From The Cradle To The Grave

United State of Electronica @ The Knitting Factory 10/7/2005
Open Your Eyes / Emerald City / Tired Of Funkin’ Around / Taking It All The Way / Party People / Dance With Me / Ready To Go / There’s Always Music / It Is On!!! // Vamos A La Playa

United State of Electronica “Party People (Live)” – Though this performance lacked some of the intimacy and urgency of the set that I saw the band perform at the Gigantic store back in 2004, it’s difficult to really hold that against this perfectly fun show. The crowd seemed evenly mixed between extremely enthusiastic USE veterans and first-timers, which is more or less exactly what I wanted – it’s exciting to see people converted before your eyes, and the superfans go a long way towards getting the entire room moving. The band is just as adorable as ever, seeming more and more like a group of cartoon characters as time goes on. With any luck, their own Japanese animated series will be debuting sometime in 2007. (Click here to buy it from the USE store.)

U2 @ Madison Square Garden 10/8/2005
City of Blinding Lights / Vertigo / Elevation / I Will Follow / All I Want Is You / Beautiful Day / Miracle Drug / Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own / 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 (w/ Mary J. Blige!) // The First Time / Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses / With Or Without You /// All Because Of You / Fast Cars / Original Of The Species / “40”

U2 “All I Want Is You (Live in Dublin, 2001)” – On Saturday afternoon, I was prepared to write up a review for this show that would mainly consist of me complaining about the fact that U2 cut nearly every song that I was excited about from their set just in time for my show. Though I’m still a little bitter about the lack of “Zoo Station” and “The Fly,” I cannot possibly complain about a setlist that included the “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” “The First Time,” “Miss Sarajevo” (absolutely beautiful, Bono sings the Luciano Pavarotti part himself!), “One” with Mary J. Blige, and my #2 Most Wanted U2 Live Song, “All I Want Is You.” (#1 is “Ultraviolet (Light My Way),” which hasn’t been played live since 1992.)

This was certainly the best of the large scale U2 shows that I’ve seen, but that’s not hard given that this show was up against two Popmart shows viewed from the cheap seats in Giants Stadium (a place where concerts should never be performed), and a show in Albany on the Elevation tour where Bono was so sick he could barely sing. On the Elevation 2001: U2 Live In Boston dvd, Bono speaks about that show, and how the audience there “lifted him up,” and frankly, that’s got to be a lot of bullshit since compared to this passionate MSG crowd, the people in the Pepsi Arena were largely indifferent and mostly concerned with getting up for pretzels and hot dogs during the new songs and chatting loudly through a pretty acoustic version of “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” This audience was the real deal, the sort of U2 crowd I’ve seen in live footage and read about in reviews. They were so loud at the start that they nearly drowned out the intro of “City of Blinding Lights.” These were people who knew that “Wake Up” by The Arcade Fire is always the song just before the band hits the stage, and got up en masse and sang along and pumped their fists for it too because they were just that psyched. (Also, the song really lends itself to that sort of venue.)

Also, though it’s extremely unlikely that anyone in the U2 inner circle will ever read this, I want to make this plea: U2, please stop playing “Bullet The Blue Sky.” I’ve seen and heard many excellent versions of this song from over the years, but at this point, it’s just tired and predictable. You’ve played it a pretty much every full show since 1987, and it shows. The version from Saturday night was lifeless and rote, and you didn’t even bother to make it a big set piece as you have on previous tours. It’s not that big of a hit, so people would not be heartbroken if you skipped it. Bench the song for a while, or only play it when the inspiration is on. Please do not diminish the potency of one of your most powerful songs, especially when you could be playing so many other great songs in its place. I know that I’m not alone in feeling this way! (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)