Producer: Gavin Taylor Location: Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver Colorado Release Date:June 1983
Review
The Setting
Recorded in Red Rocks Ampitheater, a medium-sized outdoor stage carved into
the mountains just outside Denver, this video documents U2 in their early
years, just after they began to gain popularity in the US with the realease
of their 1983 album, War.
The filming of this concert was almost ruined by a rainy day at Red Rocks.
The entire concert was a very wet and steamy affair: wet fans, wet
cameras, wet band members. It makes for a very atypical concert video.
The Band
The whole band is in typical 80's garb. Bono is wearing tight black jeans
(the screaming female fans in the front rows seem to approve) and a pair of
leather boots. Larry, true to form, is dressed conservatively and looks very
much like the Larry of the 90's. Adam, whose look changes even more often
than Bono's, plays the role of the nondescript bass player. Edge sports what
I think is one of his best looks: a red and black plaid sleeveless vest, a
white t-shirt, and no hat! And let's not forget that black fender
stratocaster with a black pick-guard and a maple neck and finger-board.
The shot from Larry's perspective Edge playing to a seething mass of wet fans
is just classic.
Who Will Like It?
Unless you're familiar with the songs or you're a U2 fan looking to learn
what U2 was like in the early 80's, you may be disappointed that there are
no special effects or explosions a la ZooTV. It's just four guys playing
music. Of course, as most any diehard U2 fan will agree, that's plenty
when those four guys are Bono, Edge, Larry, and Adam.
Edge plays slide-guitar on this one (showing the Americans that it's not
just a country music instrument). The band takes a complex studio song
and does a good job of bringing it to the stage. It loses a little
something due to the lack of looped backing effects and such, but all
in all it's a good performance.
Yes, it's true. Edge does indeed sing this one...at least in the beginning.
Bono takes over after the first verse or so. On the album, Edge's voice
sounds almost exactly like Bono's, so it's difficult to tell if he hands
off the song on the Album. I think Bono takes over in concert only because
he'd have nothing to do if Edge sang the whole song!
A classic rendition of a classic song, U2 rips this one out with the white
flag flying high (with the help of some over-enthusiastic audience members who
Bono has to repeatededly remind not to wave the flag). And of course, Bono
devotes some time to his standard political mid-song speech. The audience
loves it.
The echo-box on Edge's guitar is in full effect for this one. But it pales
in comparison to the studio version, in my opinion. Apparently U2 had not
yet perfected the art of making guitar-effects sound good in live settings.
Otherwise known as "the number where they introduce the band." For obvious
reasons, they no longer do this. To my ear, live performances of Gloria
seem slower than the studio track on October, and this one is no exception.
The performance of this song is so good that it makes me wonder if it wasn't
touched up in post-production! Edge is absolutely scorching on guitar. Of
course, I'm probably biased. This is one of my personal favorite early U2
songs.
Edge on bass!??! That's right. Apparently Adam couldn't hack it at this
stage in the game. Instead, he picks up Edge's guitar and makes funny noises.
This song was U2's traditional closing number right up through the Joshua Tree
tour. The tradition of the audience singing after the bad has left the stage
is "subtly" encouraged by a young Bono.
Buy this video
