Miffed because you missed that recent outstanding rock-out by Joan Armatrading? Been a bit boned because you weren’t there to hear how hot The Ventures were? Well, your friends who were at Headliners last Monday are probably going to tell you that you really blew it if you didn’t catch the absolutely devastating return of U2.
And if they haven’t, consider yourself told.
The young Irish quartet (a pair at 22 and a pair still a year shy), took only three songs to capture the well-attended house. From that point on it was sheer rock magic and the spell was simply unbreakable.
U2 is not an easy band to describe to anyone who has never heard them. Two sterling opportunities do exist on vinyl, however. LP one Boy and LP two October are the brilliant works of drummer Larry Mullen, bassist Adam Clayton, vocalist Bono Hewson, and guitarist ”The Edge” Evans. If one must grasp for frames of reference, imagine the Police meet Pink Floyd, add the aggressive energy of The Ramones, back it with a gargantuan drum sound and top it all off with clear, passionate vocals.
I’m still stunned. And I was pretty much in a daze after two solid weeks of wearing the grooves off the records. Live, U2 was breathtaking. If you don’t think there’s anything fresh and exciting coming along, U2 is your salvation.
The Edge and I talked over coffee, but the whole U2 story won’t fit in this small space. So my stream of consciousness and a few of his quotes will serve as an attempt to fill you in.
U2 has been a band for just short of five years. Only Clayton had been in a band previously. The Edge listed Bowie, Brian Eno and Tom Verlaine as major influences on his style. ”But Verlaine’s influence was not so much musical as one of attitude toward music. Here was a guy who had totally thrown away the musical rulebook and was starting again, it seems. I could see that you didn’t have to be forced into a standard mold. When we started playing, we began questioning every rule we came up against. We tried to find out if it was breakable.”
Although the U2 sound isn’t bouncy in the pop music sense, they are not an overly serious band. ”We may start to write pop music, but right now, that’s certainly not the case. I think that lyrically we’re very hopeful and optimistic. The music and the lyrics sort of work as a foil to one another. It’s an angry, aggressive sound, but I don’t think it’s bitter. We’re not particularly cynical or sarcastic about things.”
At present, U2 is still relatively unknown amongst rock listeners who take their cues from commercial radio and fanzines. However, that scenario is going to change as quickly as last weekend’s thaw turned into this week’s snow even if I have to boost my stereo system by 10,000 watts and start broadcasting from my basement.
© Wisconsin State Journal, 1982.