Check Out: U23D
This past weekend I caught a showing of National Geographic’s U23D at an IMAX Theater. To be 
blunt, I was visually floored. My U2 fandom aside, it was an unreal experience that I will never have as a concert goer. Even if I managed to snag first row tickets, I’d never be able to stand behind drummer Larry Mullen Jr., as he pounds the raucous beat to “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, while also rocking back and forth with The Edge on guitar.
It’s really just a personalized concert…
Borrowing from the same 3-D technology that James Cameron’s been twittering about with, directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington, best known for his work on Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”, really capture one of the world’s greatest live bands on film. Shot during their tour through Latin America, the eighty-five minute film is a collection of the band’s better performances.
“Bullet the Blue Sky” is engaging and riveting, even in the cold, clinical-like IMAX amphitheater. Bono ignites a flare, smoke billowing into the audience, and all the while, lights ricochet from every possible angle. It’s the closest thing one can come to an acid trip, without the latter flashbacks down the road at age sixty. “New Year’s Day” is a blushing example of the extremities this band can pull forth, where The Edge slings back his guitar for the far reaching piano fills that envelope the track, while Adam Clayton wipes the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, continuing to pummel the bass guitar. It’s all in your face and several times people (both in and out of the film) were reaching out to grab the Irish rockers.
Even the new tracks off the band’s weaker release, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, shine loud. “Vertigo” is an accessible opener, reeling in fans old and new alike, where even in the theater, there were those swaying back and forth. It’s hard not to clap after each song without feeling like the tool of the audience. “Love and Peace or Else” reworked the band a bit, where Mullen Jr. stepped out into the middle, with us right under his solo snare and high hat, a view no one at the Latin American shows could ever have.
By the end, the audience, behind their neon colored 3D glasses, were applauding and whistling and singing at the top of their lungs. It wasn’t a packed showing, maybe thirty or forty people, but everyone there was moving or shaking (and not from a seizure, either). Whether it was Peter Anderson and Tom Krueger’s excellent cinematography or just the fact that the film is licensed under National Geographic, I don’t know for sure, but U23D is a stellar example of an exciting and opportunistic medium that more bands and artists should take advantage of in the future.
For twelve dollars, I had the best seat in the house… well, we all did.
Check Out:
Its U2… but in 3-D. having only seen half of it i only have half of the footage to go by. Its fun and energetic. I was lucky enough to go to a U2 concert last year and i had an awesome time, but u know what i din’t do? stand next to the edge, this movie lets me think i did…sad realy isn’t it.
Apr 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
[...] Best Rock Movie: U2 3D - Is anyone really surprised? [...]
Jun 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
[...] This is exciting, especially since Sigur Rós just released the marvelous Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, and both artists will be in their native land of Iceland. Oh, it’s also being filmed by National f’n Geographic, which you should know, unless you’ve been living under a rock all your life, they do some impressive visual work. As for concerts, they were responsible for making U2 look exciting again in this year’s U2 3D. [...]