water sprinkling throughout the crowd as it soared (something only the first few rows at an arena might be lucky enough to experience).

“I’m out of my mind right now, I’ve loved them since high school," one ecstatic fan told me as he jumped up and down. "I’m 50 and I haven’t heard some of these songs live in years.”

Despite the heady flow of dizzying energy, there were moments where Bono managed to still the crowd.

First he dedicated the heavy “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” inspired by late friend and fellow rocker Michael Hutchence, to Sheehan.

“You fight with your friends. You love your friends. You die for your friends. You work with your friends. It’s kind of a dysfunctional family in U2,” he explained, “but actually quite functional in other ways, because we do look after each other.

“You can sense the love and best wishes we had the last 24 hours, from all over the world,” Bono said later, both thanking the crowd and eulogizing his friend. “[Dennis] actually had the dignity that our music aspires to ... He had that dignity.”

The stage lights dimmed to a deep red as the boys fired up an electrifying version of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in Sheehan’s honor. The band fed off the crowd’s hard jumping as the Edge, seemingly saving extra fire for the moment, unleashed his most intense guitar solo of the evening.

At the close of their set, Bono recounted the group’s first trip to Los Angeles, which included a visit to Zuma Beach in search of Beach Boys’ leader Brian Wilson’s house. One of the band's albums was in the room at their first rehearsal, he explained, and they believed Wilson “had the music of the spheres.” (Whatever that means.) The story set the tone for “California (There Is No End to Love),” one of two songs they performed from their most recent record “Songs of Innocence.”

“It’s another song about grief and the defiance that is the joy of rock and roll,” Bono explained before thanking the crowd and leading them through yet another sing-along.

Set list:

The Ocean

11 O’Clock Tick Tock

I Will Follow

The Electric Co.

Beautiful Day

Elevation

Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Out of Control/Iris (Hold Me Close)

Vertigo

Song for Someone

California (There Is No End to Love)/God Only Knows

Follow @PopHiss and @gerrickkennedy on Twitter for more music news.

idgi

Odd set list. No Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree tracks.

didn't really need the entire review to make that point

during U2’s tiny club gig

"tiny"

Please U2, go away

Even people I know who don't particularly like the band have had nothing but good things to say about the current tour.

Ladies and gentlemen: the Rolling Stones!

Tbh I don't trust the opinion of people who aren't U2 fans but still see U2 shows

like music critics you mean?

Roadies

hot dog sellers

a more diplomatic statement i could have made is "i am intrigued that people who don't particularly like U2 are seeing them on this tour, and would be curious to know the circumstances of their attendance"

U2 are arguably underdogs on this tour, post iTunes fiasco, Bono held together by metal pins. They seem vulnerable, which makes them a little more likeable.

The pathos of Bono with his diamond encrusted neck bolt that stops his noble head from wobbling off his millionaire's shoulders.

best thing, and its not rly close run tbh, about u2 are the ppl who make a point of disliking them

DeRo, no huge fan of the band/arena shows in general, raved about last night. And Kot, a longtime Bono foil (great recent interview he did with him), loved it, too. From the clips I've seen, looks almost like a high tech show and less a concert, per se. Special sound, staging, etc., but supposedly the band itself is at its most just four guys making music in some time, too. Which seems like a contradiction, but who knows.

the band itself is at its most just four guys making music in some time

You see, this is where you lost me.

Bummed to learn "people I know" meant dero and kot, was rooting for it being the significant other of a fan or a hot dog seller

Eh, I can name some people I know you don't know, too. Like my cousin Mike.

Also my friends Linda and Jon.

Though music critics are people too, at least some of them.

DeRo is actually a muppet

stuck in a concert (that you can't get out of)

The Muppets haven't released a good album since Pink Flag. Now they're old and rich.

why did mike, linda and jon see u2 if they're not fans? not to pry, but you brought it up

Possibly in the hope that it might be Bono's turn to fall off the stage?

perhaps an inheritance based challenge by Mike's late great uncle impelled Mike to treat Linda and Jon to the most expensive concert of their lives?

