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Music

U2 overload?

Watching U2’s webcast from Los Angeles, I kept wondering if I was witnessing the future of the concert going experience or one of the last chapters of an era.

Bono and boys have placed the emphasis on spectacle and gimmicks over their music to draw people in for the 360 tour, roughly 100,000 in this Rose Bowl instance not to mention the millions like myself who tuned into YouTube’s live stream, but you have to give them credit for making it work in a way no other band is capable of.

Bono does everything to make sure that fan in section ZZZ, row 999 is feeling the buzz. He’s a master when it comes to connecting with masses. Even the person sitting in front of their laptop needs to be involved. At one point, Bono removed his glasses and peered into the camera giving you the 3-D sensation his head was about to pop through your monitor a la Videodrome.

And even the most jaded concertgoer would have to be at least moderately impressed by that contraption Bono calls the Spaceship (or more forebodingly, the Claw). Whether it’s shape-shifting in order to bring U2 closer to the audience or illuminating the stadium with bright panoramic video screens, it’s quite a sight to behold. But again, we’re talking about the impressiveness of mechanized objects, not necessarily the band or their music, which feels strange.

With such extravagant measure to capture the public’s attention you wonder whether the bar has been raised or just flat out obliterated, and if so, what does that mean for U2’s successors?

Not everybody is trying to live up to the impossibly-lofty title of “Biggest Band in the World,” but it feels as though what U2 is saying is that: in order make rock concerts memorable and worthwhile experiences, you need to go to these insane measures.

In other words, rock concerts should aspire to become something akin to a Michael Bay film because only then is it going to grab people’s imagination. The music alone is no longer enough. A typical rock concert, where a band comes on stage, plays their material and maybe throw in some lasers and smoke, just won’t cut it anymore. Is Bono killing this time-honoured ritual? Maybe it needs an executioner.

Or is U2 setting an impossible standard that even they will be unable to live up to? Surely the band will back with another album and mega-tour at some point. Perhaps they will create a real spaceship and fly in and out of stadiums – the tour will be called Close Encounters with U2.

Either way I’m sure of two things: first Bono is fully up to the challenge, and second Toronto will sell it out faster than you can say Larry Mullen Jr. does not age (seriously, he’s got a Picture of Dorian Gray thing going).

U2 announced a second round of 360 tour goodness and Roger Centre is booked for July 3. Besides Chicago, Toronto is the only North American city to get U2 three times in a year. [rssbreak]

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