Lately, I've been attempting to mine the early U2 stuff as a way of catching up on all the years I missed as a fangirl. Thankfully, the Internet's been a good thing for a fan wishing to learn about the history of her obsession.
I've seen video, heard songs and listened to radio interviews from around the world and through the years. Recently, I managed to see an early performance by U2 at the original Live Aid concert back in 1985 at Wembley Stadium, which was an interesting contrast to some of the performances at the Live 8 concert.
Maybe it's because history has clouded my eyes, but the band gave a fantastic performance in 1985 -- there was a hunger that was evident in their performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday. It's an energetic, amazing performance that frankly, you won't see now.
That hunger was even evident in the Live 8 performance. The sad thing is that the other bands -- Black Eye Peas, Destiny's Child, Maroon 5 (when I wasn't clawing at my ears) -- don't even come close to that hunger, that energy and connection with the audience. It was more like, "OK, shimmy, shake, sing the song, dance a little, strut, and FINISH!"
Those performances were lazy. They were rote. Maybe it's MTV -- early stardom without working on connecting with the audiences. Why tour or work on your stage act when you've got MTV, video directors and stylists to make you look good? Sadly enough, the audience becomes conditioned to watching lazy performers. Walking from one side of the stage to the other re-enacting videos is not performing. It's miming to the music. It's crap.
Watching Live 8 was similar to watching a TV show. It didn't feel like a concert nor did it feel well, real. There were few groups that well, brought their A game. Green Day was probably the only other band that when I watched it, I felt like I was watching a concert. It felt like a live show. That's a damn shame, because I don't know if years from now, Live 8 will be remembered in the same was as Live Aid was by music lovers.
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