U2’s Elevation Tour continues its North American leg through the end of June before heading to Europe for the duration of the summer. Rumour has it the band is returning to North American shores in the fall for more dates.
There was a defining personal moment during the first of U2’s sold-out concerts at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. During one of Bono’s hushed between-song anecdotes, a rabid fan decided it would be wise to call a loved one on a cell phone so they could experience the crush of energy and musical muscle that is U2 in its live element.
Privy to my neighbour’s ear-splitting conversation, but missing Bono’s words entirely, it struck me: in the age of technology, an age that U2 has embraced, and some would say abused in the pursuit of irony and pop culture, is there no escaping the daily frustrations that music – particularly U2’s timeless brand of emotional rock – is designed to expunge? Is nothing sacred? It would seem not.
Fortunately, for me and for the rest of U2’s fans on this night, such moments were short-lived. For the remaining two hours of a triumphant set that saw classic songs from the most enviable back-catalog in rock sit neck-and-neck with a clutch of great tracks from the band’s most recent album, 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, there was connection, communication and – what the hell – “elevation,” just like the tour’s name promises.
While unoriginal critics like to comment about the band’s return to form on All
That – it’s rumored retreat into Joshua Tree inspired heroics and grand humanitarian gestures – anyone who has followed U2’s career closely (both admirers and detractors) will recognize this as utter, imperceptive nonsense. Citing the band’s foray into
electronica with Zooropa and Pop, what some critics have failed to do is listen to the music, both in the context of its musical
contemporaries and in the context of the band’s evolution.
When you do this, the band, its sound and its albums form a string or pearls that, while not all equally lustrous and perfect, together form a thing that is difficult not to admire, and perhaps to treasure. From the primitive, exhilarating chords of “I Will Follow”, which the band ripped through mid-set, to the exquisitely moving “One,” from the band’s finest achievement, Achtung Baby, U2 are nothing if not the product of an evolution that comes from responding to your environment and pushing toward that which is beyond reach.
It’s this tension the band has explored over the course of twenty years and ten albums. It’s the negotiation of this relationship that has compelled the band to
simultaneously look back and move ahead in the most honest way possible. At the heart of every U2 album, whether The Joshua Tree or Pop, whether War or Zooropa, there is an essence that is difficult to define but impossible to ignore.
The trappings of a musical genre
(electronica, gospel, blues, country, you name it) may distract some listeners on
certain albums, but U2 has never sold out its essence, the thing that makes it unique, unquantifiable and irreplaceable. That essence is there on All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and it’s this essence that prompts many critics to neatly place the album in the same musical universe as The Joshua Tree, a return to simpler days.
What utter bullshit, and the band proved exactly that on this night. From the opening crunch of a ‘lights-up’ “Elevation” to the ringing “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, from the gospel-tinged “Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” to the deafening feedback of “Bullet the Blue Sky,” the roar of approval from the crowd spoke volumes. Not just about gratification, but about recognition: after seven months in release, the six performed tracks from All That, particularly “Beautiful Day,” were as thunderously received as nearly anything in the band’s back catalog. The notable exception? “Where the Streets Have No Name.” If ever there was a song designed for live performance, it’s this opener from The Joshua Tree. Against a bank of red lights, the surge of energy that this song sends through the crowd is almost seismic.
In a live setting it becomes clear why the band, after twenty years, has managed to avoid the nostalgia circuit entirely. This is no Rolling Stones show, conveniently supported by another by-the-numbers studio set. The balance the band manages to achieve so convincingly is to embrace the sonic signatures and themes that make it U2, but also continue to strive for the most perfectly realized incarnation of its essence – what it has not yet reached, and likely never will. In the attempt, however, the band has movingly portrayed the challenge of every artist: to create a defining work that is based on an intangible quality, a chemistry, an emotion – whatever you want to call it. Whatever that thing is, it was there in every performed number.
In one particularly luminous stretch, Bono and the Edge circled the heart-shaped stage, winding up at the bottom of the heart (how appropriate) to perform “In a Little While,” which was dedicated to the recently departed Joey Ramone, and “Stay,” from 1993’s mid-tour Zooropa disc. With Bono’s soaring, if frayed, voice backed only by the Edge’s guitar, it was clear to everyone in the room that U2’s music has simply not aged. The band’s acknowledgement of history is unapologetic, and so is its belief that they will continue to change the face of rock music.
It’s hype. It’s heartbreak. It’s yesterday. It’s tomorrow. It’s ridiculous excess. It’s surprising subtlety. It’s right in the middle of a contradiction. That’s where U2 wants to be, and its fans, at least on this night, would have it no other way.
