U2 feeling disappointed???

Since this is my first blog, let me introduce myself. My name is John and I am a 35 year married male living in the idyllic surroundings of northern NJ. I have a beautiful, almost 7 month old son and a great and loving wife. My current occupation is that of a licensed acupuncturist. Why did I choose this profession? That will be answered in later postings. I have been sticking people with needles for the past 9 years and still enjoy what I do for a living.



One of my hobbies is listening to music. I enjoy all types of music pretty much but I do have to admit that I listen to more of the alternative/rock more. Like many of you out there, I usually listen to my favorite artists via the radio or on my personal media player but I also like to see them live. I have been to numerous concerts of the bands I enjoy listening to. Majority of the shows I have been to were great and, some of them, were either mediocore or just plain atrocious. One of these bands that I felt disappointed with was the recent U2 show.



I have been a fan of U2 since I was in middle school. I remember listening to the "Joshua Tree" cassette tape so much on my yellow Sony Sport walkman that "With or Without You" began to sing warbled ("Seeeee the stones seeetttet innnn yooouuurrr eyyyyes...") Whether you are a fan or not, there is no denying that U2 is a legendary band. They are pretty much up there with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, The Who and Led Zepplin in terms of their career longevity and the amount of albums they have put out. Ask anyone if they have heard of U2 regardless of their age and I bet you that they will say yes and name a couple of songs. Lately, I know Bono, their lead singer, has become preachy and self righteous with world affairs (this is one of my biggest pet peeves...celebrities telling what I should to do change the world....) but I still enjoy their music. When I heard that U2 was going on tour earlier this year, I was salivating with much anticpation that they would come around where I live. Lo and behold, they announced that they would come to the great Garden state. I have never seen U2 in a live setting and would literally have cut off my own left arm (ok maybe not that extreme....I would have cut my pinky instead...)



To give you an idea of how much I wanted to see this band, I had a whole elaborate plan of how to obtain the tickets online. I even told my patients and my co-workers that I will be coming in late because I needed to get these tickets. I even had my wife check for the tickets at her work place and even got a friend of mine and his wife involved in a coordinated effort to get these tickets. The tickets go on sale and none of us were able to obtain one. After all this planning, not a single one of us able to scrounge up one ticket. It turns out the show sold out in 20 minutes. To give you an idea how this amazed me is this" They were playing at Giants Stadium, an NFL stadium with a capacity of 80,000 plus. Add to the fact they since football was not being played, the field would be used as a stand only audience area which fills another 20,000 plus. U2 pretty much sold out a place where over 100,000 fans could easily fit in 20 minutes.



Luckily, we were able to get 4 tickets in a good viewing area for a marked up price. I still didn't care that I paid twice as much for the listed price. This was U2 after all. U2 who sang the song where I had my first slow dance with a girl in 7th grade. U2 where they sang "Beautiful Day" at my graduation and U2 who sang "City of Blinding Lights" to remind me of home when I lived far away. I forgave them for that one screwed up album "POP" because they had put out so much great albums previously and even if Bono has become too preachy for my taste, he still cans ing with the best of them. With the anticipation of the concert date looming, I even got a hold of their latest album and was listening to it one night. Their latest album was a let down. The whole album had maybe one or two songs that I would listen to on a regular basis. This was like "POP" without the disco influences. Still it was U2!!! They couldn't play every song on their new album...



The date arrives. 9/24/09. After months of scouring the internet of the set lists from previous tour dates and finding out that another one of my favorite bands would be opening up for them, Muse, I felt that this was going to be the mother of all concerts. I felt that if the great savior above us took my life right after the concert ended, I would die a happy man.

The opening band Muse was a top notch opener. I had seen them before up in Boston with my wife about 2 years ago and they were fantastic then and they were equally, if not better, when I saw them. U2 comes on stage and sings their songs. While they did put on a great stage act and their song choices were good, here are some of the things that I was disappointed with:

1) One of their songs "If I go crazy, I'll crazy tonight" is one of the better songs off of their new album. It could have been one of those classic anthems where the whole stadium would sing along and it would have sounded great in its original format. What did these guys do? They remixed into a disco/techno song. It sounded terrible!!!! Yeech!!! Awful!!! Why they did this, I have no idea...

2) I also noticed that Bono's lyrics have gone bad...really bad. The old Bono wrote some classic songs with lyrics that made sense. Think of the words to "Pride" or even "One". Well written. There was a song and I can't remember the name of it where the lyrics went along the lines of "Debit card, Credit card, punch your pin..." and so on. Basically he was pretty much giving an instruction on how to use an ATM and a computer. What in the world?! He preaches about saving the world and asking his fans to take a stand against injustice in the world and he comes up with words on how to use an ATM???

3) As a finale, they sang "With or Without You". Classic and one of the songs I was looking forward to hearing live. Really a big let down. First, Bono sings it out of key. Second, he seemed to lack the proper amount of energy when he sings it. Considering this is one of their defining songs for a generation, why not put a little extra "oomph!" into it?

4) Bono does it again with his preaching. This time it was about a Burmese woman who won the Nobel Peace prize but is kept under house arrest. While I do commend him for trying to bring attention to the injustices of the world, why at a concert? I could tell you many people I spoke to who attended the concert were just as confused as myself as to why he brought this to our attention. We just want to hear U2 sing with passion. I wish he would have put that much energy and passion singing instead of being preachy...

Overall, the show was ok. I thought it could have been better. Maybe I had such high expectations for the show. Instead, I felt the whole concert was just "ok". What can I say, maybe I am getting too old....