Visually, this adds more mullet time: Bono’s hair takes longer to slick down in the mist and rain, though sweat must also contribute.
Live at Red Rocks stands as the luckiest case of bad weather ever recorded in concert film history: Never cold or soaking enough to make anyone onstage slip or get electrocuted, the chilly drizzle causes steam to rise up off of U2’s bodies, mingling in the red and blue stage light with smoke-machine mist and rain droplets against the amphitheatre’s flaming yellow torches. U2 could sure pick a location and a moment. But credit director Gavin Taylor (who counts himself lucky on the DVD commentary) with knowing where to place the cameras and how to follow the band’s movements rather than exaggerate them.
When Bono sings “Sunday Bloody Sunday” complete with waving white flag, a performance that became an iconic MTV video, it still delivers a chill: Bono is too loosely, goofily himself to seem calculated, and the light-streaked camera isn’t awed, just caught up.
Weather permitted the spectacle, but the music made it, and the remastered CD remains startling. One secret behind U2’s more obvious virtues of voice and sound is the fact that the Edge is always essentially playing rhythm guitar, whether chiming out solos or scratching out atmosphere, reinforcing an already sure and lyrical rhythm section alive to the melodic nuance of each song. This is why even a tune U2 cover bands might skip – “11 O’Clock Tick Tock,” say – feels momentous. Though taken from different shows, all the songs on Under a Blood Red Sky flow, a miniature epic in eight numbers.
CD Grade: A/DVD Grade: A-
Under a Blood Red Sky (Deluxe Edition CD/DVD) (Live) is currently available.