So the other night I was out getting coffee and checking out my favourite flea market (How else are you going to get Cher stuff?!) when I ended up in Polo Park here in Winnipeg. Coincidently that was the night that U2 had their Winnipeg concert at the Stadium. I was there at around 6.30 and people were just pushing and shoving to get inside. Personally you could hit me over the head with a U2 song and I’d have no f-ing clue. So I just watched the security and the stage – which was huge, way taller than the stadium walls. I went to catch a bus to finally grab dinner but ended up back at Polo(stupid buses don’t run the same routes they do during the week). On a patio not too far from the stadium I had a great salmon and margarita – gotta love those - and quickly decided that I’d join the hundreds of people around the stadium watching the huge screens all for free. It was quite magnificent.
Despite the fact that I really wasn’t a fan they were cool. Unfortunately I found out that flip flops and a leather jacket thrown over a tank top doesn’t keep you warm at, what felt like -5°. Despite that I stayed the full two hours – covered with a way too big parka of some pot smoker that had shown up there and pitied that shivering mess I must have been.
However they completely ruined ‘In the name of love’ - widely known through Baz Luhrman’s ‘Moulin Rouge’(2001) – for me. It didn’t carry emotion for me. It was just a beautiful love song that had lost it’s meaning in deafening guitar riffs.
All in all through considering we’re talking about a rock band here it was a very mainstream concert. It songs were mixed, yes there were guitar riffs but rarely and far apart. One song almost reminded me more of the once shocking glam rockers of Kiss, their “I was made for loving you baby” was, I’m sure, a huge inspiration.
The whole concert was great but somehow their music seemed watered down from cutting edge rock to a more mainstream version that would for sure not offend anybody. While you can think about the band what you want Bono's politics are honorable... well that is if he'd actually live and breath them himself instead of just preach.
Over a 150 trucks are employed just to transport the three huge stages through North America. (One is used while one is set up and another one is being transported into the next city)
Somehow that just doesn't work for me... Save the earth, safe electricity and all that jazz and then he's using all that fuel(not to mention the electricity for the lightening effects of the stages during a show) just so? Just because he's Bono and has the money. It's hypocrictical in my eyes and not right.
Cher - a huge U2 supporter and fan herself - once said 'One never knows their believes until their faced with them'. Something along those lines. Bono obviously knows his believes but also knows that a more hippish, utopic approach sells more records, not to mention gets better publicity.
Honestly I was disappointed by the concert. Maybe it was because I wasn't part of the estatic crowd or oculdn't sing a single one of their songs but I wasn't too impressed. About an hour into the show two girls passed me and gave me their tickets. No charge, nothing. However I couldn't use them due to the strict 'No reentry' policy which really sucks.
Anyway, U2 is too rock to be considered pop and too mainstream to really count as rock. In my eyes they combine the least desireable aspects of both genres. The musics too flat, not offensive enough to be played when you've just found out your boyfriends been cheating you all along with your best friend. On the other hand though it's not light and fluffy enough to be played at a girl's night out or party. And then there's the not unimportant looks department, even the band members know that they are by no means sex symbols and probably never will be. Therefor they aren't even trying which is almost a point in their favor.
I'm not sure why they are so popular but they are. Good bless mainstream.
Getting home was somewhat easy, considering the route and the time. By the time the show was over - after 2 long, cold hours - it was 11 at night on a sunday. Upon finally getting downtown I realized that there were only 2 more buses going in my direction. Already knowing that without having phoned I was way passed my curfew I prayed to god that I wouldn't miss them. Staying out till midnight on a school night, not giving any kind of notice and then to top it all off being irrespondsible enough to get stuck down town at night? Yeah right, now that would make my host mother real proud. I caught the last bus just in time. I was freezing to death and then just as we were about to leave downtown(00:13) we were stopped and stood there for 6 fricken minutes just to wait for all the other ones coming from the concert.
It was quite amazing seeing all those empty buses wait and then leave all at the same time when the transit supervisor gave his okay. It was cool.
Getting home was not, but that's a story for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment