U2 - 2005 Vertigo - Live From Chicago (Deluxe Edition)

Customer Reviews:

Good, but no cigar boys..........2008-02-13

I have had this DVD (the 'Deluxe' version, of which more later) since it's first week of release. I have to say it's musical content and the filming of it has grown on me as time goes by. At first I was not too impressed I have to say. But somehow it seems to win over with a hidden depth of content and character that just isn't immediate like some of the other U2 concert DVDs. Maybe it's because it seems a little slower paced, or maybe it's just because the band are a little slower paced than before. They are (like us all) getting older. But I don't think that's the only reason. It is an American 'in the round' show, and that changes the style and atmosphere of the concert compared to the European shows where the crowd are usually facing the front of stage only. Never seems quite right to me to have an audience facing the back of you. I mean how interesting can it be to watch Larry drumming from behind! Plus, lets be honest here: the US audiences don't seem to rock out quite as wildly as do the Europeans! U2's fanbase in the US seems a bit MOR to my eyes.

But having said that it is a well directed film shoot, capturing the band in a good mood and getting you up closer than any previous U2 concert DVD IMO. The sound quality is good too (although there does seem to be an audible background hiss on my copy).

Bad points: well having said that the concert was well captured, the intro of the show (City Of Blinding Lights) was criminally ruined by not having the camera panned on the startup of the amazing video sequence that plays on the video curtain. Sacrilege! Also, the 2nd disc extras are really poor, and do not warrant the outlay over the standard edition.

So to sum up: A good concert well filmed and presented. The band are ok (if not on fire), the song list pretty great and the crowd maybe a bit too quiet. Perhaps not the most faithful representation of the Vertigo tour. If you want that then the Milan DVD included with U218 Singles is better suited. But then that is only a mini-concert. I guess we can't have it all. Maybe U2 did this on purpose so we would all go see the U23D film!

Money grabbing.......2007-06-01

I bought this one after brilliant Slane Castle DVD just to find myself very dissapointed. U2 went very far from what they used to be. They are very repetetive, money grabbing commercial product. Don't bother.

A masterful middle . . . the rest has been done before.......2007-04-24

I'm a long time U2 fan disappointed in How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. I've stopped "following" the band, stopped reading news about them, stopped listening to bootlegs from their most recent tours. I hadn't read any reviews of this tour and came to this DVD with no foreknowledge.

The first hour was fairly dreadful. The staging was the same as the previous Elevation tour, as were much of Bono's moves, as was the setlist, which proved that most of the How to Dismantle songs (with the exception of Vertigo) just don't work well in arena-size shows. The only inspired bit in the first hour was the delayed bass/drum intro to Elevation.

Out of this train wreck of a show, though, U2 manage a masterful 30-minute sprint with a handful of old tunes inspirationally recontextualized.

As the music and lights fade out on Bullet the Blue Sky, Bono quietly quotes a few bars of When Johnny Comes Marching Home. The band fades back in on quiet light and synth wash. Bono does a short harmonica intro, then steps to the microphone to dedicate the next song to the brave men and women in the US military, and sings: "And so she woke up // Woke up from where she was lying still // Said I gotta do something // About where we're going."

The song ends with a hush. The audience is perhaps wondering why Running to Stand Still is dedicated to the US military, what a song about a drug addict has to do with Iraq. Then a blast of light and the band answers the question they've set up - how to break the cycle of violence? - with their ode to MLK - Pride (In the Name of Love).

With that you think the band is about spent, but then Edge starts the ching-a-ching-a-ching of Streets With No Name, a song inspired by Bono's post-Live Aid visit to an Ethiopian refugee camp. The stage lighting gives way to a waterfall of colors that make up the national flags of Africa, and Bono asks us to take King's dream into the 21st century and make it real for the people of Africa.

And for the dénouement, the end to this masterful reappropriation of some of their best work, the band segues into One and closes the show reaffirming the unity of the human family.

The rest of the show is even worse than the beginning, with a trite and meaningless encore of three Achtung Baby songs, followed by a couple more weak efforts from How to Dismantle.

But the middle - the middle of this show is worth the price of admission and is not to missed.

Good, but not as good as the Slane DVD.......2007-01-11

Don't get me wrong - this is a very well shot concert film of a very good band in action. The sound is good (Egde, Adam and Larry are all on top form), and Bono tries his best to interact, its just that......the 'U2 Go Home' Slane Castle DVD from the 2001 show just looked like so much more FUN!

A previous reviewer said that even though Bono had just buried his dad when they played the Slane shows, he still looked as though he was having a laugh with the crowd. So true and, more importantly, the crowd were up for it more (watch 'Out Of Control' when Bono starts cranking up the band - brilliant!) and even when his voice cracks when he's singing 'Kite', you sense the crowd were completely with the band.

Watch the Chicago show however, and when you see the crowd shots, you see a load of them just chatting to each other, almost as if U2 were a pub band! Now, I've never been lucky enough to see U2 live myself (24 years a fan - never had the money before, and when I did have the money I was on holiday! Argh!) but if I had lashed out £45 for a floor ticket, I'd be doing a little more watching and a lot less chatting. But that's American crowds for you.

Like I said, the songs are great (my own favourite is Zoostation on this particular DVD), but if you're buying this hoping for it to be as good as the Slane DVD, sorry to disappoint, but no. If you havent bought the Slane DVD, I would recommend you buy that one first to appreciate just how good a band U2 are live when the crowd is on form, then maybe invest in the Vertigo live DVD.

(PS if anyone who's involved with U2 is reading this, when its time to shoot a new live DVD, dont bother with American crowds - stay in Britain or Europe - probably best of all in Dublin of course!)

Vertigo Chicago.......2006-07-26

Iv been a U2 fan for over 20years and iv seen them live numerous times. When I got this Dvd I couldn't wait to watch it so that I could relive what was a spectacular concert but im sad to say I was disappointed.Bono wasn't at his best even though it was his birthday he didn't seem to be very happy and was just going through the motions(compare this to live from Slane where he was really enjoying himself even though it was just after his fathers death). I found that I was getting a headache while trying to watch it because of all the fast camera action. Just when I was enjoying one shot the camera would shoot to another it was all over the place.The only place to see U2 at their best is on home ground so they've got to release the Croke Park shows on Dvd and keep the diehard U2 fan happy.Don't get me wrong I did enjoy this dvd but I found it hard work to follow and it loses 1 star for not including With or Without you.

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