Barcelona Review from The Guardian

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Article from The Guardian:

Sean O'Hagan
The Observer, Sunday 5 July 2009

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U2 performs during the first concert of their "360 degrees" world tour, at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on June 30, 2009. Photograph: LLUIS GENE/Getty Images

Where do you go when you have already reinvented the stadium rock show twice over? U2's answer, for a while, was to strip things back and play indoor arenas, the group's music on both All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000) and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004) reflecting the sense of a band retrenching and reconnecting with their core sound and their traditional audience.

1. U2
2. Camp Nou,
3. Barcelona

1. The U2 tour reaches Dublin on 24, 25 and 27 July,
   London (14 and 15 Aug),
   Glasgow (18 Aug), Sheffield (20 Aug)
   and Cardiff (22 Aug)

Now, having released the transitional No Line On The Horizon, a semi-experimental album that divided critics and fans alike, U2 have returned with a stadium spectacular that is epic to the point of overwhelming. Not even the groundbreaking multimedia overload of the early 90s Zoo TV tour or the surrealist invention of the later Popmart extravaganza quite prepares me for the sight that greets me as I enter the packed and sweltering Camp Nou for the first date of the group's much anticipated 360° world tour.

Imagine one of Louise Bourgeois's giant spider sculptures redesigned by the art director of Blade Runner and you are maybe halfway there. And that's before the giant sci-fi installation begins to light up and throb above a vast circular stage complete with extended walkways and bridges. U2 in the round is what we have been promised but the scale of the set, and the stage itself, makes me wonder whether anyone - even a group as vaultingly ambitious as U2 - could ever compete with it. My fears, as it turns out, are not altogether unfounded.

U2's imminent arrival is announced to the boisterous and partisan 90,000-strong audience by the countdown interlude from David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Larry appears alone, then the Edge and Adam, and finally, as the adulation reaches fever pitch, the main man himself, who looks fitter and leaner than of late. They tear into a thunderous, if murky, "Breathe", the first of four songs from their recent album. It's a brave move but one that doesn't really pay dividends until the signature synthetic riff that propels "Get On Your Boots" ignites the faithful. Above them, the visuals are, for once, spartan and inventive but when your eyes leave the giant projection screen it is difficult for a moment to spot Bono on the circular runway that allows him - and the others, even Larry at one point - to stride out into the crowd. At times, too, the four tiny figures on stage look dwarfed by the extent of their conceptual ambition. At others, they simply seem miles apart - musically as well as physically. Tonight U2's bigness is threatening to undercut their greatness.

"Beautiful Day" briefly puts things right: taut and propulsive, the crowd feeding off its soaring dynamic. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is the first of several crowd-pleasing standards, and it drifts into an impromptu take of Primal Scream's "Movin' On Up", the crowd singing along in relief as much as abandonment. The goodwill coming off the audience for what is a loose and uneven U2 set is extraordinary. It is a first night, though, and you sense that, as always, the group will be firing on all fronts when they have worked out the set's often uneven running order and Bono has found a way to own this vast stage.

Both "Angel of Harlem" and "The Unforgettable Fire" are overhauled tonight, the former segueing into an extended homage to Michael Jackson that includes a snatch of "Man in the Mirror" and Bono singing falsetto on "Don't Stop 'til You get Enough". It made me long for some of the funkier U2 songs like "Lemon" to break up what is a relentlessly pummelling rock show. The thunderous techno overload that ended "Crazy Tonight" just felt wrong, and I waited in vain for an acoustic interlude. The vast crowd, though, were on their side all the way. Having moved up to the press area that hangs over the lip of the uppermost tier of the arena, I felt the whole stadium shake ominously beneath me when "Vertigo" ignited the masses.

This being a U2 show, there were the requisite big non-musical statements, not least a satellite link-up with the astronauts circling the earth in the International Space Station. Having pulled off that one, though, everyone, even Bono, seemed lost for words. Then he saved the moment by signing their commander up for his ONE campaign to end global debt and Aids.

A stirring "Walk On" was dedicated to the Burmese prisoner of conscience, Aung San Suu Kyi, a parade of people marching onto the circular lip of the stage wearing masks of her face. Whatever you think of U2, they know how to pull off the grand gesture, both musically and in terms of global political awareness. A giant video of Archbishop Tutu, though, cajoling and congratulating the U2 faithful into activism, had the unfortunate side effect of making him look - and sound - even more eccentric than usual. No mean feat.

The marathon first night show drew to a close with a seriously off-kilter "One", which limped to a premature end, was resuscitated, but still sounded like the guitar was way out of tune. Put it down to first night gremlins. Then the inevitable "With or Without You", which was carried by 90,000 voices, and a valedictory but ragged "Moment of Surrender", with Bono's voice sounding parched by the 100-degree heat and the effort of the preceding two hours.

As U2 shows go, then, this was a wavery and fitfully brilliant performance. You have to admire their nerve and the scale of their ambition, even if, as tonight, it gets in the way of their invention. It will be interesting to see how this tour shapes up, and if U2 can regain command of the mothership before it touches down on these shores.

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This review came from the Guardian, and is in no way indicative of any AllU2 opinions of U2 in Barcelona.