I made sure I watched the CBS Special of U2’s final performance of last year’s Elevation tour at Slane Castle near Dublin. Quite frankly, it was a bit disappointing. This is not to say at all that the music wasn’t great, or that I didn’t wish I could have been there; just that the format of the TV “special” simply isn’t suited for conveying the performance of a band like U2 (or any other band, come to think of it.) The problem is that a 2 hour concert was snipped down to fill a 1 hour slot, and then further broken up to include a commercial break after every other song.
The songs that did make the cut were reasonably diverse; Elevation and Beautiful Day predictably opened things up. The band’s first single- Out of Control- came next, with some reminiscence of U2’s history. Sunday Bloody Sunday, Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride, One and Walk On were the other selections.
Something that the show mentioned briefly- but must have been a massive emotional element of the concert- was the fact that the Slane Castle performance was held the day after the funeral of Bono’s father. The only segment of the TV special that really reflected this was Bono’s wordless salute to his father during the intro to Streets; why didn’t they include the hugely emotive Kite?
I enjoyed the CBS “special” in as much as I got a taster of what must have been one of U2’s greatest shows: their return (after 20 years) to the Slane Castle venue, playing to a massive home crowd. The “special” format does not do this show any justice, however, and I hope that since U2 was willing to allow a performance that was unique on so many levels to be sliced, diced and corporately packaged for a TV audience, they’ll be similarly willing to release the show in its entirety on DVD, and release it soon. Sure, nothing will compare to actually being among 80,000 other people at the event itself, but being able to watch every song without being interupted by ads for stain-resistant plasticware would surely be the next best thing.
(Also posted here on Blogcritics.)
I watched most of that on Channel 4 a month or two ago. Good stuff.
I happened to catch the show as well, and I’d have to voice my agreement with the brit.