02:15
16 August, 1992

Washington, DC

Achtung Baby!

TimeIt wasn't exactly U2's famous, filmed, Colorado Red-Rocks-in-the-rain concert, but it was close enough for government work. And it was raining.

Rest assured: this wasn't your typical August night in the USA's national city. Temperatures were in the high 50s. It rained. It misted. It drizzled. And then it rained some more. Some found it rather reminiscent of that other D.C. - Dublin City. And on this August night, 50,000 or so Washingtonians were won-over by four Dublin lads who sang them right through the storm.

We don't even need to mention the gargantuan, technological godzilla that the boys brought along with them. Never mind the several-story, stadium-high, arena-screen-TVs continually scream-flashing subliminally-saturating, politically-correct, split-second-mini-messages in between the newsreels, the Elvis videos, the random samplings from a live satellite dish, and the other assorted arty film stuff.

Never mind the two Times Square news tickers and the fourteen East German autos converted into spotlights and suspended above various parts of the stadium on rollicking mobile cranes.

Never mind all that stuff. It's just a prop. The lads've been makin' so much dough lately, they just wanted to see how far they could go with this silly rock-star stuff.

The phrase over-the-top comes to mind.

LeZooAnd undoubtedly that phrase was in the minds of these four fellows when they were first thinking this whole Zoo-TV shenanigan up. (In the midst of Berlin during the spring of '90.) Zoo-TV works though, because in spite of their political crusader image, these guys have a sense of humor. They know it's mostly for fun. You know . . . it's only rock-n-roll.

Or is it? They say the pen is mightier than the sword. And the Berlin Wall didn't fall to tanks did it? It fell to . . . ideas, right? Ideas like: The Shopping Network? Ideas like America's "religious" prey-TV?

Well there's lots of ideas in The West, and in the information age, freedom can be a little confusing, you see.

But it's U2's earnest fervor that I paid to experience. Their appeal is to the heart, more than to the mind, and they can fill stadiums without resorting to technological spectacles. Their music is passionate and melodious, and the crowds sing along. Old Beatles' songs, Elvis tunes, U2's own soaring anthems - whatever strikes singer Bono's fancy. Even some 70's disco (nobody knew those words though). The entire stadium joined in on the band's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - in a drenching downpour with U2 abandoning their techno-platform and wading into the crowd with congas and acoustic guitars. Just like some wandering Irish minstrels - the same stock that spread Christianity throughout rural Europe during the Middle Ages - now outfitted with 20th century techno-media.

The Zoo-TV Show is U2's expository celebration of our late 20th century cyber-communicative-techno-computer frontiers. It's a cultural fun-house-mirror with musical accompaniment. U2The phrase "Watch More TV" flashed across the big screens more than a few times last night, often bringing laughs from the crowd. But really, what choice do we have? Does anyone think we'll be turning technology off anytime soon? Not until Armageddon we won't. And U2 says just relax and understand it. We can't put the genie back in the bottle, but we can sure as heck ride it.

Like the pipeline on Oahu's North Shore.

Text © 1992, Bill Frick (All Rights Reserved)

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