My friend and I were treated to a remarkable concert last night. Bono has enough charisma to fill a city block. He could come across as pretentious at times, but I was willing to overlook that given some amazing performances of songs like “Pride” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” I’m pretty sure there was at least one song from each of their albums, including the often-overlooked but personal favorite Zooropa. I was also surprised to hear them perform “Miss Sarajevo,” a song that most people probably don’t know but that has a really interesting backstory. Human rights and peaceful coexistence were recurrent themes during the concert, creating a vibe that starkly contrasted with the crass glitz of the 1997 POPMart show that I saw. One image that I won’t forget is when Bono asked everyone to take out their cell phones, which have replaced lighters as beacons of rock-inspired solemnity. For a couple minutes, the whole Target Center was filled with a miniature galaxy of pale blue stars.
This was also one of the longest concerts I’ve attended, clocking in at more than two hours. I would gladly have paid double what I did to see such a performance.
Wow, I never thought about using cell phones to replace lighters at rock concerts. That’s a cool idea!
Last time I was at a concert, there was one lonely dude in the back of the room holding up a lighter. It was hilarious. If only he had known about the cell phone idea, maybe he could have started something…