U2 fail to impress Gelsenkirchen

Once More: Encore. You would think that a band like U2, a band that has more than 30 hit tunes, would have enough material to fit into a 2-hour show without repeating itself. Well, think again.

Songs like "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "All I Want Is You", "Desire", "Sweetest Thing", "Bad", "Angel Of Harlem" or "I Will Follow" were not performed at the show in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on June 12, yet U2 treated the 56,000 fans a song twice: "Vertigo" both opend and closed the show.

But maybe that's why the 2005 world tour is called Vertigo Tour. Unfortunately
that was not the only downer in the packed Arena Auf Schalke. From the TV sets of "Zoo-TV" (1992) to the Lemons of "Pop Mart" (1997) and further on to the heart-shapped "Elevation" stage, U2 were always ground-breaking in terms of stage presentation. But not in 2005.

The stage looked like a cheap version of the "Pop Mart" setting less the lemon. And the performance itself lacked both heart and emotion. The setlist was a straight hits-set less some of the really big ones plus 7 mostly self-pleasing songs from "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb".

The 150 feet wide video-screen offered some cheap religious (Islamic, Jewish & Christian for "Sunday Bloody Sunday") and political (African flags for "Where The Streets Have No Name") statements. And Bono, who normaly seeks the audience like no other, almost made no attempts to use the 2 B-stages within the crowd.

Some 24 hours after the G8 leaders did their duty in cancelling the debt of third world countries, U2 failed to do their duty as the so called "greatest rock n' roll band of the planet". But still, as bad as the Arena auf Schalke performance was on June 12, U2 are still one of the best -if not the best- touring bands around. Although that's not based on their brilliancy anymore but is due to lack of serious competiton...