U2 reaches new heights in Boston

(Boston Herald) -- Never mind the Nobel Prize, somebody nominate Bono for an Oscar.

Rock's great frontmen also have to be terrific actors, and U2 lead singer Bono proved it during the band's three-night stand at the FleetCenter.

U2 did the same basic set each night, with a few tweaks (last night's novelties included "New Year's Day" and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"). He made the same pleas to world leaders to end extreme poverty, the same dedication to members of the U.S. military, the same plea for peace among the world's religion's, even the same tribute to John F. Kennedy.

There was also the same nod to 21st century technology during "One", when Bono asked for everyone to hold up their lighted cellphones lighters are just so passe these days.

But Bono's strengths as a performer, boldly on display in Boston the past week, are his absolute control of his audience and his ability to make the repetitive seem completely spontaneous, as if he and the boys suddenly decided each night to bang out a show in front of a few close friends.

This "Vertigo" tour sets the 2005 standard for hockey rink rock tours. The band does nearly two dozen songs over the course of two hours, and each night the set is a shrewd mix of oldies, inspiring ballads, garage rock, smart pop and metal-tinged rockers.

But the gig is more than a concert. It's a multimedia event with music at the core. Seven three-story curtains - each one comprised of nearly 30 strands of lights - project flags, words, pictures and abstract images. Streams of light shoot around the oval catwalk. Video screens project multiple images. At times the music seems more like a soundtrack than the main event.
Yet Bono connected all the loose ends last night, as he did during the previous Boston shows. He crawled on the catwalk, he pogoed, he did a Frankenstein totter, he did everything, it seemed, except stay still for even a moment.

And his bandmates laid down a constant, covering fire behind him.