CONCERT REVIEW: U2 @ Lincoln Financial Field, 7/14

U2 play a good game. They know how to cadge nostalgia for the sake of promotion without seeming too cloying.

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CONCERT REVIEW: U2 @ Lincoln Financial Field, 7/14

POSTED: Monday, July 18, 2011, 4:00 PM

(©Scott Weiner 2011)

U2 play a good game. They know how to cadge nostalgia for the sake of promotion without seeming too cloying. They know how to be corny without eschewing cool and sweet without dismissing simmering sensuality. They know how to beep, burst, kick and scream. They know exactly where the cameras are placed. Mainly, they know how to rock, how to make a stadium of nearly 68,000 people seem as intimate as the Bijou where they first played here thirty years ago.

(1) The 168-foot-tall four-legged stage set "The Claw” reminded me of the monstrosity that filled Vet Stadium for David Bowie’s Glass Spider shows, only now with an all-circling (hence the 360) hi-def video screen at its top. That screen was Bono’s muse and his siren as the singer spent the entirety of his time playing to the cameras like a hairy Norma Desmond. His swagger was pronounced as he stalked the stage like a panther. He arched his back in a Jagger-esque ass-out pose and kept his mouth open in a Munch-like scream throughout. That Bono was posing was no surprise. That he kept it up steadily throughout the the 2+ hours was. Then again, if you’ve got all that tech and tickets cost on average $250, you had better put on a dog-and-pony show for the paying customers and stick out your ass.

(2) That Bowie thing: there were several cover blips throughout the evening not counting Leonard Cohen’s swaying “Halleluiah” and the show closing “Happy Birthday” to Nelson Mandela who turns 93 this week. U2 and Bono tacked Springsteen’s “The Promised Land” onto “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For,” finished a buzzing belching “Vertigo” with the Rolling Stones’ “It's Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)” and a bit of “Miss You” then grafted Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and “Life During Wartime” onto a particularly smart and speedy Middle Eastern-ish version of “I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight.” But it was Bowie that had the most impact throughout the evening. Not only because Bono developed a Bowiesque croon during the sleek Euro-disco “Zooropa” (hell, he tried to pull off a booming Pavarotti on “Miss Sarajevo”). Bowie’s “Space Oddity” was the centerpiece of the show. The original version of the song opened the show before the quartet kicked into a lean slinky “Even Better than the Real Thing” and a vicious “I Will Follow.” Awhile later, while dedicating a song of love “Beautiful Day” to the mistress of hope, recovering Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords they brought to the screen her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, in a video clip recorded from outer space. Suddenly, the commander, floating in the sky and stuck in his capsule far away from the woman he misses, leans into a camera and says "Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows." If I tell you I welled up then AND again as I’m typed this, I am not lying. Corny but effective stuff, even as Bono sang the same “Space” lines at the finale of “Beautiful Day.”

(3) Nostalgia for the Achtung Baby/Zooropa 90s was in full effect as Bono discussed that grand time recording in Berlin (Bono also blamed the success of his back operation on “German engineering”) and the band played a klatch of that era’s best — the surge and whirring slink of “Mysterious Ways,” the blurrily acoustic “Stay (Faraway, So Close!),” a big and brushy “One,” a jittery “Until the End of the Word.” to say nothing of the aforementioned “Even Better than the Real Thing” and “Miss Sarajevo.” As this is my favorite U2 period, I was in heaven. Yet I can’t help thinking that the ever-promotional U2 wasn’t warming fans to the upcoming deluxe Achtung Baby/Zooropa box set. Happy holidays. Shop early.

(4) I waked straight into Wanda Sykes in the Lincoln concourse right before U2 played “Walk On.”

(5) Though the entire stage was the night’s finest effect, during “Vertigo” the video screen separated to become a stage enveloping honeycomb that threatened to swallow the band. Impressive.

(6) While I could’ve lived without a rushed “Get On Your Boots” (like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” played on a rubber band) and a rote “Magnificent,” real U2 moments of triumphs could be found in every militaristic kick (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”) and deep groove that drummer Larry Mullen made and every bone rattling bass line that Adam Clayton played, especially on “I Will Follow” and “Zooropa.” “Zooropa” and “City of Blinding Lights” too is where The Edge truly shined what with his atmospheric angel wing sound in full effect. The Edge blazed on energetic tracks like the buzzing “Elevation” and its following “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” as well as the glamming “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,” but mostly he seemed subdued. Bono sounded powerful and, as always, acted hammily. He waved roses, and praised Mandela, played in the hands of Philadelphians by talking up cheesesteaks, Gamble & Huff and various stops on the SEPTA map (really). Mostly though, Bono sang his heart out which was nice to hear and see for a tour that’s lasted for two years.

(7) Interpol opened. Really.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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