U2
It was just a couple of months since 9/11 when I saw the
Elevation Tour in 2001. The set is unmistakable - that huge runway in the shape of a heart that brought Bono into the exact center of the arena. The band finished Psalm 40 - and the audience was still singing along - the pleading prayer felt like such an appropriate cry of pain for what we had all collectively been through. Above our heads are a series of sheer banners on to which the names are projected of everyone who died on September 11. (The video is of the number at the beginning of the tour, before the attack. After 9/11 they redesigned the show slightly.)
The Edge continues to play, and the lights take on a sparkling quality -though the band is mostly in darkness. The, he hits that well known guitar riff from
The Joshua Tree album. The moment we recognize the tune, the lights start spinning, and slowly dropping down ever closer to the stage. Bono takes a lap completely around the entire stage, ending up back where he began as he starts the lyric "I wanna run...".
Tears are streaming down my face by this time. "Where the streets have no name..."
I can't think of any other rock band in the world that could have taken 12,000 people on that journey. A couple of months later they adapted it for their
Super Bowl Half Time Show - which was amazing on its own terms.
U2, man. Not many bands can make it from the late 70's to the present.