Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Bono in character?


I am so glad Matt posted this below.
It may help explain some of the
concerns about Bono in Pasadena (see the comments section here).

It may be the case that even though he has ditched the horns, he is always in character while in concert...even if he is always playing some version of himself .
Maybe all the characters are still versions "The Fool" and he's fooling us all ("To ask Bono to reign himself in would be to go against his nature and dilute his impact. Back in the early days of U2 he created two characters to act out onstage, the Fool and the Boy. Only the latter made it onto record ..in the songs for U2’s debut album, Boy... but theFool has often been called into service nonetheless"-Neil McCormick).

OR..maybe his voice is just shot and he's tired..
I'd rather believe Matt:


...There are a lot of fans saying that Bono is singing songs like "With or Without You" and "Moment of Surrender" as if he's bored and doesn't want to sing them. I agree 100% that "With or Without You" doesn't have the power that it had many tours ago. But I also think it's not supposed to. Have you considered that maybe Bono is singing these songs in character? That he's holding on to the end of his rope (quite literally; watch how he holds on to that microphone) and is about to reach his moment of surrender? That he's completely broken? "Stripped to the metaphorical bone," as Neil McCormick described it (after Bono described it to him)?

Bono has always portrayed characters in his live performance, and I'm pretty sure this tour's character is front and center for the final three songs of this tour. I think it's no coincidence that those final three songs never changed between Barcelona and Vancouver.

-Matt McGee

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Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!