Review

Taken from a review by Iain Flockheart of our gig at Custom House Hotel, in March 2019.

I attended this gig with much anticipation after I last saw them playing in Gourock in September last year, so suitably impressed I was that I wrote them a review of that gig that I felt was well justified. Here is the review of last night’s gig at the Custom House Hotel in Greenock.

They opened with the familiar screechings of Zoo station which lead nicely into the solid rhythm of “I will follow.” Personally I like it when a band goes back to their roots at the start of a gig. This was followed by two more from that era “The Elecric Co.” and the song that started it all back in 1980 “Out of control” a personal favourite of mine. A slight anecdotal diversion from my review if I may, as it relates to how dear this song is to me. I remember so vividly the very time and exact place I was in when this song was broadcast for the very first time at a few seconds after 10 pm one night on the John Peel show when he announced it with words along the lines of:

“This is going to be the biggest band in the world.” Then straight into “Out of Control.”

I was hooked there and then in that first few seconds of U2s first ever broadcast.

Back in October 2004 I had to fly to the USA and back in the same day and was so tired I was fast asleep as the plane touched down in Manchester. I awoke to the dulcet tones of John Peel in the seat in front of me and as I got up to dissembark, I said to him how vividly I remembered that first ever broadcast of Out of Control and his prediction. He mentioned that I was only the second person ever to recall his prediction to him. Sadly this broadcasting legend was taken form us less than two weeks later.

Moving on; A very topical “Bloody Sunday” was next in the set and battered out with the passion a song like that deserves. The military style drumming bringing home the very topical theme of the song this week. Moving forward a decade or so we experienced the dizzy heights of some “Vertigo” and a “Beautiful day”, one of my favourite of what I’ll call U2s “post Prime” offerings.

“One” came next and was skilfully delivered by all band members, always a favourite of the ladies it triggered a lot of the audience to get up and boogie. My personal favourite of tracks that U2 covered was next up, “Unchained Melody” with Bono delivering the passionate vocals and the Edge picking away creating the lovely delayed guitar sound that sits so well in this cover version and prevails through so much of the set.

Not sure if there is a story in the set list here, but thankfully “Until The End of the world’, was followed by “New Year’s Day” another old time favourite so I guess we escaped Armageddon, and the show went on. “The fly” flew in and was followed by an atmospheric and authentic rendition of “BAD” in a bit of a medley with a couple of old Stones covers thrown in “Ruby Tuesday” “Sympathy for the Devil”, to produce a good mash up which then lead perfectly into the atmospheric start of “All I want is you” building into its enchanting delayed guitar and culmination with powerful crescendo climax belted out by Bono.

Then one of the three the ever enduring masterpieces from The Joshua Tree, “Where the streets have no name”, an all time favourite of mine expertly performed with all the gusto and passion it needs to reach it’s potential. From the same album, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for with it’s beautiful chiming chords and that deep down gospel soul of the song coming through in the lyrics and guitar. Still on the Joshua tree, “One tree hill” and “In God’s country” were next up, followed by some “Mysterious ways” from Achtung baby.

The “Angel of Harlem” took a minor tumble at the very end of the song by way of a minor technical hitch, but “Dallas” (Kev) rocked up to apply his technical magic to the snafu on the guitar rig, and once he’d “Schood” from stage front back to the desk, the boys delivered a heartfelt version of Pride which was a rock solid crowd pleaser. Ultraviolet (an absolute belter in my opinion), was brilliantly executed with it’s deceptive, subtle intro leading into a world class tune with pounding bass driving it forward and Bono ripping into it with absolute power and a highly punctuated authority.

Finally, no W/U2 gig is ever quite complete, “With or without you”, so this was the closing number as one might expect it’s an absolute cracker to end a gig on.

In summary, Larry delivered rock sold beat throughout the two hour performance, tempered with, the more subtle nuances of the couple of more down beat numbers in the set. All the time with his compadre on the bass providing between them, the solid rhythm section that was the bedrock of the set. Skilful and complex guitar parts routed through the very authentic sounding guitar rig and at the skilled fingertips of the Edge were instrumental (pardon the pun), in delivering an extremely authentic experience once again, that as expected delivered beyond expectation.

I believe that the band are planning a series of gigs for the remainder of this year. They quite clearly put in a great deal of effort in keeping up to speed and I urge anyone that has not had a chance to see them yet to get out there and do so. You will not be disappointed. It is a thoroughly well drilled and authentic performance from start to finish and they are to be commended on their authenticity as well as their clear passion and enthusiasm for what they do.