Me2 3D
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
Tears started to well up in my eyes as I gazed upon the big screen. Not a flood of ‘em, mind you. But there was a definite rise in the moisture level. And this was no tragic narrative playing out before me. It was a concert documentary – albeit one of a high order.Have I succumbed to severe wussification? Has time dulled the Knife? I don’t think so. I think it was a fairly normal reaction, considering that it was an emotional peak in the three-dimensional IMAX film “U2 3D,” which is opening this week in various venues across the U.S. And who has had a more successful, long-lived career by tapping into the power and passion of rock and roll than U2 – the magnificent (and somewhat self-important) Irish band that rose to fame during the new-wave era of the early ‘80s, and never came down?There I was, sitting in the middle of an IMAX theater in downtown San Francisco at 11:45 AM with a handful of critics and their guests, all wearing oversized 3D glasses, yet bouncing from the crowd to the stage where I was thrust right into the middle of a balls-out live performance by Bono, singing his guts out, while guitarist The Edge, bass-player Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. brought considerably more than rattle and hum.After the cameras swerve and pan through a crammed-full Latin American stadium (the main footage appeared to be from concerts in Buenos Aires, Brazil, Mexico and other stops on the 2006 leg of the Vertigo Tour), the band opens with “Vertigo” from the Grammy-winning How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, their most recent studio album. It rips, and the crowd is immediately driven into a frenzy. A zillion mobile phones and digital cameras are raised to capture the moment – and all the arms and devices sprout like a strange forest of illuminated flowers in 3D.The U2 guys have been at it for more than 25 years, but they’re still lean and focused, and their composing and performing skills are relatively undimmed. As ever, Bono was earnest and energetic. There’s a certain pretension to a couple of tunes (“Miss Sarajevo” comes to mind), which is either enhanced or hammered to distraction by images that flash across a very impressive, very elaborate, multi-tiered video display. But Bono knows how to work an audience and provide a sense of verity and commitment.They run through almost an hour and a half of beloved tracks – “With or Without You,” “Beautiful Day,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “New Year’s Day,” and so on - with increasing resonance. A sense of magic happening is inescapable as these grandiose anthems come rolling out.The song that pushed me over the top? “In the Name of Love,” done before a digital frieze of Martin Luther King. They follow that with a totally thrilling version of “Where the Streets Have No Name” (my all-time of all-time U2 songs), and I’m walloped. Lump in my throat. Dampened corneas. I went all Winston Smith. I loved Big Brothers.Was it the sense-immersion of IMAX and 3D? (By the way, the women of Buenos Aires – at least those that attended the U2 show - are a wonder to behold, and in 3D, whoa!) The technology, both sound and vision, and the expert direction (by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington) and cinematography certainly contributed to the impact, leading me to wonder why we can’t have this sort of document of all our favorite bands. All that said, it was with (not without) U2 and their memorable songbook. And that’s the rub.Guess who was responsible for the single most exciting rock performance that I’ve seen on television in at least 20 years? On the November 20, 2004 episode of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” (hosted by Luke Wilson), musical guest U2 - promoting How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - returned for a rare (for SNL) third song played into and over the end credits: “I Will Follow,” taken from their 1980 album debut Boy. I have never seen such spontaneous combustion erupt on my TV. And the heat was palpable. Bono and crew shook the Rockefeller Center studio, the cast and the audience to their souls. Even watching a Quicktime file of the number in a tiny window on my desktop, it’s goosebump time.Joke about Bono the Humanitarian and the band’s wealth and fame, if you like. I think of them as a force for good and a stunningly accomplished ensemble that’s still gettin’ it done. And if you want to see what the fuss is all about, go to “U2 3D.”In the meantime, here’s “Where the Streets Have No Name,” from the 2002 Super Bowl halftime show - a few short months after the 9/11 attacks. Call me corny. It continues to move me, five years later.
Comments (18)