Today begins a new series on Life On This Planet - Concert Film Of The Day. I will be watching 5 live concert videos and then featuring one every day this week. Keep up on my daily postings by clicking LIKE over at the Life On This Planet Blog Page on Facebook.
Here is my initial experience with U2 Live At Red Rocks. At some point in the late 80s, I popped in a VHS tape and recorded the concert off of either MTV of VH1 - that tape was cherished. At the time, U2 had just released the War album, so they only had three albums under their belts, but judging by the dedication of the crowd to withstand the weather conditions, U2 was already on their way to massive stardom.
The original video, which was commercially available on VHS, was not the entire show the band played that rainy night at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on June 5, 1983. The original began with the song Surrender, and was edited down to 12 tracks. In 2008, the band reissued the entire 17-song set in all of its glory. Although I bought the DVD when it came out, I never really sat through it, or its special features, in their entirety.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a remarkable glimpse of the band on the brink of worldwide success, so it is quite exciting to watch them with all of their youthful energy. The set now begins with three songs from their debut record, 1980's Boy. Although an official music video for Sunday Bloody Sunday was never made, the amazing performance taken from this show filled in the void on MTV.
This show was mostly everyone's first exposure to live classics like 11 O'Clock Tick Tock and Party Girl - both are just ridiculously rad to watch after all of these years. I should mention that Bono's inclusion of some of the lyrics to 'Send In The Clowns' still remains edited-out on this release. Check out the full set list further down the page.
I also took the time to listen to the audio commentary from director Gavin Taylor. It was quite fascinating hearing all of his stories about the goings-on of the shoot that due to the weather, almost didn't happen. Definitely worth the time to check that out as well. So obviously if you are a U2 fan, you've already seen this concert, but maybe not in its entirety. If you've never seen U2 before all of the ginormous TV screens and big stage productions, then you've gotta get Live At Red Rocks - purchase links are below.
Track Listing: Out of Control / Twilight / An Cat Dubh - Into The Heart / Surrender / Two Hearts Beat As One / Seconds / Sunday Bloody Sunday / The Electric Co. / October / New Year's Day / I Threw A Brick Through A Window / A Day Without Me / Gloria / Party Girl / 11 O'Clock Tick Tock / I Will Follow / 40
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