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| Photo:Santiago Hafford |
The magic car convoy that departed in procession this time to the Gothic cathedral that U2 built in La Plata populated kilometres of the highway that joined Buenos Aires to the city of diagonals (La Plata) and the trip (normally 50 or 60´long) took more than two hours. The congregation attended by thousands the technological rock mass since very early.
Apart from, of course, the die hard fans who had been camping outside the stadium for several days.
It was 5 years since the last time the Irish band played in Argentina, and the expectations of their new 360º tour was as big as t the superstructure that they brought to Estadio Unico _ a massive structurre with something of sophisticated cathedral where Bono would be the preacher and evangeliser of his pop religion.
The stadium surroundings were also moved by the presence of the Irish. A hoard of street vendors opened their “occasional shops” with improvised barbecues to receive the visitors.
Almost an hour before the show started, the stadium capacity was covered in a 70%. Invariably the people who were arriving stayed several minutes watching and taking photos of the incredible spider-shaped structure as background (a souvenir that most of them upload immediately to any social network). However big the strucuture looks, the centre of the stage is organic and in some way, and because of its location in the field, gives the idea of proximity, closeness, no matter where you are sitting.
Some minutes after 7pm, Muse, the support band, started their show with “Uprising” and later came, "Supermasive Blackhole", "Stockolm Syndrome", "United States of Eurasia", "Hysteria", "Starlight", "Plug in Baby" y "Knights of Cydonia". Matt Bellamy showed in this display of their albums Black Holes and Revelations and the latest The Resistance , their progressive rock , in moments almost from space, and were very well received by the audience.
When anxiety rose, the clock started to disappear in a huge screen that showed the passing of time and once dematerialised became an eye as Bowie’s song (Space Oddity) sounded.
When the eye opened, the centre showed how Bono, The Edge with his guitar hanging from his shoulder, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen walked to the stage and stepped on it where everybody was waiting for them to command this particular journey.
Some minutes after 9.30 pm, the show started with "Even Better Than The Real Thing", from Achtung Baby . After this, a very rocker slot appeared with "I Will Follow", "Magnificent", "Mysterious Ways", "Elevation", "Until the End of the World" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".
But it’s not only the music that is moving , because some other things are going on, many more things. You have to be there to believe what seeing that spider , that powerful claw, means; when that incredible machine moves _ as if it were alive_ and the ramps that join the stage with the centre of the stage as a ring, start to slide.
For minutes, only Bono and Mullen stay in the stage as The Edge walks over the bridge to the audience that is at the back of the band, and Clayton walks around the ring.
All that makes the audience feel closer to the band. Over their heads, there is a huge circular screen that reproduces and makes everything that is going on bigger. The singer knows how to use it: he goes close to the camera so his face is shown in superhuman dimensions or he makes everything possible so the audience is shown there.
“This far away place looks so close to Dublin,· said Bono and then to show his love, when he introduced the band he adds nicknames to every one of them, his was Carlitos Apache Bono ( a reference, of course, to Carlos Tevez)
Everybody sang very well know songs like "I Still Haven't Found...", "Beautiful Day", "Sunday Bloody Sunday" or "Where The Streets Have No Name". the structure still had more mutations as when the roof went down and became a huge screen in "City of Blinding Lights", before an ending, typical of U2 with "With or Without You" and "Moment of Surrender".
Gabriel Plaza
LA NACION
Translation: msyterious ways
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