In 1991, U2 released the album Achtung Baby, which would become highly acclaimed among critics and fans alike, while also becoming the band’s second-highest selling album, behind only 1987′s The Joshua Tree.  Exactly 20 years ago today, the first hit off the album, “Mysterious Ways,” peaked at number 9 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.  Though it was the first hit off the album, “Mysterious Ways” was actually the second single to be released, following “The Fly,” which didn’t take off as a single and only peaked at number 61.  “Mysterious Ways” was also the biggest hit from Achtung Baby, barely beating out its successor, “One,” which would peak at number 10 a little less than four months later.

U2 drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. turns 50 today.  Check out his drumming featured on this PSA for motorcycle safety he filmed years ago.

Guitarist David Evans, whom you more likely know as The Edge from the band U2, turns 50 today.  Occasionally, The Edge also tries his hand at vocals, as he does above in ”Numb” from the band’s 1993 album Zooropa, but of course, he’s much more known for his guitar work.  Where does The Edge rank on your list of all-time great guitarists?

“Wow.”  Bono could be seen saying it while looking out at the crowd toward the end of U2’s performance at Spartan Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, on June 26, 2011.  Having been in attendance, I can’t think of a better word to sum up the event.

After having never seen U2 in concert, despite being a fan of the band since the late 1980s, I’ve now seen U2 twice in a little less than two years during their 360° Tour—first at Soldier Field in Chicago in September 2009 and now in East Lansing this past weekend.  I highly enjoyed the concert in 2009, but this one felt even better (and, for more on ways in which the East Lansing concert was “even better,” check out my other review of the event).  I’m not entirely sure why.  It could have been my seats (to the side of the stage rather than behind).  It could have been the feel of a college football stadium over an NFL stadium.  It could have been that U2 has found some nuanced and specific ways to improve the show since its opening legs.  It could have been that the set played in East Lansing works better than the set played in Chicago.  Likely, it involved some combination of those factors and others.  Whatever the case, the East Lansing show reinforced to a greater degree what I thought after the Chicago show:  U2 knows how to rock and how to entertain. 

From beginning to end, the show contained no down moments.  U2 appear to have mastered the ability to use their video screen, which circles the band, providing its imagery for, as the tour name indicates, 360 degrees.  At various points the screen featured, among other things, a taped recitation of some “Beautiful Day” lyrics by astronaut Mark Kelly leading into performance of the song; a message by Desmond Tutu leading into “One”; and images of Aung San Suu Kyi during “Walk On,” which U2 dedicated to her during her house arrest of almost 20 years in Burma.  Even before U2 began, after Florence and the Machine provided a nice warm-up for the main act, the video screen offered the audience an array of facts, such as the highest point in Michigan, the amount of money spent on video games that day, the world’s population, and much more, interspersed with the current time from destinations around the world.  All of these elements, as the tour name of “360” itself also suggests, were framed, as they have been throughout the tour, within that “around the world” theme—the idea of people recognizing the global interrelationships of our world and our world’s status within the universe.  The stage is meant to resemble a spaceship on which all of us around the world are passengers, and the playing of the original recordings David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” at the beginning of the show and Elton John’s “Rocket Man” at the end as concertgoers leave connect to that theme.

In between, U2 played a total of 23 of their own songs, as well as a brief chorus of the classic Shirelles’ song “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” performed by Bono toward the end of the show, sandwiched between “One” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.”  The show featured three songs from U2’s latest studio album, No Line on the Horizon:  “Get on Your Boots,” “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight,” and the final song of the show—“Moment of Surrender,” which was dedicated, with a touching call for audience members to hold up their cell phones in the dark, to E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who passed away on June 18.  The band also played a half dozen songs from the 1980s, including their first hit, “I Will Follow”; “Sunday Bloody Sunday”; “Pride (In the Name of Love)”; and their three big hits from The Joshua Tree (“With or Without You,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and “Where the Streets Have No Name”).  Much of the set came from the 1991-2000 period, though, including the first four songs of the show, which all hail from Achtung Baby—the band’s highly influential album that this coming November will mark 20 years since its release.  After “Until the End of the World” made four straight songs from Achtung Baby to start the show, I turned to my dad, with whom I attended the concert, and joked that I didn’t realize it was suddenly 1991 again.

Not that I’m complaining, though.  I think the reliance on more older material for this concert contributed to me feeling more connected to it than to the Chicago concert.  The same, I’m sure, goes for my dad, who said afterward that he recognized a lot of the songs.  He also said that the concert was “spectacular” and echoed my sentiment that it didn’t have a dull moment.  He had never been to a rock concert at a stadium before, so we joked on the way out that the first one he ever attended had been so good that it had ruined all others, since none would be able to live up to the experience of this show.

I’d say that counts as another “Wow.”  It’s no wonder the 360 Tour has become the highest grossing concert tour ever.  Count me in that statistic twice, and I’m thoroughly thrilled to be there both times.

