{"id":7462,"date":"2015-07-18T06:18:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T12:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankschaeffer\/?p=7462"},"modified":"2015-07-18T09:01:43","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T15:01:43","slug":"u2-becomes-cirque-du-soleil-meets-george-balanchine-rock-as-a-surgical-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankschaeffer\/2015\/07\/u2-becomes-cirque-du-soleil-meets-george-balanchine-rock-as-a-surgical-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"U2 Becomes Cirque du Soleil Meets George Balanchine Rock as a Surgical Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Last week my granddaughter Amanda (22), and me watched U2 do their stuff in Boston at the TD Garden\u2013 the\u00a0U2 INNOCENCE + EXPERIENCE TOUR<\/a> 2015.<\/p>\n

The music was good (fuck that, perfect) but forget that for the moment. The real story was the production and the energy this old band displayed blowing all conceptions of lazy old rockers resting on their laurels out of the water.\u00a0George Balanchine never produced a better or more precise ballet. This was rock as choreographed surgical strike.<\/p>\n

The music was the easy part. Hitting their marks on a series of catwalks and movable stages, while<\/em> tracking with robotic cameras, while<\/em> playing, while<\/em> (in the case of the drummer) actually carrying a drum kit, while<\/em> climbing stairs, while<\/em> being in the right place and right time for the lights to hit you to show you through<\/em> the screen projecting synchronized video images, while<\/em> relating to the audience in a movable feast of energy that turned every seat in the house into the best seat, while<\/em> remembering a thousand cues, while<\/em> using the entire space of a vast arena, while<\/em> involving audience members in playing and dancing, while<\/em> giving one of them a smart phone to record and broadcast and react to the show live, while<\/em> doing a choreographed encore, replete with preaching on pet causes, while<\/em> having more energy in the show than\u00a0Cirque du Soleil on acid channeling a young Mick Jagger \u2026 proved one thing:<\/p>\n

U2\u00a0has more hunger for art than a twenty-something wanna-be just starting out. I mean who made them work THIS hard?!<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Mission.<\/p>\n

What?<\/p>\n

To prove that rock isn\u2019t bullshit and that rock gods aren\u2019t all lazy pricks.<\/p>\n

Purpose?<\/p>\n

To channel the creative spirit of the universe and a loving creator.<\/p>\n

So what is the show? Proof that U2 cares enough to reinvent the rock show and learn very new tricks.<\/p>\n

The Innocence & Experience show is one long fuck you to meaninglessness.<\/p>\n

It is more ballet than music, more theater than rock, more art show than glam show. It is also the best stage show I\u2019ve seen since watching Peter Sellars\u2019 production of the St. Matthew Passion at the Armory in NYC last year.<\/p>\n

Picture a catwalk the length of the arena, two stages at either end, and<\/em> a suspended SECOND catwalk that is movable<\/em> above that on which huge LED screens show riveting images of everything from family pics to Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n

Sure the designer of this show is in a way more important than the band\u2026 but who hired that person and backed them? The band.<\/p>\n

Yes, the new music\u00a0is autobiography. Yes, that\u2019s self indulgent, but no more so than any biography or memoir. And this is a rock-biography-opera. So the question is is U2 naval-gazing. Of course they are. So is every writer and movie maker.<\/p>\n

All we have is our stories and our lives. All we have is our experiences.<\/p>\n

Sure it gets a little churchy. What do you expect? Bono is still working through the guilt all people feel who believe in a higher purpose they know they (we) can never attain. This band travels in a cloud of evangelical good will, even brings along a chaplain of sorts who I last met at a Christian music festival (Greenbelt) in the UK.<\/p>\n

So what? You got a problem with world peace?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the new U2 show finally about?<\/p>\n

The inherent value of beauty.<\/p>\n

Period.<\/p>\n


Frank\u00a0Schaeffer<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is a writer.\u00a0His latest book \u2014<\/span>WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD:<\/strong>\u00a0How to give love, create beauty and find peace<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Available now on Amazon<\/h2>\n
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Follow Frank on Twitter\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>www.twitter.com\/frank_schaeffer<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0See Frank\u2019s paintings\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>http:\/\/www.frankschaefferart.com\/<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Follow Frank on Facebook<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/frank.schaeffer.16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Contact Frank at<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>http:\/\/www.frankschaeffer.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week my granddaughter Amanda (22), and me watched U2 do their stuff in Boston at the TD Garden\u2013 the\u00a0U2 INNOCENCE + EXPERIENCE TOUR 2015. The music was good (fuck that, perfect) but forget that for the moment. The real story was the production and the energy this old band displayed blowing all conceptions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[680,8,7],"tags":[1414,1008,1410,18,1411,397,1412,1413,872],"class_list":["post-7462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-2","category-politics","category-religion","tag-art-theatre","tag-bono","tag-concert","tag-grandchildren","tag-innocence-and-experience","tag-music","tag-production","tag-rock-and-roll","tag-u2"],"yoast_head":"\nU2 Becomes Cirque du Soleil Meets George Balanchine Rock as a Surgical Strike<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last week my granddaughter Amanda (22), and me watched U2 do their stuff in Boston at the TD Garden-- the\u00a0U2 INNOCENCE + EXPERIENCE TOUR 2015. 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