Sacado de U2neophobia.com, es un artí­culo de un periodista del diario The Star. A pesar de tener unas cuantas erratas (3 noches en el Calderón) y de tener un punto de vista un tanto despectivo hacia los españoles (y hacia el estadio del Atlético de Madrid), es una crónica significativa de lo que le pareció este ACOJONANTE concierto.




U2 on a high with Vertigo in Madrid
18.08.2005 // ZACK YUSOF - The Star Online

Last week U2 arrived in Spain with their Vertigo tour and rocked the Spanish capital in thrilling fashion. ZACK YUSOF was in Madrid to witness the spectacle and was suitably impressed with what he saw.

Quite simply, U2 does not simply stage gigs; it skilfully manufactures unforgettable life-affirming events complete with a euphoric festival feel on a scale and grandeur that other bands can only dream about emulating. If there"™s one rock band operating today that can make the task of transforming cavernous football stadiums into a carnival of colours, lights, music and joyous music lovers all rejoicing together seem like the easiest, most natural thing in the world to do, then it definitely has to be Bono and co.

When the European leg of the band"™s Vertigo Tour rolled into sunny Madrid last week for three shows at the Vincente Calderon Stadium, home of Atletico Madrid football club, it was estimated that 200,000 Spaniards turned up at the concerts to pay homage to the biggest rock band on the planet, singing along to the hits at the top of their voices and generally going bonkers. Skilled practitioners of staging elaborate outdoor stadium shows, U2 duly obliged by pulling out all the stops to ensure that all who attended the gigs left the show with more than just a rocking good time in their hearts.

Armed with a ticket for the final night of U2"™s Madrid stint, this writer turned up at Atletico Madrid"™s decrepit and rather smelly football stadium expecting to be treated to nothing more than a slick but ordinary performance by a well-drilled rock band that has made playing sporting arenas their stock-in-trade over the years.

My expectations were not sky high prior to the gig, given my preference for more intimate rock concerts. Although U2 was always going be interesting to check out for the first time, I was not thrilled by the prospect of watching a gig in a huge stadium as I have never really enjoyed such shows before. But what the Irish quartet pulled out of the bag for the people of Madrid was a truly magical show that will live long in the memory for many years to come. Certainly, watching U2 skilfully work the sell-out crowd of around 55,000 for over two hours with so much soul and passion has altered my perception of stadium gigs forever.

U2 frontman Bono and friends wowed the crowd at the Vertigo concert in Madrid"™s Vincente Calderon Stadium last week.
Providing able support on the day were two of the hottest bands in Britain at the moment, namely the much-lauded Kaiser Chiefs and excellent Scottish art rockers Franz Ferdinand. Numbering five members, Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs has a catchy, post punk sound reminiscent of The Kinks and Britpop era Blur. It performed admirably in the stifling late afternoon heat just as the stadium was starting to fill up.

Coming a little later, Franz Ferdinand got the crowd into the swing of things with some expertly performed numbers that served as a timely reminder of just how potent a musical force these Glaswegians can be on their day. And of course, the epic Take Me Out still sounds as like one of the best dance rock songs ever written. With skill and panache, Franz Ferdinand set the scene nicely for the main attraction of the night.

At around 10pm, as the lights dimmed and flickered against the Madrid sky, the four members of U2 shuffled on stage to rapturous applause that recalled Beatlemania. With the excitable crowd gleefully chanting the "uno, dos, tres, catorce" (there are interesting theories as to why he jumps from 1, 2, 3 to 14) intro in unison with Bono, the band launched into a meaty, take-no-prisoners version of Vertigo, kicking off a thrilling set that delivered as many new songs from their latest album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, early tracks and catalogue rarities, as their classic hits.

With a massive state of the art sound system behind them, U2 sounded like they could tear off the roof of the old stadium if it had one. For the people right at the back, two giant plasma screens beamed images of the band in crystal clear quality while a state-of-the-art massive grid, approximately 30m high displayed images and special effects in awe-inspiring fashion.

While the Vertigo tour was meant to echo the stripped-down feel of the band"™s 2001 Elevation tour, no U2 show is complete without its amazing props and the band"™s monster grid is certainly of cutting-edge music entertainment technology.

However, the crowd turned up in the thousands to hear the hits “ rather than ogle the props. Luckily, U2 had plenty of them to go around. New Year"™s Day, Beautiful Day, Still Haven"™t Found What I"™m Looking For, Pride (In the Name of Love) and With or Without You were all greeted by the Madrid audience with a fervour bordering on the religious. With a set spanning their entire glorious career, the purists in the crowd were treated to versions of first and second album tracks I Will Follow and Electric C.

While the rhythm section of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr and guitarist The Edge are every inch the proficient, well-oiled unit these days, it is Bono who provides the band with that all-important X-factor. Apart from his fantastic voice, which dazzles with its clarity and range, he is a superb frontman who that night communicated with the crowd and promoted an intoxicating feeling of brotherhood, community and camaraderie without going totally over the top. Bono"™s constant airing of his politics during the show (in between songs, there were monologues about Palestine, world poverty, human rights, the bombing in London, Live8 and Africa) might not have been to everybody"™s taste, but Bono seemed to get away with it. Put it this way, Bono was so earnest, passionate and charismatic that he made you want to care as well. That is some gift to possess.

Standout moments? This was indeed a night of many highlights “ the awesome crowd singing the chorus of Still Haven"™t Found What I"™m Looking For into the night long after the song had ended; Bono"™s moving treatment of Sometimes You Can"™t Make It on Your Own which he dedicated to his late father; the band playing a great version of Where the Streets Have No Name while the plasma screens flashed the flag of every country on Earth where poverty was still a problem; Bono turning the stadium into a giant Christmas tree by getting the crowd to hold up their mobile phones in the dark before the band segued into a beautiful version of One ... the list goes on.

U2 playing live in Madrid under the stars was not just your normal gig; it was the kind of awe-inspiring, life-changing and moving spectacle that concert goers everywhere around the world “ especially Malaysians who unfortunately never get enough opportunities to check out incredible events like these “ should try and savour at least once in their lives. Even if it is only to understand just how powerful a unifying force music can be. In this kind of stellar, untouchable form, U2 is indeed the best rock band in the world.


ZACK YUSOF - The Star Online



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