U2 at the U of M announcement expected Monday

Monday could be the day when Twin Cities U2 fans finally find what they've been looking for — a local date for the band's massive 360° Tour.
The official announcement of a June 27 stop at the new TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis is expected to happen Monday, capping off weeks of fan speculation and news reports/rumors about when, where and how U2's stadium tour would visit Minnesota. Initially, July 1 was bandied around as the possible date — the band has announced regional shows in East Lansing, Mich., on June 30 and Chicago on July 6.
The tour has already hit numerous European destinations and wrapped up its first run of North American dates last month, grossing more than $311 million in the process. The New York Times described the massive in-the-round stage as "a claw-like, spired structure that's part insect, part spacecraft, part cathedral."
Tickets for the Chicago date range in price from $250 to $30. Paid subscribers to the band's Web site, U2.com, have the opportunity to buy tickets before they go on sale to the general public.
- Ross Raihala

Latest On The U2 Spider-Man Musical

Here's the latest on "Spider Man, Turn Off The Dark", the musical featuring music from U2's Bono and The Edge. The gig has added a new lead and second producer and full financing is "expected to be in place shortly". Once this happens the show will resume full production. The show will open in 2010 at the Hilton Theatre in New York .The show has also have selected Reeve Carney, the lead singer of Carney, to play the role of Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. Carney joins previously announced cast members Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker's girlfriend and Alan Cumming as Norman Osborn (aka Green Goblin).Pre sale tickets for the show are on sale now via Ticketmaster.

U2 at New Meadowlands, On Sale Today

So far, U2’s 360° Tour has played to 3 million fans in 44 cities – but are they ready to throw in the towel? Hell, no! There are still millions who remain to untouched by the second coming of Bono!
So in case you missed their Giants Stadium gig (one of the last at the venue, before Broooce closed the joint), you’ll have a chance to catch the tour on July 19, 2010 at Jersey’s still-in-progress New Meadowlands (which Bon Jovi will inaugurate in May). The bells and whistles for this tour are heavy duty, by the way. Quoth the press release:
"With a cylindrical video system of interlocking LED panels, and a steel structure rising 150 feet from the floor over a massive stage with rotating bridges, the band has truly created an intimate 360 experience for concert goers. In keeping with the concept that this tour is more about a unique staging configuration with excellent sight lines, tickets for the U2 360 2010 tour will once again be scaled so that 85 percent of the tickets are priced at less than $95.00, general admission floor tickets at $55.00 and at least 10,000 tickets per venue priced at $30.00. "
Subscribers to U2.com get a crack at tickets today, with the general on-sale date TBA.

Fall of Berlin Wall, Free U2 Concert Commemorates

MTV Europen Music Awards Just one of the big acts slated for the on Nov. 5, U2 will play a free concert in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Four days the gig will take place before the milestone’s 20th Anniversary celebration, which looks back on the wipeout of the barrier that stood as the Cold War’s icon, cutting the city in two.
Other artists to perform at the EMA’s include Jay-Z, Green Day, Robbie Williams, Tokio Hotel, Leona Lewis, Foo Fighters and Shakira, reports Billboard.biz.
“It’ll be an exciting spot to be in, 20 years almost to the day since the wall came down — should be fun,” said U2’s manager Paul McGuinness.
Bono & Co. will be in the race for best rock band at the EMA’s.

Tour At the Rose Bowl to U2 360

The U.S. leg to U2 closed of their massive 360° Tour in front of a record crowd last night, and the experience was nothing short of an extravagant spectacle. 96,000 people descended on the beautiful little town of Pasadena on Sunday, obliterating the 20,000 parking spaces by morning and causing the major transit lines to run overtime. I had refused to believe there was an actual subway in Los Angeles until I was riding it out of the station with the fan masses, but it's very real, and was very packed with Bono disciples yesterday.
The gates of the Rose Bowl opened nearly an hour after the listed 5 p.m. doors time, which led to desperate bottlenecking that would've turned massively fatal at the drop of a hat, had someone screamed "fire" or "bomb" or "Fergie pissed her pants onstage again!" Openers Black Eyed Peas brought their anthemics up to stadium level in pro fashion, recruiting special guest Slash to play "Sweet Child O' Mine" to the squealing delight of the crowd. The former Gunner wasn't the only famous face at the bowl, however; other stars in attendance included Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor, Paris Hilton, J.J. Abrams, Chris O'Donnell, Cindy Crawford and Michael Bay.

Of course, the biggest spectacle - what apparently justifies spending in excess of $300 million without turning a dime of profit - is the Claw, a giant, spider-like contraption that stands 170 feet tall, looks like a giant spaceship and is completely distracting as a stage prop. It's neat to look at, but when one considers that they've played to 3 million fans and are still in the hole, it begs the question: what's the point? Is the goal to cram as many people as they can into arenas? If so, U2 certainly succeeded.

But what about the music? Aside from the fact that the set was unreasonably heavy on newer material, I was four rows from the floor, and for all the hype about rotating platforms and "intimate" experiences courtesy of the Claw, I've had more intimate music moments watching YouTube. In fact, the show was broadcast on YouTube (and filmed for a future DVD as well), and those at their computers likely had far better a concertgoing encounter than anyone in the stadium that wasn't on the general-admission floor. Sure, the spectacle and energy of the staggeringly massive Rose Bowl crowd doesn't translate through a computer screen, but the songs didn't hit nearly as hard as they could've - for the simple fact that it seemed they (particularly Bono) were playing up more to the cameras than to the audience itself.

