“They were sci-fi”: The rock band Bono said were perfect to tour with
Every headlining band has a tricky challenge ahead of them when picking an opener. Although it’s easy to give bands a shot whenever they get in front of those massive crowds, it’s also essential to stay at the top of your game to make sure that the new kids on the block aren’t giving you a run for your money or worse yet show you up at your own arena show. While every U2 show has managed to look like a colossal event every time the Irish legends take to the stage, Bono thought that one of their touring mates could not be beaten.
When looking at where U2 was in the 1980s, though, they didn’t need an opener to fill the seats. From the moment that Bono came onstage during their performance at Live Aid, he was every bit the superstar that he would eventually turn himself into, and even if he spent a third of the show going off script and talking about politics, there was no doubt he believed every word that was coming out of his mouth.
So how the hell was a band of that size and magnitude going to fit in when Kurt Cobain started to tear down the rock pretentiousness that people like Bono epitomised? It was never going to be an easy fit, but Achtung Baby did the best job of making the band look like a post-ironic version of themselves.
Because, really, U2 needed something like that album to stay afloat. They had already talked about the kind of rock and roll that had the power to change the world. Still, they knew that they were rich rock stars, and hearing them talk about the downside of fame and feeling more alone than ever resonated with people who didn’t need to hear yet another lecture about the environment or complain about the state of the world.
And if they were riding the wave of grunge, the band managed to get extra cool points by booking Pixies on their first major tours for the record. Even if rock standards were flipped on their heads, the alternative rock icons were half the reason why Nirvana succeeded in the first place, having the same kind of dynamic motion while still writing radio-friendly hooks.
When talking about that first tour in Surrender, Bono said that he couldn’t have imagined anyone better to work with on that first run of Zoo TV, saying, “Were we out of sync with the cultural spirit of the times, with the raw back-to-basics rock ‘n’ roll of grunge? Yes, we were. We were fans of this new crop of bands, but we enjoyed the friction with some of the bogus ideas of authenticity that surrounded the scene. We asked Pixies to tour with us, and it was a perfect stylistic fit. They were brutish primary-colour rock and roll, but lyrically they were sci-fi.”
And it’s not like the band could have continued on with other bands that were similarly minded, either. As much as they would have liked the opportunity at the time, hearing a band like The Alarm on that tour would have been a disaster, especially since half of their significant songs seemed like a version of The Joshua Tree that everyone would have rather forgotten about by 1992.
But by having Pixies on the tour, U2 reminded everyone that they never stopped listening when they were at the top. They could take their music into stadiums, but they never forgot that they started as an alternative to the mainstream when Boy came out, so it only made sense to return the favour to the next generation.
