October 27, 2005
Bono and Co. will rip through U2's hit-packed catalog next week when the band's Vertigo tour returns to L.A. for two shows
So how do you dismantle an atomic bomb, anyway? According to U2 frontman Bono, the answer is "with love." If so, U2 comes well equipped. The numbers reveal a long-lasting romance between the Irish quartet and its fans for the past 25 years: Since the 1980 release of its debut album "Boy," U2 has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide and has won 14 Grammy Awards -- including a pair for its latest, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2004), which has sold more than 10 million copies.
This year the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and continued its Vertigo world tour, which by the time it wraps in mid-December will have played to more than 3.3 million people. The tour returns to SoCal for shows Tuesday and Wednesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The shows are sold out at the moment, but additional tickets are often released on Ticketmaster in the days leading up to the show. Tickets also may be available at the box office on the day of the show.
Though U2 certainly has laurels comfortable enough to rest on, U2 guitarist The Edge -- real name David Evans -- says that, even with its "elder statesman" status, the band still thrives on taking chances with its music and live performances, even if there's a risk of failure.
"In some ways that sense of jeopardy is a good
thing," says the 44-year-old guitarist, who founded U2 in 1978 with Dublin school friends Bono -- originally named Paul Hewson -- bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. "I would hate if we ever lost the great ability to screw up.
"I think it's an important part of what the band is," The Edge continues. "We've never fallen afoul of the risks of becoming too professional or, indeed, over-rehearsing. Those are two things we've managed to avoid up 'til now.
"I joke about it," he says, "but in some ways I actually do think it keeps us really fresh. When it becomes too easy, I think it just sounds that way, and that easy thing is just so unappealing."
U2 rarely has taken the easy route, however, even at the risk of alienating its fans. After a decade of winning fame, fortune and Time magazine covers with its anthemic, guitar-led sound, the band revealed a darker, more textured style in "Achtung Baby" (1991) and still managed to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
More experiments followed. U2 incorporated electronic soundscapes on "Zooropa" (1993) and "Pop" (1997) as well as in "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," the band's contribution to the soundtrack for "Batman Forever" (1995), as well as Clayton and Mullen's recreation of the "Mission: Impossible" theme for the 1996 film. The group also worked with producer Brian Eno in a side project called Passengers, whose mostly instrumental album "Original Soundtracks I" (1995) featured "Miss Sarajevo," a duet between Bono and opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti.
Fan reaction to these endeavors was sometimes mixed, but U2 came through them with its integrity intact, if not enhanced.
"Of all the bands that we loved as kids, they're the only ones still going and still going great," Coldplay frontman Chris Martin says in a separate interview. "They're a towering presence, and to us they represent kind of a peak."
"All That You Can't Leave Behind" (2000) was greeted as something of a return to form, though it managed to mix some of those 1990s sonic adventures into the "classic" U2 sound. "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" follows suit, ranging from harder-rocking fare such as "Vertigo" and "All Because of You" to airy, ethereal tracks such as "Yaweh" and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own."
The Edge, who calls "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" "our most consistent record ever," says that U2has found a comfort zone in interweaving its varied musical threads.
"We're not prejudiced against our own past," he says. "As long as something has real vitality and the power to connect, then we're open to it. But there's a lot of things that we come up with that we reject on the basis that they are a little too much of a pastiche or too reminiscent of something that doesn't feel really worth going on with.
"But those decisions are made very early on," The Edge says. "Almost within the first few minutes of an idea, we've either decided it's got merit or we decide to move on. So it's not like we finish loads of songs and try to figure out which ones we think are worthy. It's actually in the process of writing them that we get to that decision."
The Edge, Clayton and Mullen actually worked on a good chunk of "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" without Bono, who was busy lobbying politicians and world leaders for his Nobel Peace Prize-nominated antipoverty campaign.
"Some of the time we didn't even know where he was going," the guitarist recalls with a laugh. "Occasionally you'd find out after the event -- 'Oh my God, did you see Bono on CNN?' or whatever."
But Bono's absence was not really a problem, he hastens to add.
"Our job as the band is to really inspire the singer," The Edge says. "That's kind of the way we've always worked. So we worked up the music to the point where we could give him something to really go off with."
Besides, he adds, the rest of U2 supports the work Bono has been doing outside the studio.
"We're fine with that," says The Edge, who still laughs about having met conservative former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R.-S.C., at a U2 concert in Washington. "We think that it's something that's really important, and the small downside that comes with it, whether he's misinterpreted or not taken seriously or whatever, is far outweighed in every respect by the positives that come with it."
U2 has managed to keep its own profile high -- and continued its penchant for risk-taking -- via the ongoing Vertigo tour. Changing its set list every night, the group has dipped deep into its past for rarely performed early songs such as "The Electric Co." (1980), "The Ocean" (1980) and "Into the Heart" (1980). It's also fashioned acoustic arrangements of some of its songs to bring a homey touch to its high-tech, arena-sized shows.
"We're working on the element of scale," The Edge says. "The arenas give us the space to do extraordinary things with production, but it's also nice sometimes to kind of bring it back and try and establish a feeling of intimacy as well."
He's also pleased that Clayton and Mullen have become more active as performers, venturing out onto the circular ramp that brings the musicians closer to the crowd. The drummer even plays piano on "Yaweh."
"I think it's just challenging yourself and doing something that's appropriate to this particular tour and the songs we're singing," The Edge says. "What's great is the sense that, after so many tours and so many albums, you can still be surprised by the other members of the band and the things they do. That's a great feeling."
U2's live show will be documented on two DVDs -- "Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago," which will come out Nov. 15, and a set from the London Live 8 concert in July, which will feature U2's set and also its performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with Paul McCartney, which opened the show.
Tour plans for 2006 are still up in the air, but The Edge says that, after nine months on the road, he's more interested in getting back to the studio for U2's next album.
"I would hope it'll be sooner rather than later," he says. "I'm trying to work up some new ideas, some of which are starting to sound pretty interesting -- nothing I can really explain, but I'm quite excited about some new innovations I'm working on.
"We'll just have to take it to the band now and see what sticks."
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