U2 felt like a company. They didn't strike me as a band trying to reach an emotional apex with their audience. Is this the price of a band constantly trying to outdo their own gimmicks? Is it truly better for millions of people to share an experience if that very experience is diminished by the grandiosity of it? The answer is no, and for all their noble efforts and seasoned showmanship, U2 just didn't pull it off.

All the same, the night was still full of beautiful moments. The snippet of Beethoven’s Ninth as the intro to “Get On Your Boots” was gorgeous, and a few lines from Daniel Lanois’ “The Maker” at the end of “Beautiful Day,” was memorable as well. The “Amazing Grace” lead-in to the deafening singalong “Where the Streets Have No Name,” as well as the uber-anthem "Sunday Bloody Sunday" didn't suffer from the grandiosity, but the general sense of spectatorship felt more like a football game than a concert. And in a climate where corporate generics are ripping the human experience out of life at every turn, what we need is intimate heart. You may still be able to find it on a U2 album, but certainly not beside 96,000 other fans, under a giant Claw.

U2 pays tribute to Boyzone singer at U.S. concerts

U2 consecrated part of their latest concerts to Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, who tragically passed away on October 10.
On their stops in Houston and Dallas on their 360 Tour, the Irish rock band paid tribute to the singer, dedicating “Unforgettable Fire” to his memory.
Bono shared with the crowds that the 33 year old Irish boyband star was “a beautiful spirit and a bright flame.”
Gately and the rest of the members of Boyzone famously appeared in U2’s 1998 video for “Sweetest Thing,” in which Bono says sorry to his wife by bringing in the boyband to serenade her.
The video also features cameos by Riverdance and former Irish world boxing champion Steve Collins.

U2 concert at Cowboys Stadium

At the DMN music blog the good folks have scheduled a chat for Tuesday afternoon to rehash U2 concert Monday night's. They'll be going over particular of the previous night's gig and how Cowboys Stadium is working as a concert venue. Start gathering your questions and opinions. I'll join in too as the resident stadium apparencer as well as someone who will be in the seating bowl tonight (the first time as spectator instead of as a journalist).

A video game wants U2

Rock icons U2 are desperate to follow in the footsteps of The Beatles and Metallica and land their own video game.

Bassist Adam Clayton admits he and his bandmates are impressed with the currently released The Beatles: Rock Band which allows fans to play along to the Fab Four's wonderest hits and they want a piece of the action themselves.
Clayton tells USA Today, "We definitely would like to be in there. I love the idea that that's where people are getting music, and we'd love to be in that world. We'll figure something out. What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we're interested in."

U2 want to follow Beatles by having 'Rock Band' game

U2 may follow in The Beatles' footsteps by having their own edition of the 'Rock Band' video game released, despite initial discussions with the game's makers breaking down.

Bono and co had talks last year with the makers of the game, MTV Games and Electronic Arts, but a deal wasn't agreed because of what bassist Adam Clayton called "compromises" they wouldn't agree to.

Now, since the release of 'The Beatles: Rock Band', Clayton has told USA Today that the U2 game could still be on the way.

"We definitely would like to be in there," he said. "But we felt some of the compromises weren't what we wanted. That could change. I love the idea that that's where people are getting music and we'd love to be in that world. We'll figure something out."

The bassist confirmed that it was seeing The Beatles' game that renewed his enthusiasm for a possible U2 version.

"What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we’re interested in, rather than the one-size-fits-all animation," he said. "We didn't want to be caricatured."

U2's new album: 'We believe in the songs'

U2's 360° Tour is selling out globally, but no lines formed for No Line on the Horizon, an album that has sold 1 million copies in seven months -- shy of the tally that 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb racked up in two weeks.

"We didn't have a hit," Bono says. " 'Get On Your Boots' is going over better and better live, but that spongy funky sound didn't connect with rock radio. If your first single doesn't go off, it can knock the momentum. We believe in the songs and we want people to have them in their hearts and their iPods.

"Missing 2008's fourth quarter hurt sales, which in an era of rampant piracy no longer reflect the music's reach.

"You don't know how far the music travels," says bassist Adam Clayton. "The new songs get a great reaction live. Nobody's yawning or groaning. Releasing it outside that last quarter made it more uphill. Other factors skew the numbers. The record business is collapsing, and radio and the media.

"What's beyond Horizon? A trio of albums, starting with the ambient Songs of Ascent, containing surplus material from Horizon sessions. It may include the buzzed-about "Every Breaking Wave."

"It's a very intimate affair," Bono says. "They are beautiful love songs, where the object of love is not always obvious."

The band also wants to finish its shelved rock album with producer Rick Rubin, and Bono and Edge are wrapping up songs for the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark musical."

That's a monster album, a wild ride with very big songs," says Bono, who hopes the pair's project will evolve into a U2 album with special guests. "Edge and I knew it had to be dramatic, melodic and character-based. We'd just dream up the maddest stuff. Spider-Man may be the funnest project I've ever been involved with. Never a dull day, never a dark day until a few weeks ago when we woke up to the news that the production company had run out of cash."

Bono asked Canadian promoter Michael Cohl to help get the project on track. Spidey may be delayed but won't be derailed, he says.

Release dates are indefinite.

"The Spider-Man collection is the most developed but the least appropriate to the band," Edge says. "We've got so much material at different stages of completion, it's going to be a nice problem when we've got a few weeks to look at it."