You can say what you want on social media but U2’s concert last December 11 at the Philippine Arena was worth the following: 1) The trouble of spending too much on tickets; 2) The traffic that sandwiched that piece of music heaven called The Joshua Tree Tour; and 3) The tantrums of those “offended” by Bono’s political anthems.
As if you haven’t heard enough, here are some more reasons why.
Visuals. That 200ft wide, 45ft high LED screen alone that enveloped all 45,000 fans like a warm embrace was worth going through so much for one show. Let’s say you went to a concert just to be part of the action and you’re not really a U2 fan, you will still have to support your jaw from dropping because of the visuals.
The screen took Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. right in front of you; it didn’t matter where you’re seated. That screen transported the audience like a portal and with U2 in total control in the driver’s seat.
We’ve seen concerts with visual fireworks before. Ed Sheeran’s Divide was the closest in terms of how huge the LED screens were and Katy Perry’s concert a couple of years ago had floating props but nothing close to Joshua Tree Tour.
Vocals. We heard a lot about Bono’s pipes with the Philippine leg being second to the last of the tour that wrapped a couple days ago in India. There were reports that Bono had hard time belting power notes—not one bit of this was true.
During last week’s concert, the frontman—at his pre-senior year of 59—was solid. This was in full display during slower numbers, but particularly in “Every Breaking Wave.” As soon as Bono’s vocals joins the piano with the first line (“Every breaking wave on the shore/Tells the next one there’ll be one more”), you just know you surrendered your soul to this five-year old classic. Yes, this was just released in 2014, part of the album”, Songs of Innocence, which you probably have on Apple Music because they gave this album away for free.
For The Joshua Tree concert, U2 performed the slower version, the one from the BBC uploaded live performance on YouTube.
So when Bono belted the chorus (“If you go/If you go your way and I go mine/Are we so/Are we so helpless against the tide/Baby every dog on the strees/Knows that we’re in love with defeat/Are we ready to be swept off our feet/And stop chasing every breaking wave”), you know you’re a converted fan once again.
Front act. U2 served a few classics to front the Joshua Tree songs. This was like the main act before the main act. With just the band on stage, U2 warmed up with “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “New Year’s Day” and “Pride (In The Name Of Love).” Early on in the show—and minus that 200-foot spread on stage—fans were already weeping happy tears.
As if U2 was telling the crowd, “Oh hey, here are the classics! They don’t need to come out with any special effects.” And they really don’t.
Venue. Bono praised the venue more than once during the concert. We did mention this in our previous entry: The Philippine Arena, for all the difficulty going to and from the area, is the perfect venue for these kinds of concerts. You have both visuals and sound protected in a closed arena and every part of the experienced is simply amplified and made better because of this. Each note just circles back to you. It’s just way better for the senses compared to an open venue.
For thousands of fans we’re sure the high—post-concert—lingered for days because everything was simply “even better than the real thing.”
(The author is a former entertainment reporter and editor before shifting to corporate PR. Follow @kayevillagomez on Instagram and Twitter for more updates.)
Image credits: Smart Music Live