So exciting
It sounds so
Not that I have been there yet
BUT - we will be in Glasgow
Read this
WOW
SAN JOSE — About 20 years ago, U2 staged a media-skewering tour called Zoo TV. The band's latest romp should just be called "TV."
The dominant technological motif of the Irish band's latest show — which roared through the SAP Arena here Tuesday, the second night of a U.S. tour that kicked off Monday — is an enormous double-sided screen that fully bisects the audience.
Not only are massive animations projected onto the screens, but the band frequently performs from inside the gap between the two, literally captured inside the whirl of images — humans interacting with digital 1s and 0s.
The artistic effect is powerful. Though you've come to see the band members live, one is often left watching them on television in a surreal pop-art installation powered by flesh, blood and tech.
"What do you think?" boomed Bono, after the band finished performing Even Better than the Real Thing from inside the screens. "We're not afraid of tech. We like innovation."
If the computing power in a simple smartphone far exceeds what NASA used to send men to the moon in the 1960s, one strains to describe the processing muscle needed to run the screens on this Innocence & Experience tour. Tech company EMC is responsible for powering the visuals, anchored to use of its VNXe3200 hybrid-flash storage unit that allows U2's animators to play with huge uncompressed files for maximum resolution over an expansive screen.
But the gadgetry of the show did not limit itself to the screens. Tech references were sprinkled throughout the concert, often subtly.
Bono's ties to Silicon Valley date back to the band's early collaboration with Apple — the red U2 iPod of 2004 — which led to a deep friendship with Steve Jobs and by extension other tech titans. Shortly after the iPod deal, Bono helped co-found area VC firm Elevation Partners .
Early in the show, Bono told the crowd, "I have so many friends here," and then announced that the following song, Iris, was "for a very special mother, Sheryl." Last month, Bono performed One at the memorial service for SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, the husband of Facebook COO and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg .
Later in the performance, Bono whispered, "Laurene, this is for you," and launched into the romantic song Every Breaking Wave. Laurene Powell Jobs is Steve Jobs' widow.
Bono then name-checked another tech world legend — Apple designer Jony Ive — when he asked a fan whether she had a smartphone that could record video. With her nod, Bono pulled the woman on stage.
"Let's try something," he said. "Why don't you film us during this next song."
U2 then launched into The Sweetest Thing while their amateur videographer recorded the proceedings. The resulting video — in the vein of new Meerkat and Periscope live-broadcasting technology — did not appear as one might have hoped on the screens, but it was for the moment a brilliant souvenir for one fan.
While the four childhood friends from Dublin have long ago been elevated to rock deity, they've never been shy about using tech to put the spotlight more on their art than themselves. The massive screens on this tour extend that tradition, showcasing their communicative power during Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song about the Irish civil rights protesters who were killed by British troops in 1972.
"We should never forget them," said Bono, as endless photographs of faces filled the screens, technology aiding music in forging an indelible memory.
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