I haven't been to a U2 concert before. I also haven't listened to their last album, perhaps because I was carried away like everyone else when they pushed it into our iTunes accounts. Still, due to my love for them from my younger times, I was really intrigued to see them in Chicago but I also did not expect much.
I was wrong, very wrong. The music blew me away. My friend with me who has more of a musical ear than I do said that Bono was scratchy but he still put on a great show with the rest of the band.
I was even more impressed with the experience they created. The user experience for the audience. They created a set on an suspended, giant flat screen like metal perforated platform. They could project visuals onto it and they could walk on it. At times, Bono would walk on it towards Edge, when Edge would be walking on the stage below towards him. Brilliant.
They used many different styles on the platform but my favorites were the illustrations. Especially, when they were singing the Cedarwood Road with young Bono. The house he grew up in was so real in front of us, with perfect lines.
The whole show made me think a lot about user experience. This is one of the perfect examples of user experience not being limited to phones, computers or games as most of us expect. It is everywhere. At the United Center, U2 turned the usually mundane indoor sports center to Bono's house, to Bloody Sunday, to state of the art visuals exhibition.
They finished as we all got red. Red. RED. I just loved it.
Comments