First, let’s go back…
November 17 or 18, 1987 / Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Bootleg Video – wow
My first U2 show. Bought tickets via their fan club Propaganda. Wasn’t sure where our seats were located. Ari and I entered the massive old fossil of a stadium and headed down towards the stage. We kept walking down…and down…and wound up at our 9th row center seats. Probably cost $20 apiece. In the excitement of show opener “Where The Streets Have No Name”, I pumped my fist into the air so aggressively I suffered a minor rotator cuff injury. Worth it. Seriously, imagine 15 year old me when the Edge’s guitar kicks in on “Streets” (like it does here) – how could my mind, or limbs, not be blown in this instant?
January 26, 2024 / MSG Sphere / Las Vegas, NV
On the journey to Vegas Friday afternoon, I hit refresh a million times on Ticketmaster and the secondary market sites in search of a ticket to the U2 show at the Sphere that night. We had already determined that going as a family was cost prohibitive. But surely some of the tickets would drop precipitously, right? No luck. I decided to (in hindsight, stupidly) post on Reddit and Facebook groups that I was looking for a single and was instantly flooded with tickets at well below market value. After playing the mental dance of whether these were scams or not, I determined that as the saying goes, if it’s looks too good to be true it probably is. Even if there’s a 10% chance they were real. Even if Venmo purchase protection covered me (my theory is that I would’ve been scammed and it would have been a pain in the ass to remedy with Venmo. Who knows).
We arrive in Atomic City (their name, not mine) about an hour before showtime. I’m hanging by a thread that the tickets will drop. I’m walking around the teardrop of the Circuit City gods that is the Sphere in search of what the ancient deadheads called “a miracle”. But I’m running out of luck faster than William H Macy in The Cooler. The family is texting, “Any luck?” I came this far, but I still hadn’t found what I was looking for (sorry). Inventory going down, prices still high. At the urging of my loved ones I am semi-ashamed to say that I spent more than I’ve ever spent on a concert ticket (probably by a factor of 3) to see U2 for the eleventy billionth time. But of course, not like this.
There is zero hyperbole behind the thought that this may be the last time I see U2, a band that in many ways defined my youth, and adulthood for that matter. Certainly this will be the best way to see them. That said, if I’m being honest, going solo seemed a bit lonely. I see bands on my own all the time, convinced that scoring a cheap ticket to see good live music under any circumstances is better than, and usually much cheaper than, therapy. It is therapy. But cheap is the operative word. This…was not. Anyhow, I’m pot committed at this point, so I pull the trigger and step into the Sphere just in time to buy a $20 beer and head to the g/a pit with about 10 minutes to spare.
April 12-13, 1992 / Los Angeles Sports Arena / Zoo TV Tour (1st leg)
Bootleg (but better seen than just heard)
I saw both nights of the band’s LA stop on their first US tour in five years. I think one night with Ari (special guest star of “the high school years”) and Ben (special guest star of “this is college”). A technological advancement of quantum magnitude, upon arrival Zoo TV was the Sgt Pepper of concert tours. A turning point of what a touring production could be – on the level of when the Wizard of Oz went color. If I had a Time Machine to go back and re-experience one show in my life, Zoo TV would be the one, if for no other reason to see if all of the techno angst and hyper connectivity U2 was proselytizing endures. Most certainly it does.
The Sphere residency is billed as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Achtung Baby and the Zoo TV tour. 2-3 years late, but who’s counting. Then and now, the band pulls off a masterful power move – they essentially play Achtung almost in its entirety for the first half of the show. The quality of that album gives them license to not give an inch of nostalgia to their previous classics. Now of course, a song like “One” is as classic rock as “Stairway to Heaven”. Or at least as much as “Gotta Serve Somebody.”
Looking around the audience before the band hits the stage, it really is remarkable how U2 has cornered the market on gen Z white peoples, and their semi-jaded offspring. If I could, I surely would loved to have taken my family to see this. I’d like to think they would have all loved it. But I fear U2 has lost much of their edge (sorry) and some of their coolness. Go back and look at the most recent Rolling Stone Top 500 albums of all time list. U2 arguably suffers the most on this list. Their iconic albums have all dropped from the levels of what they were regarded 10 or 20 years ago, with only two albums remaining on the list – Achtung Baby at #124, Joshua Tree is #135. I’m old enough to remember when Joshua Tree was regarded as a top 10 album in many circles.
But this is where the brilliance of U2 lies. Back in 1988, the band incurred a bit of backlash from the rock pomp of Rattle & Hum. After all, who was U2 to steal “Helter Skelter” back from Charles Manson? In response U2 went off to Berlin to hang out with Brian Eno and came back an entirely different band, in look, song and color. They reinvented their brand on the level of Crocs figuring out how to be cool. They did so largely by turning to technology – bigger, better, bolder imagery, usage of camera and screen. So if you buy my previous paragraph’s thesis that the band, even at 60-something, needs a shot of coolness, how does playing inside a techno womb of massive 16K screens and surround sound, sound?
