Concert Film Of The Day: Elevation 2001 Live From Boston by U2

Recorded 25 years ago this week, this is the fourth concert film from Irish rock band U2. Watching this DVD on my computer at home in 2002 was my first glimpse at Bono, The Edge, Adam and Larry performing live, and just watching this had a lasting impact on me. U2 showed their prowess in having the crowd hanging on every note and manage to make an arena seem like an intimate venue. They open with "Elevation" with all the arena's lights still on and the audience surrounds the stage. "Beautiful Day" is played right after too, leaving the end of the show for mostly classic hits. Bono's sunglasses actually have a camera in them for some shots from Bono's point of view near the start of the show. There's a nice bit of stripped-down songs in the middle at the bottom of the heart-shaped catwalk that goes into the floor area, and the band even has a video screen that rises up from behind the stage for a few moments. The encore stretches 30 minutes starting with "Bullet The Blue Sky" rewritten about domestic gun violence and the show ends with "Walk On". The video quality is not good by modern standards, but was really only designed for TV viewing on home TVs, which were much lower quality than today's TVs and were more square, so it definitely looks a bit dated. It's been a few decades since I watched this, though, and it's just as good of a watch as I remember. I don't think you can watch it online, but you can at least listen to it thanks to the All That You Can't Leave Behind deluxe edition that is on streaming.
Release Year: 2001
Listen (audio only) on Apple Music
Listen (audio only) on Spotify
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