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I like U2 about as much

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geoff3
Nov 22 2006
01:33 pm

Hi Norbert,

Well I quickly flicked through the article mentioned, comparing REM with U2 and was amazed that REM was identified as a Rock Band. I suppose if you want to slap U2 on the ass you could do it with whichever band you liked the most and say, well U2 don’t do this or that like my all-time-favourite-band. For me the comparison is such a false way to validate ones own taste or opinion, but hey that’s not new to this topic is it?

For me it is like comparing the visceral with the intellectual, but it shouldn’t be in preferring one to the other. I suppose I see the difference between the 2 bands in this way. I’ve ‘followed’ U2 since the days they were performing at UK nightclubs. (The first time I saw them was in Newcastle, post ‘Boy’ and just pre ‘October’). I saw them last year in London in front of 70,000 people and I have to say that it was the best ‘church’ I’ve been to. It suddenly clicked that the songs are written for that live performance, the choruses being a kind of Psalmic response mode, where the congregation is lifted into a rousing, heartfelt and heart-pounding response to Saint Bono of Vox’s vocal part in the verse.

To then rail on the boys for not being as gifted as this or that guitarist, or whatever, misses the point entirely, it’s the communal thing that counts, both as a band and in the performance with the audience/congregation. I saw them walking behind the stage, as calm as anything and to see the Edge’s face when he saw the crowd rise to the first riff of the first song was so humbling, even inspiring. You could tell that that was what they lived for as a band!!

So, I think we need a little more honesty on these hallowed pages and instead of trying to spiritually or intellectually justify our opinions we have to be humble enough to say, hey it’s a taste thing. Over to you Norbert!

Peace,