Vertigo tour concludes in Hawaii

Photo by Ruth Barohn/U2log.com

(Click on the above photo to see a slideshow of photos from the Honolulu show by Ruth Barohn/U2log.com.)

We’ve heard from our staff and friends who attended the final show of the Vertigo Tour in Honolulu, Hawaii. Everyone reports it was a fabulous show — perfect in every way. Our first report from our I-Wanna-Blog-for-U2log contest winner, Tim Nafus, was a text message before the show that read “So many red shirts, it’s like being at a Cardinals’ game.” Funny, Tim. Tim will be enjoying some time in Hawaii before he gets down to the business of providing a proper report of the show for us. In the meantime, we offer some great photos of the show from Ruth Barohn and dish on who from the celebrity world was in attendance.

The mix desk saw the likes of Kid Rock, Pierce Brosnan, Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) and his family, Scott Ian (Anthrax), and someone who “may or may not be one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” In the guest seats were Ben Affleck, Bill and Melinda Gates, Susan Buffett, Bobby Shriver, Mira Sorvino, and the cast of the television show “Lost,” including Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn, Josh Holloway, and Ian Cusick. Jeremy Piven of “Entourage” was the only celeb spotted inside the ellipse.

For the final Vertigo show, there were special guest appearances in the forms of Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day joining U2 for “The Saints Are Coming,” and Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam joining the band for a performance of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

The final word of the tour came from Larry Mullen Jr., who was left alone on stage as the band concluded “All I Want Is You.” Larry thanked the audience for coming and said, “See you real soon,” leaving fans wondering if U2 will be performing concerts again sooner than anyone might expect.

Rubin and Fidelman to engineer new U2 album this September

You may remember our previous discussion on Rick Rubin and how you’d feel about him producing their next album. Well, all those in favour may find a little surprise, spoiler and delight in the following article discussing Wisconsin-based band the Robins. Seems our gut feeling was right once again.

Overseeing the album is Greg Fidelman, an engineer/producer who worked with Rick Rubin on albums for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, System of a Down and Audioslave. The Robins and Fidelman will be ensconced at Sound City studio in Van Nuys (the same place where Nirvana made “Nevermind” and Tom Petty made “Wildflowers” and “Damn the Torpedoes”) through the end of the month and again in October.

Why not September? Because Fidelman and Rubin have to go to London to engineer tracks for U2’s upcoming album at Abbey Road Studios.

Let’s play “guess the new album title”. Oh, and thumbs up to the Robins.

Rock Werchter: The Who in the Attic with a couple of Kooks

It’s been a very long time since there was an update in the Transit section. I suppose it could be blamed on the gig overdose we had after the full U2 tour, or the lack of funds as a result. But none of this is true. It’s not that we haven’t been out much, we just haven’t written about it.

Yesterday, however, we were lucky enough to be at Rock Werchter. The lineup of the festival is pretty impressive with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Depeche Mode, Muse, Live, Scissor Sisters, The Who, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand, the Arctic Monkeys, the Kaiser Chiefs and another favourite of ours, Sigur Rós.

We kicked it off with a little Editors and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! (go buy their album, it rocks!) and gradually drifted towards Muse and The Who. Mindblowing, a bouncing audience, swinging guitars, arms and microphones. Strictly no crowd surfing at Rock Werchter, yeah, right.

The Who? Aren’t they, like, old? Greying geezers talking about My Generation? Damn right. And these icons of rock are the ones toting cutting edge technology which is worth a mention. Mouthwatering to us techno geeks.

Insert a mobile home studio, a satelite uplink and a website which offers streaming video technology at the little cost of $.99 to charity per session. Throw in an aging rock star, say, Pete Townshend and his girlfriend Rachel Fuller. Then add some very diverse guests, randomly picked up from around festival sites. The result is a webcast that borders on reality tv, talk show and just plain old entertainment with a spontaneity that you just seldom see on television anymore.

Last night saw a band called The Kooks in their studio, which set off some jamming between them and Pete Townsehend and eventually resulted in Rachel Fuller and co presenter Mikey Cuthbert breaking out in Bowie’s Kooks. And maybe then that’s the best way to sum it up. A couple of kooks, enjoying themselves, on the road, from the road with a flurry of guests that make these webcasts well worth the $.99 you have to pay for them.

http://thewholive.tv/frontdoor/
http://www.intheattic.tv/