Four stars
There was a moment early on in U2’s lengthy set when Larry Mullen started the familiar drumbeat of Sunday, Bloody Sunday, followed by the band marching in funereal fashion along the walkway that stretched into the crowd.
It was stark and powerful, displaying a real heart beating underneath this creative arena display.
Although not the stadium spectacular that has become U2’s bread and butter in recent years, they haven’t exactly been cost-cutting.
While the opening was as close to garage band as they’re ever likely to get, with Bono punching the air and leaping around to a no frills quartet highlighted by a snarling I Will Follow, there was still plenty of clever trickery here, mostly involving a giant video wall.
One magnificent segment saw the singer, now sporting a rather dubious dye job on his hair, up on a platform with animated images of his old street washing over him, accompanying the impressive blues thrash of Cedarwood Road.
That was the pick of material from last year’s freebie gone badly wrong, Songs of Innocence, and not all the cuts held up well - Iris sounded uncomfortably like a retreat to past glories, for instance.
The gimmicks didn’t all work, either. A garish bombardment of flashing slogans felt like a car commercial, and while the show never got too self-indulgent, there was the odd groan-worthy comment from Bono, including one about putting hands together for “the heartbeat of innocence”.
Yet for all that they can fair storm through a back catalogue. Elevation was presented in juddering fashion, Where The Streets Have No Name not only spotlighted Mullen’s drumming but seemed more fitting than ever, and Bullet The Blue Sky was mixed with Bono's spoken word defense of his own reputation. It was a pummeling reminder that the band still possess fire few can match.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here