U2 goes sci-fi?

The world-famous Irish rock tetrad U2 have already embarked on their 360° Tour—supporting their latest album, No Line On the Horizon—and are bringing with them their very own flying saucer. Nicknamed “the Claw,” the elaborate staging is deliberately meant to resemble a “spaceship-on-four-legs,” quite like the Theme Building at the Los Angeles International Airport.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, the U2 mothership landed in Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands for the New York and New Jersey crowd, poised above the thousands like a War of the Worlds invader—with Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullens Jr. as its emissaries.

The concert began when David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” rolled out from massive speakers as smoke issued from the monolithic set: a countdown to lift off?  All right, so the Claw didn't go anywhere, but that didn't diminish the energy of the remarkable concert.

Throughout the set list, other moments reinforced the sci-fi vibe. A disembodied robotic voice (Soundwave from the original Transformers?) segued “Where the Streets Have No Name” into “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” with near-incoherent poetry during the encore set. Green, red, and violet disco-style lights rotate across the video display before revealing Bono in his “laser jacket,” who grasped and sang through a red-glowing “steering wheel” microphone which reminded me of the computerized autopilot (Auto) from Wall-e.

Of course, this isn’t the first time U2 has channeled sci-fi, or produced music for the same theme.

The 1992–1993 Zoo TV phase of their career included the theme of technology (“Vorsprung durch Technik”)—from cameras to satellites, while the spaceman logo adorning the Zooropa album cover was a recurring image.

Other genre moments include:

• U2 wrote and recorded “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” for the 1995 film Batman Forever, and the video itself featured clips from the movie and the animated depiction of the band playing in Gotham city. The video depicts two of Bono’s stage personas opposing one another as he’s transformed, Batman-style, from one to the other: A halo is wrangled into a pair of dark shades for The Fly, while Bono is transformed from rock star into the villainous Mr. MacPhisto, a yellow-clad, red-horned devil, after he’s struck by a car while reading from C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters.

• The "Elevation" video featured Lara Croft of the popular Tomb Raider game franchise, saving U2 from an evil version of the band. Lara was also part of the Popmart tour video intro.

• The Edge wrote the theme music for the 2004 and 2005 seasons of The Batman cartoon.

• The A Clockwork Orange-inspired track "Alex Descends Into Hell For A Bottle of Milk" was included in the 1995 Johnny Mnemonic soundtrack.

• Larry Mullens Jr. and Adam Clayton wrote and recorded the updated Mission: Impossible theme for the 1996 remake.

• Outside of the band itself, Bono and the Edge are scoring music for the upcoming debut of a Spider-Man musical. Strange but true!

It's all a bit of a stretch, of course. U2 isn't really a "science fiction band," and we're not likely to see Adam Clayton writing any speculative fiction screenplays or fantasy novels by Larry Mullens Jr. (although that would be exceptionally cool). But when their music stands side by side with superhero montages or technology-based movies, we're not surprised. It's a good fit: rock glitz, big budgets, Bono's crooning, and The Edge's signature guitar riffs. 

 Here is a brief clip from the Sept. 23rd show: 

For more info:  U2.com ....or our very own U2 Examiner, Jill Marino.

There are also many YouTube videos of the U2 360° Tour. Check them out!