‘TREE’ OF LIFE
U2 brings a new spark to epic album at Gillette
For many members of Generation X, “The Joshua Tree” is the greatest album of all time. For everyone else, well, the U2 masterpiece is still one of greatest albums of all time (and don’t give me that guff about the second side being weak — it ain’t, it’s amazing).
But celebrating classic albums with big tours is a risk that doesn’t always pay off. Albums aren’t structured like live shows and playing them front-to-back can create an unbalanced set (see Huey Lewis & the News’ recent tour of “Sports”). I briefly worried U2’s celebration of “The Joshua Tree” at Gillette Stadium would suffer this fate. Then the band reminded me: Hey, we’re U2: We do epic, unforgettable shows. It’s kind of our thing.
Bono and the boys opened the night with a history lesson at a stage in center field. Without special effects or million-dollar production, with a sound not unlike the one they brought to America in the early ’80s, they punched through “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “New Year’s Day,” “Bad” and “Pride (In the Name of Love).”
They reached back to their skeletal sonic beginnings, and their firely political activism. While they didn’t strike hard at Trump, they rallied the sold-out stadium to remember the American ideal of a land that is a refuge for everyone. Why? Because the time is right to open arms and hearts and because that’s what “The Joshua Tree” is all about.
Known for massive production, U2 brought along the largest video screen ever used for a tour — 200 x 45 feet made up of 1,040 individual video panels. But they mostly used the technical marvel to project simple, gorgeous images of the American landscape. The perfect backdrop on the big stage for this perfect soundtrack of the ’80s.
Too many consider “The Joshua Tree” top-heavy (mostly because the first three songs became monster hits). In reality, the second side is just as rich, and landed with more passion last night. The Irish icons have played “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “With or Without You” hundreds of times. Every time, including last night, the songs have a grand sweep and mighty force. But the band had more fire on the lesser-known tracks.
The Edge’s loose piano and piped-in horn section pushed a fresh arrangement of “Red Hill Mining Town.” Bono addes some extra harmonica swagger to “Trip Through Your Wires.” And, of course, the dichotomy of America as paradise and force for evil peeked out from so many corners (see “Bullet the Blue Sky,” “Mothers of the Disappeared”).
Exploring a complicated album that explores a completed America seems pretty important right now. Thankfully, the crowd at Gillette had Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. to guide them on the undertaking.