When we realized that we narrowly missed the clusterfuck traffic and crowds that we would have been in had we gotten Saturday night's tickets to U2, we heaved a sigh of relief. That city center is seriously too small to have four mega events going on at the same time, including full-day road closures. TBH, I was not keen on paying money to watch U2 in concert. It isn't even a band on my music bucket list. I've watched them play in Buenos Aires (Muse opened), and I don't actually need to watch them again when a ticket is priced at S$372. On top of that, I had to arrange for a pet-sitter to come in. 😒
Our Sunday night opened aptly with 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' (War, 1983), and I was very briefly transported back to those years. At 58-years old, Larry Mullen is still a fantastic drummer. Somehow, I've never pegged U2 to those growing up years. While I play the guitar, I'm not deft in it, so the Edge's (David Evans) creative effects didn't take hold. I had other bands that I really love, and those years were characterized by the raw sounds of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I also prefer U2's punk sound in the early 1990s. I love 'Ultraviolet (Light My Way' (Achtung Baby, 1991) and that entire album. To me, Achtung Baby is representative of their sound. I'm less keen on The Joshua Tree (1987), which reflected the four Irish lads' thoughts about America and Americana.
The two gigs were slightly different. The friends updated us on the going-ons of the night of 30 November, and the topics Bono mentioned. Multi-culturalism and how much the band loved Singapore on the first night. (REALLY REALLY? What happened to that thing about human rights Bono went on about four decades ago?!) Ours was a gentle ramble about AIDS, very little on LGBTQ rights beyond talking about love love and love, and suddenly, "Love Hong Kong." Hahahah. We could compare the setlist and songs. From 1998's Rattle and Hum, Saturday night had 'Angel of Harlem', we didn't have that but we had 'Desire'
The 200-feet wide and 45-feet high 7.6K LED screen was put to fabulous use with disguise gx 2. Anton Corbijn's photos and film director Stefaan 'Smasher' Desmedt's visuals were breathtaking. I was quite floored by the flow and the ideas. Absolutely stunning. I could have cried when they played 'Ultraviolet' to the moving video tribute titled 'Women of the World', and they took the effort to dig out and portray Singapore's Women Everest Team, Margaret Thomas and Elizabeth Choy. That was soooo beautiful. The finale to 'One' (Achtung Baby, 1991) was hilarious lor. The Merlion and the Singapore flag. #WINNING This is the U2's historic first gig in Southeast Asia in 43 years. Better late than never, I suppose.
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