U2

In support of the album "Songs Of Innocence", released a year ago, U2 set off on the new Innocence + Experience Tour. Having kicked off last May in Vancouver, after crossing Canada and the US the tour reached the Pala Alpitour in Turin for two shows that opened the European leg. It's the first time since 1992 that the Irish band has played an indoor venue in Italy.

After an opening night that reports described as overflowing with energy, Saturday's show was a temporary farewell to Italian fans, with the promise of meeting again soon, and hopefully always indoors.

Although the show is disguised as minimalist spectacle, the band doesn't give up on technology, which by now seems to have become the fifth element of their live proposition. A long screen/walkway cuts the arena in half, connecting the main stage to a round satellite stage on the opposite side, "a highway with no one on it", gradually catapulting the audience into the hyperspace of the Irish band's passion. From this apparatus U2 craft a show that sits exactly halfway between the nostalgic tenacity of the Elevation Tour and the grandiloquent self-referentiality of the 360° Tour.

Unlike what happened on that last tour, now nearly 6 years ago, the technological setup is now wonderfully measured, and actually succeeds in its aim of drawing the audience closer without risking alienating them. On the Innocence + Experience Tour, U2 take the viewer through the journey of their growth, as men and as rock stars, a journey that began by fleeing the spectre of loneliness to chase the bite of ambition. The show thus unfolds as a work in two acts, with a first part crammed with references to punk and youthful impulsiveness, immediately smothered by the discovery of the many faces of vulnerability (loss and love), arriving at the inner invasion by the outside world symbolized by the tragedy of the IRA bombings. The second part tells of the gradual ascent towards understanding, towards liberation and collective union, staging the search for one's own God within one's own Self: the story about courage that U2 have always told. A true concept show, sustained by genuine inspiration, something not seen since the days of the PopMart Tour.

The setlist, however, betrays the conceptual intentions somewhat. Old foxes that they are, they manage to tell the story of discovering courage without giving in to too much cerebral sophistication, which occasional pop/rock fans don't much care for, instead slotting in a string of overwhelming hits that, with or without a concept behind them, would drive any arena wild. U2, in short, win easy. And so, where the concert touches on their punk beginnings, out pop the thoroughly crowd-pleasing "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" and "Vertigo". Where it touches on the tragic separation from parents, out come the ever-great "I Will Follow" and "Iris (Hold Me Close)", which improves somewhat on the album version but still carries easy sentimentality. And where the Irish question is staged, out comes the famous "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (in a semi-acoustic version more admirable for the attempt than the result) and "Raised By Wolves", from the latest album, this latter one remarkably effective instead.

Lesser-known songs that would carry real weight for the conceptual cohesion of such a carefully calibrated show, like "Twilight" and "A Day Without Me", like "Lemon" and "Mofo", like "Please" and "Love Is Blindness", aren't even considered by the band.

A concert, then, that is inclusive rather than exclusive. But this very eagerness towards inclusion is the live show's greatest flaw. The band relies on a setlist that, more than predictable, is by now set in stone, in its eagerness to appeal above all to casual or radio listeners, with little to no familiarity with their more obscure catalogue. Their latest mediocre album sounds slightly better live than in the studio, and while "Cedarwood Road" works, in moments like the contrived "Song For Someone" boredom lurks.

During the very first part, with the band bare on stage with almost no stage lighting, a single lightbulb symbolizing adolescence and bedroom dreams, the band is a formidable concert machine, if decidedly mechanical. Even in their gestures, spontaneity no longer seems to be a founding trait of their live performance. The concert truly takes off with a devastating "Until The End Of The World", symbolizing the inevitable discovery of betrayal and the end of innocence. From here the band gradually moves towards the B stage, dabbling a little with electronics on the lovely "Invisible" (with the band "caged" on the impressive walkway/screen) and on the recent new version of "Even Better Than The Real Thing". The discovery of sensuality is staged with a powerful version of "Mysterious Ways" (which Bono sings while dancing with a pretty girl pulled from the crowd) and with a "Desire" played as a duet with an (apparently) improvised band of fans chosen from the audience. Finally more spontaneous, the concert has become a magnet that pleasantly pulls you in.

Bono, hammy and shamelessly ingratiating as only he can be, indulges in no end of showmanship before gradually steering the mood back towards seriousness. While still remaining extremely stingy with setlist concessions, U2 dedicate to the refugee drama a deeply moving version of "October" (its fourth outing since 1989) and a brief nod, really very little, to the beautiful "Zooropa", from the 1993 album of the same name. The stretch running from "Every Breaking Wave" (which, performed solo on piano, errs a little on the side of excessive mawkishness) to "With Or Without You" is extraordinary. The band revives the furious "Bullet The Blue Sky", in which Bono delivers an inner monologue between his present self and his younger self, and "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" are celebrated like old friends.

The concert could end here, but the band wants to bid farewell by reclaiming their right to the glossy and polished, with a rather dispensable encore of the great 2000s classics "City Of Blinding Light" and "Beautiful Day". It closes with a very standard version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", featuring an unexpected guest appearance by Zucchero murmuring something in a soul vein, though he doesn't seem entirely at ease.

A U2 concert from the 2000s has practically nothing to do with a U2 concert from the Eighties and Nineties. Mysticism, catharsis, spiritual liberation are revealed truths that the band, for reasons of age and partly by choice, can no longer embody. Perhaps that's precisely why, very cleverly (in true U2 fashion), the Innocence + Experience Tour tries to stage these old suggestions almost as if telling them in the third person.

Having acknowledged this, it must be said that the concert is wonderfully cohesive and essentially great fun. The moments of emotion, which are indeed present, have little to do with either the moment itself or the performance, and more to do with a feeling of nostalgic recollection, which the band seems to rather enjoy sketching out.

The key to understanding a U2 concert today lies in understanding its ambitions: no particular revelation, just a fine rock-pop show, played with affection and dedication.

In short, that's fine as it is, old Irish friends.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google