Will U2′s Claw Awe America?

Whether a technological cathedral of twenty-first century community or an environmentally wasteful machine of rock-star arrogance (or both!), U2′s massive “claw,” making its North American debut this Saturday at Chicago’s Soldier Field, has been a topic of pop culture speculation, adoration, and condemnation.

Beyond the questions of where to sleep and where to eat while skipping work or school to trek around the continent this September and October, many of U2′s American faithful are asking if the football stadium is the best venue in which to see their favorite band. With my best U2 experiences to date occurring in arenas, I count myself among the core who are cautiously optimistic and anxious with anticipation about seeing the stadium tour this fall.

During the 2001 and 2005 Elevation and Vertigo circuits respectively, the band stuck to the basketball and hockey arenas that they’ve been transforming into crowded barrooms, storefront churches, or your poster-covered bedrooms since the second leg of the Unforgettable Fire tour in spring 1985.

At my first U2 concert at Detroit’s Fox Theatre in December 1984, I’m rather certain the fan enthusiasm almost broke the building. During tracks like “Pride” or “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” the balcony seats throbbed with throes of dancing kids, the vibrations threatening to collapse the vintage structure. By the first leg of the Joshua Tree tour in early 1987, the arena gigs exuded an intense excitement and ecstatic intimacy.

By summer 1987, though, the shows moved to stadiums, and my first taste of that epic leap at the Pontiac Silverdome north of Detroit was far from my most pleasant U2 experience to date. Put plainly, I felt like my favorite band was lost in the room, and that show marked a transition for me from serious to casual fandom that lasted until the release of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb in late 2004—with my longest lapse in seeing U2 live lasting from 1992 to 2001.

Today, with my fandom fully revived and my love of the new album running deep, I’m excited about giving stadiums another chance. I’ve seen and heard such mesmerizing performance and unifying sweetness in the YouTube videos and fan recordings from the first leg of the European tour. When Bono can pause and let the entire choir of thousands sing the song for him as he’s done on “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” a magical chemistry exists that might not be possible indoors or in smaller rooms.

But as the band mixes in its activism and spirituality, the rock concert as rally and revival could be redemptive or creepy, depending on your perspective. Since I’m not nearly as cynical about the sheer pretensions of the tour as others outside the U2 fan community, I remain entirely open to the possibilities for reaching magnificent plateaus, beyond any lines on any horizon, in my moment of surrender to the sheer spectacle of it all.

That said, my greatest fear about the four stadium shows I’ll see on this tour is whether or not the experience will “let me in the sound.” All in all, I think I can deal with whatever drawbacks that the sheer size of this thing might bring as long I can hear clearly and loudly the four men from Dublin doing what they do best. While I’m pretty confident that the enormous sparkling spaceship of a set will look great from the cheap seats, I remain terrified of not being able to absorb the sonic experience in my ears and body to the degree that I desire.

When we took a poll of the fans on Inteference, we discovered similarly mixed feelings concerning an arena’s tender intimacy versus a stadium’s mass unity. But if the hardcore fans were to have the final say, it looks like arenas remain the devoted fans’ venue of choice by a decisive margin.

A sample of the comments associated with the poll reveal strong preferences for both platforms, modulated by an even stronger willingness to see U2 anywhere, any place, any time.

“I don’t care where they play as long as they play, and I am there,” writes one fan.

According to some, the best part of stadium shows is that tickets are easier to score, so we can all go. “It’s all about the roar,” and “80,000 fans screaming the lyrics is way better than 25,000,” conclude others supporting stadiums.

An editor of another U2 fansite and a regular poster on Interference argues that there’s “No contest: the smaller the venue, the better.” A fan who goes “to hear the songs” and does not “care about the spectacle” will inevitably be happier in an arena.

Other proponents of arenas are quick to mention the “climate control” as an incontrovertible advantage. With U2 coming here as the season shifts, chances of cold and rain are inevitable. While the rain poncho may not be the most fashionable concert attire, if it worked at Red Rocks in 1983, it could necessarily work for us in fall 2009.

Will the claw distill awe in America? Let’s stay tuned and find out this weekend when the editorial staff and fan writers of Interference will be there to tell you all about it. You can follow us throughout the weekend as we “tweet” our Chicago experience, and if you check the forums and the homepage, you can see the reviews, photos, and other updates as they become availbale.

–Andrew William Smith, Editor