The greatest show Bono ever witnessed: “The best concert I’ve ever seen”
If there’s one thing that Bono has perfected over his years in the limelight, it’s the art of putting on a great show.
Even though he can get a little too carried away and make the kind of speeches that make him look a little too self-righteous, you can’t deny that he wanted to leave every audience member with a night they were going to remember whenever he started belting out ‘Pride’ or ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’. But even when they were changing their musical styles over the years, nothing could ever be more eye-catching to Bono than someone who was in complete control of their instrument whenever they performed.
After all, it took U2 years before they were able to be comfortable onstage, and even when they were one of the reigning kings of rock, it’s not like they were completely happy with what they were doing. Rattle and Hum made them look like one of the most self-indulgent rock and roll bands that anyone had ever seen, but when they revamped their entire sound on Achtung Baby, you could tell that they were going in a much different direction when they approached the live show.
The ZooTV tour is still one of the most eye-catching experiences that any rock band has ever created, and compared to what every other band was doing, U2’s postmodern irony was a lot more palatable than every other band jumping on the grunge bandwagon. They weren’t afraid to take the piss out of themselves and be a bit more over-the-top, but underneath all the posturing was a band that was more uncomfortable than ever with their place in the world.
Bono had a lot of emotions to unpack on songs like ‘One’ and ‘Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses’, and while he had his moment to learn from legends like Bob Dylan and David Bowie during The Joshua Tree, getting to shake hands with someone like Frank Sinatra was like entering a completely different league. ‘Ol Blue Eyes’ wasn’t too much of a fan of rock and roll, but when you look at the kind of music that U2 was making, it wasn’t hard to see what Bono saw in the vocal legend.
Sinatra had the same kind of macho posture about him, but there was also a kind heart at the bottom of it all whenever he sang some of his ballads. And while Bono could give every member of his audience sensory overload every single time those flashing screens came on during their performances of songs like ‘Until The End of the World’, nothing could ever replace the sound of Sinatra delivering some of the best melodies ever sung by a pop star whenever he strutted onstage.
He held any audience in the palm of his hand whenever he sang, and Bono felt that no one else could have ever come close to him when U2 saw the legend, saying, “We saw Frank Sinatra playing in Las Vegas. It was the best concert I’ve ever seen. We originally went to see Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard. It was about $25,000 a table, but we got in free. He was in great shape and sounded great. In the middle of it he said, ‘We have a band here from Ireland. They’re number one this week,’ and they put a spotlight on us. Then he said, ‘But you didn’t spend a dime on clothes.’ Look at me now Frank!”
But even if the fashion choices weren’t what Sinatra would have picked out, it didn’t matter as long as the music sounded great. Bono wouldn’t have usually been anyone’s first choice to sing along with Sinatra on his version of ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’, but their duet is actually far more compelling than you’d imagine, especially with Bono still being clad in the famous ‘Fly’ glasses, trying his best to look as effortlessly cool as Sinatra does with a glass in his hand.
Not everyone was necessarily going to go out and buy a Sinatra record because Bono liked him, but it was more about what the crooner represented more than anything else. Here was someone that had gone through every single era of pop music that you could imagine, and Bono could only sit back and listen to every single story he had to tell so he didn’t make the same mistakes he did.
