The first time we saw U2 it was 1984 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Obviously, that was a long time ago: pre-Apple commercials, pre-hanging out with politicians, pre-heavy-handed attempts at irony, pre-blues co-opting, pre-rock n’ roll Messiah complex. Hell, it was even before Bono leapt into the crowd at Wembley at Live Aid. It was and still is the best show we’ve ever seen.
We loved U2. We bought everything they sold, put posters up in our room, taped everything they did on TV. We even slept out for tickets when the Joshua Tree tour kicked off.
But it's been a long, bumpy road since then. Over the years, we developed a love/hate thing with the band. We love when they get all soaring and inspirational and give their songs a sense of grandeur and power that no other band has ever come close to matching. We love the way Bono's voice mixed with the Edge's chiming church-bell guitar sound can sometimes make our hair stand on end and gives us the warm fuzzies. And we love the way they can make every single member of the audience at a concert sing along with every word, every lyric, every note.
But we also hate when they try to be something they're not, like an R&B band or a techno dance band. Or how with Bono there's a fine line between charismatic and megalomaniac, deep-thinker and pompous ass. And we hate how they’ll often go on and on about some cause to the point where you just want to scream out "just f------ play, God damnit!"
Since that first show, we find ourselves constantly swearing them off only to find ourselves listening to "Achtung Baby" over and over and over again. So as we went to the Oakland Coliseum to see them Tuesday night, one question laid in front of us: will we see Good U2 or Bad U2?
