U2 – 360° at the Rose Bowl DVD review

There’s no need to elaborate a lot on U2, since the band is a living rock legend. It’s one of the bands that I grew up with even though I didn’t understand the true meanings of their songs till a bit later. “With or without you” was my teenage anthem. My cousin and his friends (Hi to all, if you read me) played it over and over in the car.

After the release of “No line on the horizon”, U2 started their international (European and North American) stadium tour known as “360° Tour” referring to their 360-degree staging/audience configuration. It’s a unique and a premiere as a stage configuration where they are basically surrounded by their crowd.

The 25 October 2009 concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California was filmed for the concert release U2 360° at the Rose Bowl. This same concert was streamed to over 10 million viewers on U2′s official Youtube channel. I remember watching it live in the morning (Thanks to the time difference between Cali and France) then later in the afternoon, since it was available on demand. Well now, you can find it on DVD for an HD experience.

The show is flawless, giant and mind blowing. The center-like setup makes perspectives very interesting, I mean it makes them huge and uber giant. You can see how immense the stadium is, how small the stage looks like compared to it, and how much cheering people there was there. The visuals are colorful and “in-your-face” like. Marrying LCD screens and a laser show. No wonder they choose to experiment with a circle shaped stage, as it was the only solution to give their crowd an optimal feel of visuals and sounds. The latter must have been amazing, surrounding the whole stage, starting from the center and flying equally everywhere. Just talking about it gives me goosebumps.

The DVD was filmed over a single night, something that rarely happens. The recording camera’s and all the crew behind it were flawless again. Director Tom Krueger was behind the scenes.

Need I talk about the music ? Urm no, it’s U2, they are legends, their songs are too.

I am sad to have missed this gig in Stade de France, but it was quickly sold out.

So, if your father likes rock and you have no clue what to bring him for father’s day, go and crab a copy of this magnificent DVD because  it’s a piece of collection to play every time you feel good, down, blue, happy, energetic.