May 13, 1981 - Santa Monica, California, USA - Santa Monica Civic Center

Media Review:

Data-Boy Entertainment Mag., June 11, 1981

Judy Zee with U2 in Santa Monica

by Judy Zee

U2's got lust for life!
PZ Connection

U2's music is so vibrant and real, they send rushes out into the audience, they are alive and perform with gusto. They give fully of themselves. They have a lot to offer. Too bad they couldn't be seen by half the people here.

The ticketholders at the back of the Santa Monica Civic were moving and dancing despite the fact that they couldn't see the band. Bono boyishly and gallantly bounded up the amplifier stack to the top, carrying with him a big ol' American flag.

The spotlights followed this charade, for all to see a distinct drop of the flag into an abrupt darkness as he was helped off by his stage manager (who nearly dropped him, cute buns and all!).

The Zee found this adorable Irish boy's action a rather funny stunt. 'America' it symbolized, but Amerika what?!? This country right now is in such an awful state, the gesture appeared quite laughably pathetic.

Punkasso looked at this action from an interestingly different angle, perhaps he was simulating the outcry of U2's home land for a strong, authoritative leader, such as our president who can survive three bullet holes in the chest and not worry about starving because he eats on a government pension plan, rather than the weak rationality of the recent loss of England's starving fanatical prisoner of war, Bobby Sands, who justified the irregularity of a small disorganized country in turmoil, grasping at straws.

Musically U2 was quite impressive, or was it the lights blending so with the sound? Anyway, Punkasso fell asleep during the show, must have been a form of psychic toxic shock, while Zee stared right into the overpowering strong white lights emitted from the stage.

This joyful boy leading the band, Captain of the sub, was clad in Irish plaid pants, contorting with Jagger-esqe movements while the jiveing exploring guitarist, The Edge, played melodic P.I.L. simulated riffs. The lights changed over the audience heads in strong sweeps of color. That light show was fabulous, the lights were all bouncing to an audience of mostly juvenile suburbanite non-punks, outcasts of their mother's wombs...

Take a deep breath for The Suburban Lawns who attempted to warm the audience up before U2 came on. Every time I see them, I realize they need a good fertilizer and a good cutting up (to shreds). I mean, a song about lust over a janitor's genitals? Come on now! They spent too much time in Cambodia if you ask me... on holiday with the TV news every night on their mama's suburbite living room TV set. Cool bop and schitzo sixteenth notes, as always. Besides, the lead singer Sue Tissue looks like a giant cockroach and sings like a raid commercial.