U2 in Concert at NRG

Everything old is new again at powerful U2 concert, with an ending surprise

“How long must we sing this song?”

Bono and the members of U2 have been asking that question for a long time — since 1983 when “Sunday Bloody Sunday” debuted as the first song of the band’s third album, War.

In the wake of the terrorist attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester and a correspondingly beefed up security presence around NRG Stadium, the question seemed more relevant than ever. “We’re so sick of it,” Bono shouted over Larry Mullen, Jr’s propulsive drumming and The Edge’s soaring guitar.

But then, everything old is new again for the famous Irish foursome. Bono once said, “There’s no reverse gear on this tank,” but the band’s new tour celebrates the 30th anniversary of their iconic album The Joshua Tree. "New Year’s Day" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" quickly followed Sunday. Then the band began to play the album in sequence: every song from "Where the Streets Have No Name" to "Mothers of the Disappeared."

Highlights included The Edge’s thundering solos on “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “In God’s Country,” Bono’s self-described “shite harmonica play” on “I Trip Through Your Wires,” and Adam Clayton’s classic bass line on “With Or Without You.”

Just as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" feels more relevant than ever, so too do the songs written when conservative leaders in both America (Reagan then, Trump now) and the U.K. (Thatcher then, May now) have reignited debates about whether we should commit to “Carry each other / Carry each other” (yeah, I just album hopped).

While the days of the band dressing up like the Village People and emerging from a gigantic, lemon-shaped mirror ball are long behind — so are the songs from Boy, October, Rattle & Hum, Zooropa, Pop, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, No Line on the Horizon and their most recent work, Songs of Innocence — the stage setup still impresses with both its scale and its simplicity. No pyro, no fancy light shows: just a massive screen, 200 feet long and 45 feet tall, that displayed the band’s performance and a series of short films created by frequent U2 collaborator Anton Corbijn using new footage from places like Death Valley and Zabriskie Point.

The ultra-widescreen and 8k visuals provided a stunning backdrop for the band, at times displaying a dusty road for “Where the Streets Have No Name” or women holding candles during “Mothers of the Disappeared.” The screen also served as a backing band for “Red Hill Mining Town,” courtesy of a Salvation Army brass ensemble that played along with the song.

After U2 reached the end of The Joshua Tree, two songs from the '90s received fresh interpretations. “Miss Sarajevo” from the Passengers album has been renamed “Miss Syria (Sarajevo)” and featured footage filmed at the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, where some 80,000 Syrian refugees currently live, according to information provided by the band. "Ultra Violet (Light My Way)", an Achtung Baby deep cut about the redemptive power of love, has been reinterpreted as a tribute to great feminists throughout history, including Texas icons Laura Bush and Ann Richards.

Speaking of the former first lady, Bono made sure to acknowledge both her and former President George W. Bush’s efforts to support the ONE campaign that made it possible for 18 million HIV/AIDS patients in Africa to receive life-saving medicine.

While it’s strange not to hear hits like “Mysterious Ways” and “Desire,” to say nothing of personal favorites like "Out of Control" and "Stay," the band played enough familiar tunes during the encore — "Bad," "Beautiful Day," "Elevation," and "One" — to ensure that no one left unsatisfied. As expected, the multi-generational crowd ranged from eight to 80 — Lynn Wyatt sat a few rows in front of me — and most people seemed to know all the words to all the songs.

But just in case anyone was feeling too nostalgic, Bono had a surprise. The band closed with a new song titled “The Little Things That Give You Away.”

Maybe they still have a few tricks up their sleeves after all.

Setlist:

Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year’s Day
Pride (In the Name of Love)

The Joshua Tree
Where the Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
With or Without You
Bullet the Blue Sky
Running to Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God’s Country
I Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared

Encore 1:
Miss Syria (Sarajevo)
Bad

Encore 2:
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
One
The Little Things That Give You Away

U2 brought The Joshua Tree to NRG Stadium.

U2 The Joshua Tree 30th anniversary tour

Photo by Danny North

U2 brought The Joshua Tree to NRG Stadium.

concerts

Movie Review

Dakota Fanning-led The Sun Never Sets needs more direction

Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company

Dakota Fanning in The Sun Never Sets.

The movies of writer/director Joe Swanberg have always been an acquired taste, as he prefers to give his actors a loose framework of a story and let them improvise most of their lines to give the films a more natural feel. Sometimes that approach can yield great results, and sometimes — as in The Sun Never Sets — it can result in addled and maddening storytelling.

Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is in her early 30s and at a crossroads in her life. When a friend announces she’s pregnant, she starts to re-evaluate what she wants, including her two-year relationship with the older Jack (Jake Johnson). Although they love each other, their disagreements on having more children and extracurricular activities call their long-term viability into question.

Jack, not wanting Wendy to settle, encourages her to explore her options where they live — Anchorage, Alaska — telling her he’ll be waiting should she strike out. What he doesn’t expect is that Wendy’s ex-boyfriend, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), has returned to the city, giving her an attractive alternative. The three engage in a love triangle that proves frustrating and confusing for both the participants and the viewers.

What works best about the film is its location in Alaska, which rarely gets showcased in movies, and even more rarely in the way it is here. The story takes place in warmer months, and Swanberg gives his characters multiple opportunities to be outside, showing off Anchorage’s harbor, surrounding mountains, and seemingly vibrant city life. The subtle but effective way Swanberg frames various scenes makes the landscape enormously appealing.

It’s too bad, then, that the story never measures up to its surroundings. Too often Fanning, Johnson, Smith, and others seem to be grasping for their next line, unsure of what they want their character to do or say next. That lets their scenes mimic real conversations, but you might not realize how much you want scripted dialogue until you see actors trying to come up with their own in the moment.

The larger issue is that there’s no consistency from scene to scene about where the plot is heading. The characters of Wendy, Jack, and Chuck are extremely wishy-washy about their desires, with each of them vacillating back-and-forth in just how much they want to be with each other. Depending on your experience, this may or may not be true to life, but watching it is excruciating and not enjoyable or romantic in the slightest.

As actors, Fanning, Johnson, and Smith are talented and interesting, with each capable of connecting with viewers in different ways. But working in improvisation is a different beast, and only Johnson — who has worked with Swanberg multiple times — seems truly at home. A few others, like Debby Ryan and Anna Konkle, do well in the format and maybe deserved bigger parts.

Swanberg has proven in the past that his method of filmmaking can be insightful and entertaining, but that is not the case here. In The Sun Never Sets, his hands-off approach is a detriment to the flow of the film and the story as a whole, resulting in an experience that is far from what most viewers will want to go through.

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The Sun Never Sets is now playing in select theaters.

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