Press Release
USA Today , 2001
U2's minimalist tour rocks to the max

USA Today 9 April 2001
U2's minimalist tour rocks to the max
Denver - Defying laws of gravity and showbiz, the Elevation Tour 2001 supports two radical hypotheses:
1. U2 can fly. 2. You too can fly.
The Irish quartet's sold-out arena tour, a triumphant retreat from gargantuan glitz, pilots its fans into a blissful orbit around exquisitely uplifting music, forging a rare bond between performer and audience that all but erases stage barricades and celebrity stature.

Unlike the dazzling Popmart and Zoo TV stadium t tours, where spectators were dwarfed by giant props and visual tidal waves, the embracing Elevation show (**** out of four) upgrades passengers to first class emotional participation in Music Review U2's potent songbook
Friday in the Pepsi Center, sixth stop on a five month world tour, U2 achieved immediate liftoff with the exhilarating Elevation and maintained that altitude through two hours and 22 songs, touching down in the final notes of Walk On, an appropriate parting gift of hope and encouragement.
Gone are the futuristic banks of video monitors, the suspended cars, the colossal disco lemon, the kaleidoscopic imagery. But Elevation manages to be just as provocative and daring as past tours.
For starters, U2 has no camouflage or digital-art foils. Sweat and art tangle on a stark stage where human drama replaces computer-generated adrenaline.

Elevations modest visual enhancements - psychedelic shadow boxes, floating, star charts, overhead video screens projecting the band in black and white - suit the beautiful simplicity of new tunes from All That You Can't Leave Behind.
A heart-shaped catwalk that extends to the middle of the arena floor dissolves Physical and psychological barriers, as do spontaneous singalongs and, Bono's frequent interaction with fans (at the end of The Fly, he tumbles into the crowd and dashes across the floor through a rear tunnel). But the fundamental force is the music itself, brought to life by four focused and driven grown-ups from Dublin.
Unjaded and eager to please, U2 practically frolics through the set list. Bono and Edge spar as bull and matador during a light lull in the otherwise menacing but gorgeous Until the End of the World. They trade soulful falsetto passages in Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, a haunting plaint dedicated to late INXS singer Michael Hutchence. Bono, serving as both monarch and court jester, struts, swaggers and teases, while imbuing each song with the necessary pathos (the heartbreaking One) or euphoria (the impossibly giddy Beautiful Day). Though less animated, Edge injects his fair share of passion in signature staccato guitar lines and piercing solos. Likewise, the reserved Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton serve as the music's muscle and heartbeat, providing the aural essence in such rhythmic sprees as New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday.
U2's musical might and staging smarts crystallize in a pair of attenuated highlights. A video of CharIton Heston's gun-ho sound bites precedes a powerful revival of Bullet the Blue Sky, accompanied by a fast-edit inventory of violent images, from Hitler to wildlife poachers. Dread intensifies as Bono stalks the crowd with a handheld spotlight while narrow beams dart across the venue like prison searchlights.

The charmingly tough New York gets a ghostly treatment with transparent scrims that unfurl from the ceiling to reflect abstract video montages and creepy Caligari-like silhouettes of band members.
Such provocative minimalism underscores U2's ingenuity in framing songs and crafting grand melodies and keen rics that don't require fussy adornment. U2 has scaled back its indulgences, but there's nothing bare about these essentials.
USA Today © Edna Gunderson 2001