Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend the U2 concert in San Jose Arena with Martin, Hayeun, and Janette. It was a beautiful day, and one I will remember for some time, I'm sure. Their opener, PJ Harvey, was kinda lame, but otherwise the concert was excellent. U2 is a great band and they know it. They have been together for over 20 years, and they proved it with their great show. They played well together with confidence, had great light effects and cool background video screens, and worked the crowd. The opening moments, when they came on stage with the house lights on and stepped right into "Elevation" was very cool...I actually had chills as the crowd sang along with Bono during the "wooo ooo" part in the beginning of the song. Elevation is a great song by the way. This is not to say that the entire concert was totally awesome and the members of U2 are the gods of rock. There were some songs that could have been omitted, as they were not as popular and just not fun ("New York," "The Ground Beneath Her Feet") and other songs that could have been played better--"Mysterious Ways" was disappointing because the electric guitar, from the opening moments and throughout the song, was not as defined, as sharp, nor as funky as the album version, and with the electric guitar just making the song, it was disappointing. I also thought that, dare I say it, "With or Without You" and "One" were disappointing. I guess I was just expecting too much from them, in that I thought they would totally fill me with emotion and stuff...but they did not. Also "Walk On," the final song, was disappointing as well, but I think that's just because they could not reproduce the instrumentation on the cd. By far the best song performed on the night was "Where the Streets Have No Name," probably because everyone in the arena was totally into it. The band seemed to play with the most energy during that song as well.
I don't know what Bono was trying to do last night, but it seemed as though he was more overtly religious/christian than normal or soemthing. During his thank you at the end, he thanked "the Almighty" as well as singing a chorus of "hallelujah" during "Walk On." He also talked about God in a positive way earlier, but I forgot what he said. I don't know what he tried to accomplish by doing that. Maybe playing a lot of old songs, as U2 did, made him nostalgic of his more positive-religious past, rather than the cynical bitter-at-God front he has taken in recent years. Or maybe it is just the new attitude he has adopted, a generally more positive one than in the past--the new and beautiful day, the don't let anything get you down just walk on, don't get stuck in a moment but know that all hard times pass, practice grace attitude. I don't know. But hope and a positive outlook are good things.
Well, regardless of the message and the attitude Bono has, the show was a good one. I can see why the band draws such huge crowds wherever it goes. They really work hard and put on a good show. And despite their confidence and ego, they do appear genuine.
Ok. An entirely different subject. Recently, I have been talking about my future with different people (who doesn't talk about this when they are seniors) and I was thinking, why not go into something that I really really enjoy? Such as music, or sports, or movies. Eric Chen in the past has suggested that I open a Blockbuster Video, because that would be my dream job, just watching movies all day. The funny thing is that he is half serious when he says this. I don't know about that, but I have been thinking, why not a career in music or sports? As a reporter, or music critic, or something else? The problem that I see in that is the uncertainty. I don't know much about either industry, and the jobs that I know of are either those that require supreme talent and hard work (being a musician or athlete) or are extremely hard to be good at (producer, coach, etc). I don't know much about front office jobs either, in a record label or sports franchise, but I do know that a lot of it is business, and selling the product, which I don't know if I would be particularly good at. But the thought of being in both industries is intriguing, no doubt. Well, I guess that's why this is a thoughts page. I write what I am thinking about, including random musings like this one. Ok. See you next time.
Oh, I just remembered. An added thought to my April 16 Thought. Another Christian actor, one that Grace Kim reminded me of, is Rene Russo. Now, she is a self proclaimed Christian, and I don't think she is at all shy about telling people she is religious. She says that the book Mere Christianity was one of the greatest influences in her life. I'm not saying she is Christian or not, but one of the latest movies she has starred in is "The Thomas Crown Affair." Not a bad film, and she is not a bad actress, but if you have seen the film, I think you will understand where my points of contention are at. Her language throughout the film is filthy, and no matter how nice she dresses in the movie, her shameless LACK OF CLOTHING is unsettling and gratuitous. I think she took off her clothes to purposely show that she is in great shape for a woman of her age (over 40). Now, it's cool that she works out and she's fit and is pretty, but why is she naked? Why? Why? Her response, when asked by a magazine, how Christians should react to her MULTIPLE NUDE SCENES, is that they should "pray for her." I don't think she ever said it was wrong of her to do it. I don't think that she considers it even wrong to do them. Huh? I don't understand. Julia Roberts doesn't do nude scenes, and she just won an Oscar. She's not Christian. Her reason for never doing so, I think she said, was that she wanted to preserve dignity. To not let like her high school teachers and random people see her naked. I don't understand what Mrs. Russo was thinking. I just don't know...weird. But what is that saying about Christians in the movie business? The best non-Christians don't do them, but it's okay for only moderately good Christian actresses to do so? To go further than the rest of the world, why, because it's okay? Aren't Christians supposed to be the moral standard?