July 6, 2015 - Toronto, Canada - Air Canada Center

Media Review:

U2 bring Innocence + Experience to Toronto

by Jane Stevenson, Postmedia Network

Toronto Sun

TORONTO - In the end, experience won out over innocence - big time.

And a U2 tribute band and a belly dancer named Jessica didn’t hurt either.

Veteran Dublin rock band U2 brought their big, ambitious, high-tech and very personal Innocence + eXperience world tour to the Air Canada Centre on Monday night for the first of two shows.

And after a mostly muted opening set with some sound issues off the top and far too many new songs from the band’s badly executed (hell-o Apple!) and mostly critically panned 2014 album, Songs of Innocence, the quartet rebounded nicely with a highly-spirited second half full of hits and a few unlikely surprises.

The so-called Experience part of the set found U2 pluck a belly dancer out of the audience to dance on stage with them for Mysterious Ways followed by the tribute band Acrobat who delivered an inspired version of Desire.

When the two Bonos joined each other for the song’s ending, it was about as wacky as live shows get yet somehow it worked.

“Hey Bono, don’t believe everything they say about you - only about half of it is true,” said real Bono to fake Bono, the actual rock star proving his sense of humour was still intact.

The band - rounded out by guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., - initially walked on stage to the tune of Patti Smith’s People Have The Power.

And despite including excellent early songs Out Of Control and I Will Follow along with Vertigo, U2 chose to fill the first set with material from Songs of Innocence starting with The Miracle Of (Joey Ramone) and followed by Iris (Hold Me Close) - about Bono’s mother who died when he was 14 years old - Cedarwood Road, about Bono’s childhood home, Song For Someone, about Bono’s wife, and Raised By Wolves, about a real-life car bombing in Dublin.

None ignited the crowd until the oldie Until The End of the World driven by the Edge’s great sounding chimey guitar.

Even Sunday Bloody Sunday was stripped down and robbed of its usual anthemic power and it started to make me wonder if the U2 curse - Bono had a bad bike accident last fall in Central Park that required major surgery, the Edge walked off the stage at the tour launch in Vancouver in May - was continuing.

The second set began slowly with yet another new song, Invisible, but then it all started to go very right beginning with the belly dancer who told Bono later she had danced with them ten years earlier at the same venue.

Elevation got the crowd further pumped up and then cover band Acrobat was helped up on stage after Bono noticed their bassist wearing a disco ball hat.

“That’s a good start,” said the singer. “Are you any good?

Turns out they were and when the fake Bono threatened to eclipse the real Bono, U2 finally kicked into high gear.

Stuck in A Moment was simply but beautifully presented with the Edge playing piano and the new song Every Breaking Wave proved to be the most palatable of the night.

Bullet The Blue Sky, Pride (In the Name of Love), Beautiful Day, Bad, And With Or Without You followed and the momentum kept up during the encore of The City of Blinding Lights, Where The Streets Have No Name (despite Bono not running around the stage as in previous tours), I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and a cover of Stand By Me.

As for the much talked about elevated LED screen cage that paralled U2’s long catwalk from the main stage to the tiny stage at the end of the floor, it was impressive especially when band members could climb up stairs to walk through it while cool imagery was projected around and on them.

For example, we got to see Bono walk through his childhood home during Cedarwood Road and an 18-year-old Bono write a song in his bedroom trying to impress his girlfriend, now wife during Song For Someone.

But if you were behind the group as opposed to on either side of the cage, how much of those mind-blowing, cool visuals did you actually get to see?

Another downside to that large screen is that it effectively cut the audience in half on the floor, so the energy was often dampened as a result.

“Thanks for sticking with us Toronto - you’ve always been good to us,” said Bono, shortly after the show kicked off, remembering the band’s 1980 Toronto debut at the El Mocambo the day after John Lennon was shot.

“The world needs more Canadas!”

SET LIST

People Have the Power intro

The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)

Out of Control

Vertigo (Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll… more )

I Will Follow

Iris (Hold Me Close)

Cedarwood Road

Song for Someone

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Raised by Wolves (Psalm 23 (snippet))

Until the End of the World (Love and Peace or Else (snippet))

INTERMISSION

The Wanderer

Invisible

Even Better Than the Real Thing

Mysterious Ways

Elevation

Desire (by U2 tribute band Acrobat)

Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of (piano version)

Every Breaking Wave (acoustic)

Bullet the Blue Sky

Pride (In the Name of Love) (Hands that Built America snippet)

Beautiful Day

Bad (Moment of Surrender snippet)

With or Without You

ENCORE:

City of Blinding Lights

Where the Streets Have No Name (With Mother and Child Reunion intro)

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

Stand by Me

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Original article: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/07/06/u2-bring-innocence—experience-to-toronto

Images:

All photos by © Jack Boland / Toronto Sun