U2 at Gillette Stadium – Bono lets the music speak

On Sunday, I was able to go see U2 perform at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro (also called Foxborough), Massachusetts. Since Snow Patrol was opening and I’m a big fan of the band, I was very excited to see the show.

U2 has been known for continuously raising the bar for concerts and in a recent interview, The Edge, who plays lead guitar, said it was getting difficult coming up with innovative plans for this tour. So in the end, they redesigned the stage, turning it into what was nicknamed “The Claw.” Standing on four legs and looking like a spacecraft, The Claw stood 164 feet above the stage. Each leg had its own sound system and lighting and cost between €15-20 million each. The Claw emits smoke, flashes colored strobe effects, shoots beams of light into the sky, and contains a circular television screen that not only shows a 360 view of the stage, it stretches vertically for a greater video/lighting effect.

The main stage is circular with a large catwalk parallel to the stage. Connecting the stage to the catwalk are two bridges that arch so as they automatically slide along a track, they pass over the heads of the standing audience. Fans were able to stand between the stage and catwalk while others stood outside the ring or sat in the stadium seats.

My friend and I found a free parking lot a mile away from the stadium, so by the time we walked over, Snow Patrol had already started. They performed their best known songs for an hour and did very well, saving the lighting effects for their final song, “Chasing Cars.”

U2 came on an hour later, introduced with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and smoke rising from the legs and roof of The Claw. The band then came on stage and started with “Breathe,” a track off of their new album, No Line On the Horizon.

The band was right on target when they performed songs people were familiar with. Four songs into the night, they played “Mysterious Ways,” which had the crowd on their feet, singing along. Some people were dancing in the isles while others waved their arms back and fourth. During other songs like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” the band quieted down before the first chorus and we realized everyone in the stadium was singing in unison. Bono later segued the song into a short cover of “Stand By Me.”

Other times in the night, U2 tried to push songs from their new album and that’s when they started to lose their audience. Songs like “Unknown Caller” and their closer “Moment of Surrender” were weak and people were disengaged, particularly by the latter. But the band did well including songs from their album from 2000, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and they even played “MLK” and “The Unforgettable Fire.”

The second to last song they played “With or Without You,” in which they filled the whole stadium with a disco ball effect. Bono’s microphone at that point looked like a floating Target logo, rotating freely and glowing red. Then people pulled out their cellphones and held them to the sky as Bono asked technicians to turn off the lightsand said “let’s turn this stadium into a galaxy.”

Bono still has a great vocal range and he has his energetic flair, but it’s evident that he’s getting older and mellowing. This is not the Rattle & Hum Bono who had the adolescent rage and would go deface a statue. Bono rarely spoke, except when asking the audience to pray for a person he knew and when he was thanking people. At one point of the night, he sang a section of “Amazing Grace.”

Overall, the show was amazing and I thought it had the most brilliant use of lights, sound, and creativity I have ever seen at a concert. I arrived at home in Connecticut that morning and I was exhausted while sitting in the classroom seven hours later, but I would definitely do it again.

Photograph taken by Evan Shaw-Mumford

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