Prior to U2's concert at San Jose's HP Pavilion on Saturday, April 9, Zoo Station, a U2 tribute band from the Bay Area, was going to perform at the Britannia Arms pub down the street. They usually perform in the Bay Area, but we saw them once in Sacramento. Walking down the street, we bumped into "Barely Larry," who encouraged us to come to both the pre-show and the post-show performance where they'd be playing songs U2 rarely or never perform live.
Since we got there pretty early, we got to hear their soundcheck, during which they performed a note-perfect rendition of An Cut Dubh. By the time they started their set, the British-themed pub was pretty packed. 107.7FM The Bone was giving away three pairs of tickets and there were a ton of people there who did not have tickets to the show. Since we were sitting at a table, we couldn't see the band over the crowd. But we were going to see The Real Thing in a few hours, and it was about the music, anyway.
Their setlist was as follows: City Of Blinding Lights, Beautiful Day, Gloria, Even Better Than the Real Thing, Gone, One Step Closer, Until the End Of the World, Bad, Where the Streets Have No Name, New Year's Day, Pride, I Will Follow, Vertigo and everyone seemed to enjoy it. However, the 80-year-old (pictured) who danced on the table in front of us wasn't one of my favorites.
The HP Pavilion is a nice arena, though half of the advertising banners were for software companies I'd never heard of. There was a nice selection of merchandise available, and I had to pick up a keychain with the Vertigo 'V' logo (or the 'V' the TV miniseries logo, depending on your frame of reference). What was shocking were the vintage t-shirts for previous tours (Boy, October, War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, etc.) that cost $90 each. Yeah, like I didn't spend enough on the tickets in the first place. I heard that one person bought four or five, though (that's some scary math).
Our tickets were Section 115, Row 25. I was a little surprised to find out it was Row 25 out of 25. The nice side effect was that because we were directly in front of the box suites, we could stand without guilt. I was a little bitter that these were pre-sale seats, but getting them at all was lucky, considering how many other fans couldn't even get into the show.
The opening act for all the U.S. concerts (at least for the first leg) is Kings of Leon, which was a little disappointing to us, after discovering that Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and Snow Patrol are opening for them in Europe. But I kept an open mind and was actually quite impressed with the quartet. They rocked pretty hard and fast and I compared them to the Southern Franz Ferdinand. Megan didn't keep an open mind, but was still impressed. The funniest part was when they dedicated one of their songs to "this guy over here who says we suck."
No doubt, no one there thought U2 sucked (well, other than the guy with the megaphone out front who said U2 were no longer a Christian band and we were all going to hell). They opened with City of Blinding Lights, which is a great live song and got everyone worked into a frenzy. Then they kicked into Vertigo, which everyone knew the words to, and turns out to be another good live track. It was unexpected but fitting when Bono worked some lines from 1980's Stories For Boys into the bridge. The stage was lit using the Vertigo circular iconography (or the Target retail store iconography, again, depending).
They followed with Elevation, which garnered a massive crowd sing-a-long that it seemed to surprise even them. Then it was time for my highlight of the night, The Electric Co., from their 1980 debut album. It was searing and great to hear that post-punk energy again. They followed that with another track from Boy, The Ocean, which I had completely forgotten and is a definite rarity. Its slow pace wasn't too well-received, though, and a lot of folks sat down. Of course, they got right back up for New Year's Day, which was bookended by Beautiful Day.
The stage took on a beautiful light scheme for Miracle Drug, which actually reminded me of Tron. During a lengthy prelude, Bono recounted the story of when he met Pope John Paul II and he traded his trademark fly glasses with him for a cross and rosary beads. He then hung them on the microphone before starting the song. Although that song gets a little overshadowed on their new album, it seemed like a classic track when they played it live.
A mini drum kit was placed at the edge of the outstretched circular stage where Larry banged out the beginning of Love And Peace Or Else. This song was not one of my favorites on their new album, but it took on a new life at the concert. Bono even shared the mic with Larry, which may have been a first. The song kicked off a war-themed group of songs including Sunday, Bloody Sunday and Bullet the Blue Sky. However, it was the most uncomfortable part of the show, with snippets of When Johnny Comes Marching Home thrown in. There was a cheer when Bono dedicated the next song to the men and women of the U.S. military, but it was Running to Stand Still. It's still a beautiful song that a lot of my friends rank very highly and has almost always been played directly after Bullet the Blue Sky.
Then it was time for a nice blast from the '90s, as they played Zoo Station, The Fly, and Mysterious Ways. Not having been able to see them in concert in the early '90s, this was great for me. Bono brought a girl up out of the audience to dance with him during Mysterious Ways. I think they were supposed to go offstage for their first encore after that song, but something didn't work right and I saw Bono shrugging to his bandmates, noting a 'dance-related mishap.'
I've heard Pride, Where The Streets Have No Name, and One plenty of times before, so that set was not super-thrilling, but they're all crowd-pleasers.
They came back for one encore to perform the Who-like All Because Of You, which rocked. Then Larry took over keyboards for a stripped-down version of Yahweh, which was actually a little too stripped-down for my tastes. And they ended it with their version of Psalm 40. Although they used to end every show with it from 1983-1989, it had not been performed at all in the 1990s. So its reappearance as the constant show-closer seems to say something. Maybe that guy with the loudspeaker should have come inside.
Visually, it was a combination of the Zoo TV, PopMart, and Elevation tours rolled up into one. Musically, they rocked, but the sound was incredibly muddy. It was sometimes impossible to make out what Bono was saying. Of course, that's almost inherent with indoor arenas.
Overall, it was not the best U2 concert Megan and I have been to. That belongs to the Salt Lake City show from late 2001. But that post-9/11 show had emotional highs that maybe can never be matched. The emotional high point of this show was Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, which is definitely one of their best songs ever. Unfortunately, that came halfway through the show, not at the end.
Jim Harrington of Inside Bay Area said it best, "So, if U2 couldn't top itself Saturday, it would just have to shoot for surpassing everyone else. Mission accomplished."
They also performed there Sunday, which yielded the performances of An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart and the premiere of Original of the Species. And among the many celebrities in attendance was Apple CEO Steve Jobs. U2.com report
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