Gig played on 18/06/05

If they last long enough without killing each other or themselves, there comes a time in every band's career when they breach 'the line'. The line in question is, naturally, relevance and time. Can U2 possibly still matter, as the lusty likes of Coldplay snap and snarl, climb aboard their polemic soap-box because they demand a say, overthrow them because The Kids deem it time for a change? Going on looks alone, Bono and the boys are finally starting to look their touching 50 years on Earth. Still, at least they don't appear to be taking quite as direct a route to the morgue as the leathered New Order.

The fact that U2 have just sold-out the world's enormodomes with the ease us mortals take a trip to the fridge doesn't necessarily make them as killer a rock'n'roll force as the KO period between "The Unforgettable Fire" and "Zooropa". Well, the "Vertigo Tour" suggests this prizefighter still has some fury on many levels. From the go, you can't fault a band that chooses to stride into an arena the size of Luxembourg to The Arcade Fire's empowering "Wake Up" as if entering the pub.

Indeed, their taste in music appears to be not the only element of their game U2 have refined in recent years. There's no need for the ostentatious props and gimmicks that have swamped more recent live productions. No lemons, space rockets or trunk calls to Osama Bin Laden then, just four fellas walking on stage. Good attitude.

However, the subtleties of their entrance is soon blasted from your memory by the raging intensity of the opening 20 minutes, in which an entire stadium is knocked senseless - in broad daylight, incredibly - by the wired likes of "Vertigo", "Elevation", "Beautiful Day", "I Will Follow" and "The Electric Co.". A stalking, goading Bono makes an 80,000 crowd seem like 200, whilst a mecca of bulbs flash white-hot for "City Of Blinding Lights". Magnificent.

Of course, such a rip-roaring opening has to flag, and, alongside a drop in pace and power across the mid-section, the clumsy spectre of Bono descending from the throne in a spasm of sermonising and sloganeering amongst his people becomes "Rattle & Hum" pompous. A bandana representing the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths is placed on his head, crown-like, whilst the phrase "Coexist" burns bright red on the massive back screens, rather crassly. At a time when rock'n'roll gravitas is more profound than at perhaps any time in 20 years, you're reminded of the style, humility and eloquence now displayed by Chris Martin and Thom Yorke.

As significantly, it's now clearly evident that U2's recordings have reached something of an impasse. Most of the newer material from the last two albums lacks the drama, force and sheer exhilaration that really only returns at the close as the band emerge for the encore and the dark Kraut-metal-rock triad of "Zoo Station", "The Fly" and "Mysterious Ways". Of course, you'd also be hard pressed to touch the likes of "One" and "Where The Streets Have No Name" without burning your hands off.

It would seem churlish to write off a band that matters more than perhaps any other across the course of two decades in rock. So we wont. However, Bono may want to watch his back, because it aint just the Devil that's on his tail now.

by Ben Gilbert