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When a band boasts two former Elton John sidemen (drummer Nigel Olsson and guitarist Davey Johnstone), one expects some very '70s-sounding rock. And that's pretty much what happened when, in the early 1990s, they united with singer Billy Trudel, keyboardist Guy Babylon and bassist Bob Birch to form Warpipes. For the most part, Holes In the Heavens isn't as Elton-sounding as one might expect -- instead, the quintet often goes for a slick arena-rock approach that has more in common with Nazareth. This little-known CD isn't earth-shattering, but it does have its strong points, including the rootsy "Son of a Loaded Gun," the invigorating "Satellite City" and the haunting title song. One of the disc's more Elton-ish numbers, "Goodbye Kemosabe," is also one of its best. A few of the songs incorporate Celtic/Scottish influences in a subtle fashion, but one wishes Warpipes had done more of with it. Holes was far from the hit that the small Artful Balance/JCI was hoping for, and many of those who had admired Olsson and Johnstone's work with Elton John weren't even aware of the band's existence. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
MP3 Live: U2 basks in the love
The biggest rock band in the world gives a packed house at Oakland Arena a 24-song romp through one of the best songbooks around, cloaked in a message: We can change the world together.
OAKLAND, California--The messianic emergence was quite a sight to behold.
Amidst a building frenzy of guitar effects, deafeningly loud crowd love, and a hefty barrage of confetti-as-manna from above, U2 front man Bono, sanctimonious but with the resume to back it up, hopped up on the walkway last night at Oakland Arena with outstretched arms, as if bathing himself in affection.
As the Edge assaulted the opening, reverb-laden guitar chords of "City of Blinding Lights," Bono strode from the middle of the oval ramp to the stage from which it extended, displaying the swagger of a man who fronts the biggest and most important rock band alive.
"Can you see the beauty inside of me?" he sang, and the capacity crowd of more than 18,000, having forked over a bundle of cash for tickets, screamed their affirmation.
Playing in front of curtain-like sheets of pulsating bulbs, the band then launched into "Vertigo," the first single off their latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and the song that helped sell millions of iPods as the ad jingle for the most dominant music player on the market.
The set list was nearly identical to every show the band has played on the current leg of the Vertigo 2005 tour, and therein lies the beauty of U2. They don't kill you with surprises. Instead, they give their legions of fans, from the 20-something newbies to the 40-plus crowd waiting to hearken back with "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday," exactly what they came to hear and see.
After a blistering solo from the Edge to conclude "Mysterious Ways," during which Bono brought the proverbial gorgeous woman on stage to prance around the walkway with him, the 45-year-old singer continued the lovefest by telling the crowd, "Thanks for giving us a good life."
"But this band has a restless spirit, and we've still got a lot of work to do," he continued as the band started into "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."
As he sang, "Yes I'm still running," Bono said, "Let's take it to the church, take it to Glide...alright, Cecil," a shout out to the celebrated Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco and its founder, the Reverend Cecil Williams.
At that point, nearly an hour into the show, Bono the world-saver, the one who moves adeptly between rockstardom and fireside chats with Kofi, Tony, and Dubya, had yet to make his case for ending poverty in Africa, a cause that has catapulted him and his band into universal ubiquity.
But as the band moved from "Love and Peace or Else" to "Sunday Bloody Sunday," Bono donned a bandana with the word "Coexist" on it, with the Islamic crescent, Jewish star, and Catholic cross in place of their respective letters.
"Jesus, Jew, Mohammed it's true," Bono chanted, seizing the moment to bring his message to the malleable multitude.
At the conclusion of "Bullet the Blue Sky," he took an American flag that he'd draped over his mic stand and gave it a dramatic hug, dedicating the song to the "brave men and women of the United States military."
At any moment he chose, Bono exhorted the crowd, at his mercy, to take over for him on lead vocals. "This just blows my mind even to see this," he said. "You cannot believe what this feels like."
And then came the pitch.
"Let's have a 21st-century moment, shall we?" he said, commencing the mobile phone LED screen's takeover for the Bic lighter as signifier of concert-as-jubilee.
"Are you out there, Johnny iPod?" he asked, encouraging the crowd to text message their names to join the antipoverty One campaign. He thanked Bay Area rockers Green Day, Metallica drummer Lars Ullrich, cyclist Lance Armstrong, and actors Sean Penn and Robin Williams--all in attendance--for joining the cause.
"We're so much more powerful when we work together as one," Bono preached.
The band then set off on "One," with a verse from "One Tree Hill" tagged on at the end. Through two encores, Bono let the crowd do the heavy vocal lifting on "With or Without You" and "All Because of You."
But on "Yahweh" and "40," the band's adaptation of the 40th Psalm, Bono was at his best, crooning, "How long to sing this song?"
You know those mind-blowingly raw, take-to-the-grave concert moments? The ones that turn melody into a religious experience, leaving you gasping?
U2 doesn't deliver those--they're simply too in the pocket and too polished.
But what they do is combine an unbelievable amount of bravado, the tautness of a band that has been playing together for more than 25 years, and the songbook of the best rock band in the world.
The result is an exceedingly good rock concert, and everyone goes home having gotten exactly what they'd wished for: a sonic jubilee in the arms of the colossus that is U2.
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