U2 3D

Tonight I got to see U2 in concert. Well, I was sitting in a relatively empty movie theater, but the U2 3D movie is as close as I can imagine to being there. The movie was shot during the South American leg of the Vertigo tour. The process of how they shot the footage is fascinating.

The 3D technology sure has come a long way since I last went to a 3D movie as a kid. At first, it was almost a distraction, from wearing the glasses to noticing the effect. Early in the movie I started to get annoyed at the person sitting in the front of the movie theater who was jumping up and waving their arms, until I realized that there wasn't anyone sitting in front of me. What I was seeing was part of the concert footage.

Soon, I forgot about the technology, and was able to get into the music. A highlight for me was "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," a song that Bono sang at his father's funeral.

I know that we don't talk
I'm sick of it all
Can - you - hear - me - when - I -
Sing, you're the reason I sing
You're the reason why the opera is in me...

Where are we now?
I’ve got to let you know
A house still doesn’t make a home
Don’t leave me here alone...

I don't know how they pulled off something as intimate as that in a huge stadium. After this, they went into the most political part of the concert, including the now standard feature at a U2 concert of reading from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I wonder if the United States was the intended audience for the reading of Article 5. The music stopped and the words appeared on the screen; "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

I would have loved to have heard "40" closing the concert, but instead it ended with "With Or Without You." I have never been to U2 live concert, and that is certainly on my list of things I want to do before I die. I'm sure that U2 3D is the next best thing. Even you aren't a big U2 fan, go see this movie!

I hear that U2 will release a new album as early as October of this year. Hopefully they will tour to support that album, and I'll be there if they come anywhere close to Kansas City.