Today, of course, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States.  In fact, today marks the 25th anniversary of its first celebration as a federal holiday.  While there have been some, there haven’t been a lot of songs commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. or Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  I don’t think it’s any stretch to call U2′s “Pride (In The Name of Love),” which is featured above, the most recognizable.  Other songs include “By the Time I Get to Arizona” by Public Enemy, which addressed the State of Arizona’s reluctance to establish the holiday in the late 1980s, and Common teaming up with Will.i.am sampling King’s “I Have a Dream” speech for a song of the same name.  Billboard has made a list of songs that honor King, that includes the tunes by U2, Public Enemy, and Common featuring Will.i.am along with seven others.  I also know that Richard Marx’s song “One Man” from his Permanent Vacation album remembers King.  Can you think of other tunes about Martin Luther King Jr.?

Continuing our Sen-tune game this week is U2. Once again, the object of the game is to take five song titles of the same artist and compose them into a sentence or what we like to a call a sen-tune. Here’s a list of U2 songs to help you.

Here’s my attempt at the first U2 sentune:
walk on gloria, i will follow with or without you in god’s country

Let me start off this review by saying unequivocally that U2 rocks … literally, in concert, they know how to rock the house.  U2 kicked off the American leg of their latest tour—the 360º tour—this past Saturday, September 12, at Soldier Field in Chicago.  I wasn’t able to make it opening night but was able to go to the second show, on Sunday, September 13.  U2’s been my favorite band since the late 1980s, so, for me at least, this was a dream fulfilled by finally getting to see them in concert.  And it lived up to the billing.  In line with the title of the tour, the stage is 360 degrees.  So, even though the band spent more of their time facing the audience on the field at the front of the stage, at numerous points Bono, the Edge, Adam, and even Larry (playing a bongo drum) visited the back side of the stage, which is where my wife and I were sitting.  Twice Bono ran the length of the entire stage—once on his own and once after lifting a boy from the crowd to join him.  The design of the stage is meant to resemble a spaceship, with the performance linking the theme of taking off to space with the theme of the world coming and working together.  These themes were reflected in various elements of the show, including the band entering to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” a message in the middle of show on the big screen from an astronaut in space, and a message toward the end of the show leading into “One” featuring Desmond Tutu talking about fighting for freedom.  Emphasis on issues of freedom and human rights were also featured at other points in the show, including during the song “Walk On” as volunteers on stage wore masks and the audience was asked to wear masks of Burman democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for the better part of the last two decades.

As is typical of most concerts, the show highlighted the material on the band’s latest recording, No Line on the Horizon.  So, for fans from the 1980s like me, there wasn’t a lot of the older stuff that I would have liked to have heard.  (Guess that’ll teach me not to have seen them on tour back then …)  They did play the three big hits from The Joshua Tree, as well as “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “The Unforgettable Fire.”  According to other reports, they apparently played “Bad” on Saturday night, but it wasn’t in Sunday’s show.  Still, I appreciate more recent U2 material as well, and pretty much all of their music—from the 1980s, 1990s, or 2000s—lends itself to the stadium feel, so they couldn’t really go wrong.  Additionally, the band paid homage to the late 1970s/early 1980s post-punk scene, with a few lines of the Police’s “King of Pain” at one point and a chorus of The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” at another.

The visual elements of the show were overwhelming (in a good way) as well.  The big screen circled the stage, allowing everyone in the crowd to see what was going on.  At one point it expanded to display a bigger picture.  It broadcast the band as well as other symbolic and metaphorical additions to the show.  The spaceship changed colors repeatedly.  At times lights extended into the sky from the top of the stage.  Two bridges extended into the crowd on the field so that band members could run out and play by or even at times touch crowd members.  A disco ball rested atop the whole setup, shining down during “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” to create a dance club feel throughout the stadium.

U2 played for about two and a half hours, including two encores.  Snow Patrol provided what might have been the perfect opening act for about an hour before U2 came out.  In all, it was an intense and exhilarating experience and well worth the trip if you get the chance to go.

Recently, I realized more than ever before that part of the brilliance of U2 is the degree to which each member of the band brings something to the music.  For many a U2 song, take out any one of the band members–Bono, The Edge, Larry, or Adam–and the song is just not the same.  Each truly adds to the complexity of the composition.  Perhaps this is no more apparent than in U2′s rendition of the Bob Dylan classic (though many know it through Jimi Hendrix) “All Along the Watchtower” from Rattle and Hum.  Indeed, for as significant as The Edge is to the catalog of U2 music, there’s a case to be made that he’s the most subdued performer on this track.  There may be no finer example of the combination of the past and what in the late 1980s was the present of rock in a song showcasing all performers than this song.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HySAx6R6zBQ

In 2001, U2 released All That You Can’t Be Left Behind and manufactured a handful of radio friendly tunes that cracked the charts. Some of those songs were Beautiful Day, Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, Elevation and Walk On.

However leftover on this album was a track buried at number nine called “When You Look at the World” that unfortunately was left behind for radio play. If you are disappointed with U2‘s latest release “No Line On The Horizon”, then revisit this track and put it in your rotation.