Concert Review: U2 Cured My Vertigo!

I arrived at FedEx Field on Tuesday night to see this stop on U2's 360º Tour. Once we reached the top level and climbed up to our seats (section 425, row 20, nine rows from the top) I looked down--and my knees just buckled.

The stage set for this tour is a huge claw-like structure with a central spire that rises to 181 ft. The band is playing on a circular stage surrounded by their fans. Another circular catwalk surrounds the stage. Movable cantilever bridges allow the band to move back and forth between the inner and outer stage. The whole is topped by a multi-faceted, expandable digital cyclorama television that raises and lowers, expands and contracts during the show.

I felt my knees weaken. My stomach turned. It was the vague uneasiness you get on a roller coaster but with no chance of that welcome, precipitous drop. I sat there uncomfortably until Muse came on--and I was still uncomfortable during their set. It didn't help that I don't really know Muse's stuff that well, and thanks to the stadium's wonky acoustics, I could not understand a word sung by Matthew Bellamy. My stomach would not stop churning. I walked down (carefully) halfway through their set. I walked around the concourse, had a Johnny Rockets' burger (not bad for stadium food) and tried to get my head together.

When I returned to my seat, I still felt uncomfortable, out not as severely as before. I kept thinking my jeans would slip off the seat and I'd go careening down to the floor in the ultimate stage-dive. Finally, U2 took the stage, opening with "Breathe" and "Magnificent" from their new disc No Line On the Horizon. I was still wobbly until the band played "Elevation." We all rose to our feet and howled along with Bono. At that point, the vertigo, the queasiness and the fear went away. Later in the show, they played "Vertigo", and I felt no ill effects at all.

Highlights included a thrilling "City of Blinding Lights", "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (dedicated to the political oppression in Iran) and a thunderous remix of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" (featuring Larry Mullen rocking a djembe and all four band members roaming the outer catwalk. A sweeping "Walk On", dedicated to Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi ended the set.

"One" was introduced by Bishop Desmond Tutu. Finally, the central core of the stage set turned into a giant lighthouse with a mirrored onion dome at the top sending radiance throughout the stadium during "With Or Without You." The building shook. Bono sang "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" while wearing a laser-firing leather jacket, tracing red beams through the smoke. And the band finished with one more new song, the gorgeous, soaring "Moment of Surrender".

Even with the massive, eternally-evolving stage set, this was a great, simple rock show, presenting the U2's strengths in a whole new way. The rock-solid rhythm section, Bono's theatrics and the Edge's unique effects-driven guitar still work--even if they were playing under a single work-light. Perhaps they should do that on the next tour. Meanwhile, check out the official site of the U2 360º Tour.