August 3, 1993 / Goffert Park / Ni]jmegen, Netherlands
Sometimes where you experienced a particular piece of music is as impactful as the music itself. This was the case of ’93’s Zooropa, which came out whilst Fish and I were backpacking across Europa. We got off the train in Amsterdam a couple weeks before this show and the (zoo) station was plastered with ads for this concert, a short train ride outside Amsterdam. Twist our arms we said, we’ll spend an extra week in Amsterdam to experience U2 in a massive European park. Twist away.
April 25, 1997 / Sam Boyd Stadium / Las Vegas, NV
Bootleg VIDEO (not the greatest cinematography on display here)
For 36,740 attendees of this show, it’s remembered as the kick off of the fateful Pop Mart tour. For my wife and I, it was our second date. If you’re reading this far you probably know the story. If not, it involves Cameron Diaz, getting into record label president Chris Blackwell’s limo by accident, and staying at the Luxor which very much has elevators that move diagonally up that weirdo sarcophagus of a hotel. Like most tour openers, the performance was a bit clunky with the band still figuring out the flow of the show. Overall it benefitted from a party hearty crowd, but suffered from way too many costume changes for Bono.
April 28, 1997 / Jack Murphy Stadium / San Diego, CA
Shitty Bootleg (better heard and not seen)
Three days after Vegas. The one and only time I saw U2 play to a less than capacity crowd. Wonder if it was the only time they undersold a venue since their bar band days. And when I say undersold, we’re talking 20,000 or so under capacity. Pop Mart was greedily over booked (should’ve played basketball arenas, not baseball stadiums), and it didn’t help that they were touring behind an album that stiffed. What can I say? I still loved it. That year I also saw INXS play the Greek Theater in LA. They were at a nadir of popularity at the time, and I remember the promoter having to “paper” the house – give away a ton of tickets to fill the room. We were in the front row behind the pit, and at one point Michael Hutchence jumped into the crowd, expecting to receive the rock star treatment of fans swarming him, pawing at his clothes or whatever. We all just…stood there. We were like, yeah INXS is a cool band from our youth, but it wasn’t exactly the Beatles at Shea Stadium. Maybe we should’ve shown him more love, because within six months Hutchence committed suicide. Wow that took a dark turn. My point is that Bono and the boys would bounce back to survive, performing bigger and better shows for decades to come. No easy task.
June 21, 1997 / Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Pop Mart comes to LA. I remember nothing of this show. But I was there, damn it.
Normally I would rail against fans spending the whole show filming during concerts. But I filmed a snippet of every song performed at The Sphere, just to remember the imagery on display. Couldn’t help it. One could argue that U2 has found what any aging rock band is looking for – a way to distract from the wrinkles and receding hairlines via the miracles of modern technology. Rather than raging against the selfie machine, the Sphere experience leans into the inevitable – fans filming during concerts. Not that anyone is actually rewatching any of their crappy photos and videos.
Top 5 shows I’d like to see at the Sphere:
(5) Co-headline of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. I’ve never seen either artist, but this feels like the ultimate way to see them. Tickets on sale for the price of a condo in Henderson.
(4) Grateful Dead. They just announced the Dead is coming to the Sphere, despite the multi year hoopla that they were retired. In the immortal words of Bobby Flekman, “money talks and bullshit walks.” I’m actually a bit worried about Deadheads doing deadhead things in the Sphere.
(3) A reunited Pink Floyd, in a world where a) Waters and Gilmour were willing to bury the hatchet, and b) Roger Waters wasn’t such a raging, ignorant antisemite.
(2) Radiohead. This dalliance with The Smile is cool and all, but can we get back to being greatest band of their generation? In a perfect world they’d play a different album in its entirety each night and I’d be there for OK Computer and In Rainbows.
(1) A reunited Talking Heads. Cmon LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN
March 24, 2001 / National Car Rental Center / Sunrise, CA
Crappy bootleg from the show a couple nights later.
Kickoff of the Elevation tour in South Beach, FL with Nelson, the one man in my orbit who has seen U2 more than me. Elevation was a return to what made U2 great – an amalgam of Keith’s open tuned guitar playing, UK post punk, heart on their sleeve passion. The band was back to writing big anthems like “Beautiful Day” that I personally no longer yearn to hear in concert. “Beautiful Day” is the third U2 song in that “let’s go grab another beer” triumvirate, following “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride”. The Elevation tour featured a heart shaped stage the size of Bono’s earnestness. They would come out each night with the house lights on, and then they’d cut out at the “I believe in you” part of “Elevation.” Lo-key awesomeness. Great to have them back. Caught one or two of their shows when they came through LA in November of 2001.
October 25, 2009 / Rose Bowl / Pasadena, CA
This show was released as a DVD.
The 360º Tour was yet another incredible spectacle of sight and sound. Yet we had reached the point where U2 has spoiled their audience into expecting something groundbreaking each time. Here we are now, entertain us. The tour was in support of No Line On The Horizon, and album that I will contend has some fantastic moments (in particular concert closer “Moment Of Surrender”) but at this point is looked upon as a transitional album at best. They played “The Unforgettable Fire” on this tour, a gem that hadn’t been played in America since 1987, on the tail end of the Joshua Tree tour.