Ha. I never said they were not fans, but I admit I exaggerated their disinterest. They're fans, for sure, and I can't imagine them not going if they could. But I think like a lot of U2 fans, even though they have always gone to see the shows, they have not always been huge fans of everything the band has done, either albums or tours. Yet their take away following the first night here at least was it far exceeded expectations, and that they left the show with a greater appreciation for the most recent album, which supposedly dominates the show. And they said it looked pretty cool, too. So there's that.

I also know a couple of people in my boat who, yeah, can't really justify paying. I'd like to go; while the band has never been my numero uno, they were the first concert I ever saw and I've seen them be great before. But I'll be fucked if I'm going to pay $100 for a ticket that lets me hang from the United Center rafters.

i kind of don't think any concert is worth $100. i mean wtf is that shit.

Ha. I never said they were not fans, but I admit I exaggerated their disinterest.

You called them "people I know who don't particularly like the band" you two-faced liar mcliarman, you macphisto

the reason i've kept needling is i knew that first post was bullshit and i couldn't figure out why anyone would make up such an absurd story. the idea of people who don't like u2 seeing a new u2 show and liking it, what balderdash.

Yeah, Macphisto Macmea Culpa. Though to be fair, DeRogatis is a hard dude to please when a big target like this is served up (food metaphor!). Even if he liked it he would pretend he didn't, so I was honestly shocked he raved.

xpost I dunno, it's a lot of money, but I think some shows might be worth that, if there's a real degree of Broadway-style spectacle. But yeah, that's a lot to ask, for nosebleeds especially. I think the way these bands often do it these days is offer a bunch of GA seats early to fans at a lower, or at least <$100 price, so the diehards can do their thing without going broke. I also think bands like U2 inspire a silly level of dedication in their fans, who are also getting older and, I'm going to guess, don't hit three clubs a night in search of the next U2, and can maybe justify paying plane ticket prices to see them.

I'd love to know the economics of these bands, why they choose the prices they do, or what the minimum price could be to pay for the spectacle and expenses and still come away making a ton of cash. The word has always been that until the era of nu-U2, the band lost a lot of money on tour, but that doesn't justify desperately filling their coffers to make up for past mistakes. Broke Leonard Cohen out of the Buddhist retreat this band is not.

I just bought some tix to see the Mekons next month, and I thought the price was pretty high at $25. But that's in a small place, and they're also playing a big public park for less than that to get in.

i assume aging arena bands charge an arm and a leg because they can

You know what is fun, though? Taking people to shows who claim they don't like the music! I took a friend to see Morrissey some years back, and all he knew was the second-hand "oh, whiny, wimpy, woe is me" reputation, but he left impressed. Likewise taking someone to see Rush who grew up slotting them in with Styx and REO. He left impressed, too. So it does happen, sometimes, even if it happens under duress. I recently took a friend to see Slowdive and Low, neither of which he had ever heard of, let alone heard, and he was blown away. It's nice to see some honest enthusiasm, which is actually what I often like about arena shows, people losing their shit at every pre-tested bit.

For what it's worth, I don't see the point of paying that much for a ticket when I can watch The Edge fall off the stage from the comfort of my own home.

There's no price too high for that, imo.

i don't see the point of taking people who claim they don't like the music to concerts when i can just pretend i did

I'd love to know the economics of these bands, why they choose the prices they do,

Supposedly, because he hates touring, Charlie Watts asks for a ridiculous guarantee in the hopes that it can't/won't be met. "Yeah, I'll do the tour...if you pay me $10 million!" His bluff is always called, which is at least one reason (among presumably many) Stones ticket prices are insane.

xpost Because under the guise of a semi-pro, I often have two tickets and invite along whatever buddies can make it.

xpost:

Oh right, so not only is he a ropey drummer, he's partially responsible for milking the wallets of his fans. Great stuff.

I hear Mick tours to support his extensive money collection.

I remember John Lennon laying into The Rolling Stones in his Playboy interview from 1980 for staying together for as long as they had, and that was 35 years ago now. If Lennon had lived, I wonder what he'd think about them still being together!

I'm sure it'd be a regular subject on his podcast until his teary interview with jagger.