U2 - Elevation Tour 2001 - Live from Boston

Rating:
Summary: Even better than the really thing ...
Review: This DVD is not as good as say Led Zwpplins release of a couple years ago, but is about as good as any post 90s band. U2 has so many good hits to draw from - the songs are all good on this DVD. Bono's voice is clear and strong, The Edge is has total control. Hats off to the team that put the DVD together. Next to seeing U2 live, this is the next best thing

Rating:
Summary: READ THIS !!!
Review: In the last few years, I feel you've changed, and this was hammered home completely today.

The crack first started during the Elevation Tour, during the Boston Show. Die-hard fans lined up all night long to get the best General Admission in the house, right up on the stage. No one thought it was their due to have that ticket because they were the biggest fan - they bought the ticket and stood in line all day and all night to have the #1 spot. This show was a little different - it was being taped for the DVD - and right before the gates came open something happened. People came out and began picking people - pretty people, young people, to go to the front of the line. Can you imagine how that felt to the people who have been your fans for years? Who stood in line all day to get that spot? You're not good enough, not pretty enough for the video. That was the first time, to me, it was not for Love, it was for Money. You see the result of it in that DVD, when half the heart sits down for part of the show. Sour grapes? Maybe. But a betrayal from a band we trusted.

The crack that started then has blown wide in the last few months.

From 'AN OPEN LETTER TO U2'



Rating:
Summary: U2 is a legend that will never die
Review: This DVD and esspecially concert from Boston is more than you will expect from a concert DVD.
U2 is definetly one of the best performers worldwide, and one of those that make you rather listen to their live album than their studio recorded one. Although both are great. I'm not even an U2 fan, but this concert was one of the best i've ever seen!
No Britney, Usher, Jessica Simpson and so on could ever perform a concert like this one.
And that "efe" guy from Spain is probably just pissed that he paid more than he had to.
Once again, amongst Robbie Williams, Sarah Brightman and others, the best concert ever!!!

PS: by the way, Hamish Hamilton, the director of this concert, did an awesome job!

Rating:
Summary: Return to Form
Review: After the mistake that was the PopMart tour, U2 aim for intimacy and intensity in the Elevation tour. People are not wrong to draw parallels between the simple bare-bones style of the tour (which greatly impressed Noel Gallagher) and the stripped-down aching melodies that made All That You Can't leave Behind the return to form it was.

Songs from the latter, naturally, dominate. There are others: the staple hits from the early years, the Joshua Tree songs and the more popular songs from Achtung, Baby. I Will Follow gains a particular kick in the context U2 create. There's only one performance in the concertn that I don't like: Sunday Bloody Sunday. The live version of The Fly, I think, stands out not only as the best live performance of the song, but one of the best live songs U2 have ever done - up there with the live aid version of Bad.

I warm to the fact that Bono, as ever, is not afraid to admit to being moved by something and tells the audience so. Watch his face and listen to his voice during Kite to see what it is I'm talking about.

I hope the band pursure their late style of music and performance in ATYCLB and the Elevation tour with their next album and tour. Like this DVD, it will be a potent reminder of the biggest band in the world's power, as they reach the height of their powers and proceed to fire on all cylinders.


Rating:
Summary: Elevating
Review: This is a brilliant performance and compared to the Popmart VCD (I bought it in Singapore - why the rest of the world cant have VCD's I dont know - they are a hell of a lot cheaper) its a more intimate concert. The band just look so relaxed and happy like never seen before on video. Its like U2 have accepted their fame, come full circle, and finally rooted to it without flaunting it.

The live songs from All That You Cant Leave Behind are elevated (no pun intended, seriously) to a much higher level than in the studio. Stuck In A Moment is a real highlight as opposed to just a good listen.

Stand out songs have to be The Fly and Elevation. Those first few moments when they walk on stage is a spine tingler - not quite up to par with the Joshua Tree tour, though, when Where The Streets Have No Name shimmered, climbed and then exploded as Bono walked on stage. The Fly has been taken to a level like no other song on the DVD. How Bono can run around that outer stage and splat himself onto the wall without losing a breath is beyond comprehension!!! And the intro to The Fly is amazing. The use of the chorus, slowed down, quiet and disturbing as an intro just blew me away.

The extras are a little dissapointing as I would like to have seen the band rehearsing in the behind the scenes option.

Actually, my packaging fell apart and the plastic backing for the 2nd CD hangs lose but like another reviewer said, it looks great!!!

A top buy. Now all I have to buy is the Slane Castle DVD!

Cheers