Found what I'm looking for, or have I?

Moments...

I was born to be with you
In this space and time

Sometimes there are moments when every thing seems purposeful. Every action - from requesting to leave an hour sooner from work earlier in the day to downloading that catchy song you had just heard in a friend's room on a fateful evening many years ago and, in the way discovering a sound that would stay with you forever. A moment when every preceding decision you've taken seems right.


... of surrender



At a talk in London earlier this year, the avuncular Brian Eno described the notion of 'surrender,' as the opposite of 'control.' Control , according to him, is when our actions are triggered as part of prescribed rules and instructions, mostly passed on from higher, more powerful entities. His definition of surrender was not to do with acceptance of a victor's authority, but the one-ness of one's self and actions with the surrounding. Organically giving in to the environment. If there is one place you could experience a 'moment of surrender' today, it would be at a U2 360 concert. By the time you hear 'moment of surrender' in the final song in the setlist, chances are high that you would have experienced several such moments.


Lights flash past Like memories

A speeding head, a speeding heart



'Intimacy on a grand scale' is what Bono is recently reported to have answered when asked what exactly the band intended to achieve with their enormous new rig. True to their word, the concert experience is intimate, but this is intimacy of a different kind. Though there are 'unofficial' queues to stand closer to the stage or inside the circle that forms the outer stage, intimacy on a grand scale works better when you are farther from the stage. With two massive arrays of speakers on each of the four sides of the stage, the sound will reach you wherever you are. And there is so much more to experience than a close up eyeful of the band while they jam, from taking in the fast-moving imagery on show at the gigantic 360 degree screen to the lights from the top of 'the claw' turning a stadiumful of spectators into one giant mirrorball, that you want to be as far away as possible from the stage.







Get on Your Boots

Having avoided Oxford Street on weekends, bank holidays, and boxing days of late it had been a while since I had seen tens of thousands of people. And what a sight it was, descending the stairs of Wembley Park station to see the stream of humanity ebbing slowly towards the stadium. The path to the stadium from the station had been converted into a U2 fan's dream street from hotdog vendors blaring U2 songs to stalls selling official and unofficial merchandise. Every few steps you would encounter intimidating men with heavily tattooed arms, selling tickets on "face value." Not everyone's job, selling tickets in black.



Ground Control to Major Tom

Commencing countdown, engines on

At first glimpse, the claw can be mistaken to be a space station or a similar object that would belong 'out there.' On close inspection though, it is hard to imagine a home for it. It fits the description of David Bowie's 'Space oddity' well which is the last song played before the band set foot on the stage. A strong link exists between David Bowie and U2 - Brian Eno has been the producer for many of their records.



Breathe!

As if to break the spell the venue and rig cast on the audience, the band invite the crowd to take a breath. Larry Mullen Jr. starts the proceedings on his drums and as Bono follows Adam Clayton and The Edge onto the stage, the audience roars. The Claw is suddenly alive and the screen tunes into the band. Three more songs from the new album followed and by the time the band sang Magnificent, the sun had conveniently set over Northwest London. With the sky too dark to spot any lines on the horizon, the band travelled back in time to perform their earlier hits returning only twice later to perform the more mellow numbers from No Line On The Horizon - Unknown Caller and Moment of Surrender.

Let me in the sound




A possible moment of surrender occurs when you're listening to the band playing songs that they've played, and you've heard, hundreds of times. Some of these can include songs that would always make you go for the skip button. At the concert though, you can't keep yourself from shouting out the lyrics with the rest of the stadium at the top of your voice.



Ambassadors of Cool



If there were a country called Coolistan, U2 would be the ideal choice for its ambassadors. The band's formula has always been cool-ness. Ofcourse there is an element of uncool-ness which adds to the coolness of a product and Messrs Bono & Co. are masters at that. But the packaging of every idea has got to be the stuff that would wow stadiumfuls of fans in western cities. The crazy tonight (remix) shares a place with discotheque and mofo (from the popmart tour) and zoo station and mysterious ways, ala the belly dancer who later became Mrs Edge, (from the zoo tv tour) as the coolest performances the band have presented.


Sorry your cause isn't 'cool' enough
The formula used in packaging ideas as songs is also followed in Bono's choice of causes. Iran, Africa and Burma are amongst the most popular topics in mainstream broadsheets and news channels.


Pic courtesy of flickr user p_a_h
Pic courtesy of flickr user p_c_w

If U2 concerts were your only source of information on foreign affairs', Iran would be the only undemocratic state and Suu Kyi would be the only prisoner in the world. Infact with no other undemocratic regimesl, or conflicts, in the middle east and no Guantanamo Bay the world according to Bono sounds like a much nicer place to be (except for Africa).

I come to a horizon and then I find another



Some songs you understand after you've seen them play live. To me "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" was one such song. As far as you knew what you were looking for, surely you should be able to find it. This was what I had been looking for, I told myself, singing along the first verse of the song with the rest of Wembley stadium at 14th August. This was stuff I wished I had have written in "My Aim in Life" essays at school. But aims, like causes, once fulfilled or achieved, need to be either replaced or replenished (Many U2 fans become ardent followers of the band, following the band in various cities during a tour and over the years). Just as Bono will need to find another Africa, when the continent becomes self-sufficient, this U2 fan needs to find a new aim for the rest of his life.