Thursday 2 December 2010

Jay-Z & U2 conquer Melbourne.

Above, U2 kicks off the Australian leg of their 360 Degree Tour with 'Beautiful Day' last night at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.

Beneath a spaceship-like stage that shone and smoked and pulsed with billions of pixels the Irish rockers played a set that reflected their four decades as self-described rock & roll pilgrims. The Edge a one-man noise machine on early anthem 'I Will Follow' and iPod anthem 'Vertigo'. Larry Mullen jr and Adam Clayton pounding organic beats that Henry Rollins to this day hears in his tormented sleep. All of them sidemen for World President Bono, who prior to last night was seen on Aussie TV chatting up the Australian Prime Minister and former PM like an impish foreign dignitary sprinkling rockstar pixie dust.

At times the concert brought memories of sitting on a NJ beach on the Fourth of July, phosphorescent majesty delivering suspense-filled payoffs while a tinny Souza soundtrack played from rented speakers. This was a Show. That spaceship muthafucka was Cool. Its tentacles brought band members around, above and beside those already lightened in the wallet for the privilege of standing near the stage. Those of us at the opposite end of the stadium enjoyed a colder, yet more visually dynamic experience, responding with 'oohs' and 'aahs' as the stage changed color and shape and we pointed cameras and cell phones at it like tourists in Times Square.

Of course stadiums are lousy concert venues. Of course rock & roll belongs in sweaty clubs with low ceilings and fire code violations up the ying yang. But as someone who in 1993 saw U2 way atop the upper deck of 'old' Giants Stadium during what I think was the second part of the Zooropa tour (I'd seen the first part in 'smaller' Brendan Byrne Arena, with the Pixies as opening band), I'm glad to have experienced the evolution of stadium rock from one requiring rented binoculars to a mind-blowing spectacle.

For the record: My most memorable U2 concerts are seeing them in 1985 at a jammed Madison Square Garden during their 'Unforgettable Fire' tour and then a year later at Giants Stadium as they obliterated the likes of The Police, Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Joan Baez, The Hooters, Little Steven, Jackson Browne, Howard Jones, Joan Armatrading, Miles Davis and even Yoko Ono during the finale of Amnesty International's 'Conspiracy of Hope' tour.

Twenty-five years later, Jay-Z came across to me like U2 had at that Conspiracy of Hope show.

Lacking the drama of darkness and playing to an unfilled house Jay-Z and his band nonetheless stormed on stage and roared. I don't know the precise thoughts of Shawn Carter as he looked over the packed floor of Etihad Stadium but I imagine it was something like 'Look at all those G-D white people'.

This was the hip-hop mogul's first-ever Australian performance but he took the stage with the swagger of a 40-year-old superstar who's sold over 50 million records sold since 1996's Reasonable Doubt. The video screen atop U2's mammoth stage helped magnify his visage, but it was Jay-Z's voice and stage charisma that shrunk the stadium to the size of a Brooklyn street. By the time he thanked Melburnians for welcoming him to their hometown, he said it was time to play a song about his own, and launched into my favourite song of 2009, 'Empire State of Mind', which received rapturous applause and seemed to warm even the starchiest of Aussies to Jay-Z's streetwise charm.

Jay-Z and band onstage. Etihad Stadium has a retractable roof that needed to be open in order to accommodate U2's colossus.

Aussie crowd proving it can take direction well from anyone who can drop beats.

Ever-changing moods of 'the claw', shown here and below.


The video screen descends and expands ...

... until it's the size of a McMansion suspended over the stage. Yeah, it's got nothing to do with music, but after Jay-Z left the stage the night stopped being about sound and started blowing people's eyeballs out of their heads.

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