May 26 (or 27, 30, 31 or 6/3), 2015 / May 15 (or 16), 2018 / The Forum, Inglewood, CA
I could only find shitty fan-shot videos from these shows. This was released officially, from a show in Paris.
Like 360º, The Innocence + Experience Tour and the Experience + Innocence Tour had “state of the art” production, with a stage that also served as a massive video screen, stretching across the middle of the entire arena. There was not a bad seat in the house. At this point, U2 was the iPhone of bands, with incremental production advancements. The stage / video screen set up was their “check it out – now the iPhone has three cameras”. Musically, Songs of Innocence was a largely forgettable album. I liked Songs of Experience. Or was it the other way around? And yes, I recognize the irony of the U2-iPhone analogy, since Innocence was forced upon everyone’s iPhones in 2014. This is probably the moment when, for many people, U2 jumped the shark. But that characterization is unfair. Unlike most bands their age, at least they’re trying, and succeeding at times, to make good new music.
May 21, 2017 / Rose Bowl / Pasadena, CA
Nothing but shitty fan videos of this show. This one at least mashed up a few different camera angles. I don’t recommend watching this camera phone garbagio.
Sandwiched between Innocence and Experience was U2’s first foray into the “let’s play our biggest hit album in its entirety” shtick, joining everyone from Springsteen to Primus with this gimmick. Still, it’s pretty good gimmick, one that saw them playing in front of a massive video screen of similar resolution to the ones in the Sphere. In service of the 30th Anniversary of The Joshua Tree. Pro tip: regardless of the final song performed at any concert at the Rose Bowl, when it starts you have to head towards the exits. I don’t care if Led Zeppelin is reuniting for a surprise encore, before they get to the drum part of “Stairway to Heaven” your ride home needs to be in your sights. Otherwise you’ll be in the middle of a parking quagmire that will take years, cost hundreds of lives to untangle. If you take away one piece of information from reading this post, let that be it.
There is a point during “Even Better Than The Real Thing” at the Sphere when opulent visuals are moving from the top down, creating a sensation that the stage/floor is moving up. Momentarily gave me Vertigo (¡Unos, dos, tres, catorce!). If the Zoo TV of the 90’s surpassed every concert production limitation that preceded it, the audacious Sphere kicks it into another stratosphere. Still, the band is smart to at times have the tech take a backseat to the authentic bond between band and audience that was always a hallmark of U2 concerts. During mellower tracks like “One” and “All I Want Is You”, the video is leveraged as a background mood enhancer, a digital wallpaper if you will. Sometimes, like during the show closer “Beautiful Day”, the visuals give way to a heavenly rapture. Shout out to the guy standing next to me who, in the midst of the most powerful visual concert experience of his or anyone’s lifetime, spent most of the time responding to emails. Dude wtf
Sandwiched between “The Sweetest Thing” and the final run of Achtung Baby songs about half way through the show, the most expected moment of the show occurred: a cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over”. If you’ve seen enough U2 gigs over the years, it’s easy to feel like you have them figured out, that you can predict what they might perform or do. Make bold predictions at your own peril.
It should be noted that Larry Mullen Jr., the dude who formed U2 in the first place, is not participating in the Sphere residency. Recovering from a physical issue. I wonder how many people in the audience are aware of this.
Before the show, when I was walking around the outside of the venue looking to score a last minute ticket, I ran into a guy who looked identical to Bono. So much so that I started walking towards him, phone in hand, ready for a selfie, deluded into thinking that Bono would pop out a half hour before showtime to get a sense of the crowd. Nice guy, turns out he was from Garden Grove. In my defense, other people were going up to him too. Then I saw this posted on U2’s social yesterday – that’s him on the right! I guess you had to be there, but the concept of being a Bono lookalike, but 62 year old Bono, not 80s Bono or The Fly Bono, amuses me.
The last few years I have been thinking a lot about saying goodbye to my rock heroes. Obviously some of them (Prince, Bowie, Petty etc) have left us, but for the others who I have seen in concert multiple times, as they get older and more costly to see, is it worth it to see them again? In 2014 I took the family to see Paul McCartney at Dodger Stadium. Scored insane seats, like 15 rows back from the stage. McCartney was incredible, and my kids who were raised on his music loved the experience. I probably spent $1,000 for four seats, a pittance now. Let’s be honest, nothing will top that concert. Contrary to the rumors of the 60s, Paul isn’t dead, but he’s 81 at at this point. Seems pointless to see him again. Same could be said about the Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles etc. The latter two don’t even tour with the original members; some have passed on, but still. It’s like going to see The Four Tops but only one Top is still with us, singing “It’s The Same Old Song” with the aid of background singers. The only two acts that I felt compelled to see at least one more time are U2 and Springsteen. One down, one to go.
