What a finale/encore! Just an incredible show! U2 @ the Sphere were amazing! With the Sphere's unbelievable media/video capabilities, during "With or Without You" U2 unleashed a giant sphere floating across a desert lake that filled before our eyes, and as the Sphere advanced toward us while rotating, it had an opening that engulfed us, and on the beautiful interior was this scene that U2 kept for "Beautiful Day," showcasing Nevada's native species. And cueing off the theme of appreciating nature, Bono altered the lyrics of this song "See the world in green and blue, all these creatures all around you [instead of 'see China right in front of you']. See the poppy breezing by [?], Peregrine Falcon climbing high [instead of 'see the canyons broken by cloud, see the tuna fleets clearing the sea out']. The glinting wings of the mariposa, the river rapping, as the Oxasosia [? no idea what that word was], [instead of ', see the Bedouin fires at night, see the oil fields at first light'] [and then he kept this Biblical/Noah-and-the-ark reference] See the bird with a leaf in her mouth, after the flood all the colors came out [except he altered it by repeating 'all the colors came out' three times]."

And then at the end of the song, he added "take me to the church" before breaking into "Gloria" and ending with a cover of the Beatles' "Blackbird." After the band finished, they started playing bits of an unreleased song "Glorify" over the PA, except Bono joined live on a few of the lyrics.

I love this lyric and sentiment from the song "What you don't have, you don't need it now. What you don't know, you can feel it somehow. What you don't have, you don't need it now, don't need it now, [it's] a beautiful day." A rejection of capitalism's excesses, and an embrace of charitable love, sharing what you have, and Christian irony of gaining everything by losing yourself.

U2 had been struggling for relevance with the release of the album Pop, and didn't want to release another album unless they knew they could break through with some good hits. When their producer Jimmy Iovine heard this song, he told them they had the hit they were hoping for. Says the Edge 'It's a beautiful day.' It seems in some ways such a banal sort of lyric, but combined with the music something wild happened and we all recognized it. Then Brian (Eno) contribution was that fantastically Euro kick drum opening and keyboard line, and that gave us the clue as to where it should go next." The song won three Grammys, went to #1 in a bunch of countries, and has been featured in a million things, including being used for TV coverage of 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia, performed by U2 when they hosted Saturday Night Live in 2000 and again at the 2002 Superbowl halftime (with the song beating out a bunch of other popular U2 hits to be included in the show] and used by Obama a bunch in his 2008 campaign. U2 has played "Beautiful Day" at every single one of their concerts since its release.

Check out more highlights from the U2:UV concert @ the Sphere here:    • U2 live February 9, 2024 @ The Sphere...  

Enjoy.

PS - I have the full 7 minute version of this song but YouTube keeps blocking it. I have no idea why. Luckily we had two phones at the concert so at least this version isn't blocked. I'll keep trying with the other version.

#jimjam #u2 #thesphere #bono #beautifulday