Santa Clara, CA
Levi's Stadium
Levi's Stadium
I can't believe the news today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
How long, how long must we sing this song?
...And that's how we began the 30th Anniversary of The Joshua Tree show. My first immediate thought was "my god, that's more true today than ever."
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In 1987 when U2 released The Joshua Tree, I was already a fan of the band. In fact, U2 was one of just a handful of musicians my circle of friends all enjoyed. I'd been captivated by the video for "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and by the song "Pride (In the Name of Love)" a few years before the release of what would become U2s defining album. For a wide variety of reasons, I didn't see U2 in concert until 2005, but I do remember the first Joshua Tree tour. During that tour U2 did several spur of the moment free concerts and one of those shows was in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. I was in college at the time and knew about the concert in the city, but not having a drivers license at the time nor a way to get from CSM to downtown San Francisco in a timely manner (it would have required at least two buses and BART to make it from the hills of San Mateo to The Embarcadero) I wound up missing it completely. Well, not completely -- parts of it did show up a year or so later in the movie Rattle and Hum so I caught some of what I missed. Actually, watching Rattle and Hum was the closest I came to seeing U2 live in their prime and at least when the film was released I was working at a movie theater. That meant the staff could have one of our after hours showings playing the movie in a mostly empty theater with the volume turned up WAY louder than it could be for regular showings.
When the 30th Anniversary Tour was announced I was finally able to take advantage of being a Seat License Holder for the 49ers and Levi's Stadium -- early access to tickets for U2! Woo hoo! I picked up 3 tickets for me and a couple of friends and waited for the show. I will admit that this show did kind of sneak up on me. With all the excitement around the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony last month, this concert that I normally would have been on pins and needles for kind of slipped my mind.
Still, with a few quick messages out to high school friend Mary and Journey buddy Ana Marie, we were able to coordinate meeting in Mountain View to catch the light rail to Levi's Stadium. Being a season ticket holder for the 49ers, I knew public transit is the best way to get in/out of the stadium and that the NFL bag policy is enforced for all events at Levi's, so we were able to arrive shortly after the gates opened and get through security fairly quickly despite the clearly new hire working the security gate.
We had arrived in enough time to grab something to eat and visit with Matt and Wendy before the openers Mumford and Sons took the stage about 7:00 (half an hour after the stated start time.) I'm reasonably familiar with Mumford and Sons and was looking forward to seeing them perform -- though "seeing" is defined in this case as "watching a giant video screen of the performance of those thumb-sized people on stage" -- but I was surprised at how many songs I recognized. They put on a really good 45 minute set and I wouldn't mind going to see them on their own in a more reasonably sized venue.
After Mumford and Sons left, we had a bit of time to wait until it was dark enough for U2 to take the stage (which ultimately led to blowing past the official weeknight curfew for events at Levi's and has locals in a bit of an uproar) which meant a good opportunity to take in the stage setup from our vantage point in section 244. While we were pretty far from the stage, we actually had a good sight line and could take in the massive video screen that ran the width of the field and included a cutout/silhouette of a Joshua tree (I'm pretty sure it's the same image as on the back of the album) that rose a bit above the screen. There was a catwalk from the main stage out to a smaller, Joshua tree shaped stage where I could see the top of a drum kit at one side sunken below the stage. While we waited, the video screen had different poems and stories scrolling along one side that were somewhat bleak depictions of the greater American experience (though admittedly I didn't read all of any of them.)
By 9:00 it was finally full on dark and the lights went down as someone meandered from the main stage down to the secondary stage. While there was a bit of a cheer from the people standing near the stage, it wasn't until the first snap of the drums signalling the show opening with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" did I realize that it was Larry Mullen, Jr. and not a last minute roadie on stage. One by one the rest of the band walked down from the main stage and finally the song kicked in to full gear. As I said above, the opening words of the opening song hit me instantly. Beyond the actual news of the day, it spoke to how I've been feeling for a while now. Ana Marie and I just looked at each other and said "wow" -- both of us thinking and feeling the same thing.
The opening set continued and was entirely pre-Joshua Tree songs. These are the songs you would have heard back in 1987 when you went to a U2 concert. "New Year's Day", "A Sort of Homecoming", "Bad", and "Pride"... songs that you might hear in concert with newer material here in the 21st century, but saved for mid-set or later. To open with those classics -- each one bringing back a memory of a time and place that doesn't seem as long ago as it actually is -- was just what I wanted from this show. As "Pride" wound down, a scroll of a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. rolled on one side of the screen with key words pulled out and made larger on the rest of the screen. A potent reminder of the potential of America.
Then the video screen turned bright red with the Joshua tree outlined by red lights and the band made their way back to the main stage. It was time to play The Joshua Tree in full sequence. The video screen changed to a black and white film of a car driving down a desert road and "Where the Streets Have No Name" came up to resounding cheers. The images on the video screen were interesting through out the show and almost entirely in black and white and were thematically tied to the good and bad of the United States, much as the album is. There was a bit of a snafu during "With or Without You" which wound up causing Bono to skip singing the first verse and chorus and made the whole performance of that song a bit awkward. Other than that, it is really hard to pick a favorite moment from this part of the set. How do you choose a highlight when it's a performance of an album full of excellent songs? I'll probably go with "Running to Stand Still" as my favorite though -- I absolutely love that song and it's probably my favorite track from The Joshua Tree and Bono's performance was fantastic.
The band left the stage after "Mothers of the Disappeared" and it was time to speculate on what would be included in the encore. Beyond assuming "One" would appear it was hard to guess. Would they stay within the same general timeline or pull out more recent songs? Turned out to be a little bit of everything. The band came back out, walked back out to the secondary stage, and did a six-song encore which included two big highlights for me. The first was the dedication of "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" to the women of the world and had images of influential women and women's movements over time to highlight the impact women have on social, cultural, and political change. It was quite inspiring. This was followed by "One" and then a short video of a young Syrian girl in a refugee camp asked "If you could talk to a stadium full of people about America what would you say?" (rough paraphrase) She replied with what so many people have said about America -- or at least the dream of America and what it could be. A place of opportunity and beauty; the vision of America we all have but yet don't quite achieve. The video continued showing images of the refugee camp and following the girl around. Meanwhile on stage the band launched into "Miss Sarajevo" and a large banner with the face of the girl was unfurled and passed along the audience. It was really powerful and beautiful and sad all at the same time.
The encore closed out with a new song called "The Little Things That Give You Away" that was really good and fit well with the older songs of the Joshua Tree era. It was a bit weird to end the show on a new song, especially since it was the first time all night the crowd sat down. Ana Marie, Mary, and I kind of looked at each other for a minute and asked "Is that it?" The lights soon came up and yes, that was it.*
Back to the VTA and then the car for the ride home. Getting in at 1:00 a.m. on a weeknight makes for a rough morning at work, but it was so worth it.
Set list:
set 1/opening:
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
A Sort of Homecoming
-- a bit of Paul Simon's America --
Bad
-- a bit more of America --
Pride (In the Name of Love)
set 2/The Joshua Tree:
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
With or Without You
Bullet the Blue Sky
Running to Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God's Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared
set 3/encore:
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
One
Miss Sarajevo
The Little Things That You Give Away (new song)
*I learned after this show, that most sets ended with "I Will Follow" after "The Little Things..." which makes much more sense then ending on a new song. I suspect the already way past curfew time for this show played a role in the slightly shortened end.
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