Photo by Justin Kent Flashing lights and thousands of fans couldn’t destroy the intimacy of U2’s show.

With the house lights still on, music still playing and people still taking their seats, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, and Bono took their places on stage for the second night of U2’s “Elevation Tour 2001” in Miami, Florida. It took a minute before the audience realized they didn’t get any kind of warning to prepare for the concert—the lights didn’t dim, the music didn’t stop. Four guys just walked onto the stage to do what they have spent their lives learning to do well: play rock and roll.

The setup looked normal enough—an average-sized stage pushed against one end of the arena. The lighting rig looked larger than some, but nothing extraordinary. Then there was the heart-shaped ramp coming off from either side of the stage. This elevated ramp was the meat of the design, giving U2’s front man Bono a chance to effectively get right into the middle of the crowd in a way that he could have only dreamed of before.

The band broke into “Elevation,” a track off their new album. It didn’t feel like an extravagant rock show, let alone a rock show of the epic proportions for which U2 is reputed. Instead, it seemed more like witnessing a small jam session in your friend’s garage down the street. By the third song it was hard to tell who was having a better time, the fans or the band members.

Bono began one of the band’s most undeniably biblical songs, “Until The End of the World,” by crying “Judas!” as he started into his musical rendition of the betrayal story. Bono was being cautious as he ventured out onto the ramp for the first time at the show. His accidental fall off the ramp into the press pit during “Until The End of the World” the first night was certainly an embarrassment, as it made the headlines of papers in Florida. An injury could also have meant an end to the tour after a mere three songs.

After a few songs off their previous album, “Pop,” Bono introduced the new song, “Stuck In a Moment,” by saying, “sometimes the blue turns to black, and sometimes you have to write a song like this for a mate of yours has slipped away into the black. This is for Michael Hutchence.” Ever since the suspicious suicide death of the lead singer for the Australian pop group INXS in 1997, Bono has been dedicating songs to his memory and it is clear that he had Michael in mind when he wrote the lyrics to “Stuck In a Moment.”

The rest of the set list read very much like a greatest hits album with classic songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Bad” and “New Years Day,” intermingled with newer songs like “The Sweetest Thing” and “In a Little While.” “Where the Streets Have No Name” heard Bono saying a prayer under his breath and singing with such soul that it would be nearly impossible to dismiss the spirituality evident in his lyrics. Songs like “Bullet The Blue Sky” and “The Fly” gave The Edge a chance to let his often-underrated guitar-playing a chance to shine through.

Though they may be getting old, it would be hard to say that U2 have passed their prime. Every member of the band did their part in contributing to an amazing experience that left fans wanting more. One of the main complaints of people who have seen the concert up to this point has in fact been the length of the set. Many fans were hoping for more than the average-length twenty-song set, and thought that for the money they spent they deserved to see some sort of three-hour concert ala Bruce Springsteen. Bono tried his hardest to convey the band’s appreciation by saying, “Thank you all for spending your hard-earned cash to come to a rock show,” but, for some, it still wasn’t enough to justify the ticket prices.

This tour is different than U2’s previous tours in many ways. The false pretenses and dramatic irony are absent. Bono has left all the costumes and various personas at home in Dublin and opted for the “casual rock star” look. There is no poking fun at the media or commercialism; this time around it’s all about the fans and the music. If I had to pick one word to describe what sets this tour apart from any other tour I’ve seen, U2 or not, I would say that it is very “personal.”

It is seldom that you see a singer pull a girl out of the audience to slow dance with them; you rarely hear a lengthy introduction of the band with the drummer coming out from behind his kit to hug his bandmates. It is still less common to see a member of the band jump into the crowd and make his way all the way through to the back giving high fives along the way. After four years, Bono and the boys are back to doing what they love, and it shows.

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