U2 Preach, Pray And Promote At First Of Four Toronto Concerts

If U2 ever give up rock 'n' roll, they might want to find a job in PR. The first of four sold out Air Canada Centre shows saw Bono and his cohorts give celebrity shout outs, promote a couple of Film Festival movies and of course, give plenty of lectures. The one thing they didn't do however, was put on a performance worthy of their rock star stature.

The first of many — and I mean many — shout outs to Toronto came during the opening chord of show starter "Vertigo." "Hello, Hello, Toronto," said Bono to thunderous applause. As the iPod theme song kicked into high gear, red lights moved at a dizzying pace, turning the entire stage into what felt like one giant Coke commercial.

Before launching into the powerful fan favourite, "I Will Follow," Bono led the first call and answer of the night. Sounding like a wounded animal, Bono yelped and oooed, with the audience obediently following along after him. While that was a little disturbing, U2's rendition of their Boy classic was executed perfectly — Bono hit every note, and despite what their last two records sound like, it's evident the group are still passionate about their music.

In order to keep things exciting on the small, club sized stage, the band utilized two important devices. One was the large oval catwalk jutting out from the stage, and the other was Bono's penchant for singing parts of someone else's song during their own tunes.

This last trick was applied on another oldie, "The Electric Co," where Bono sang part of the Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and The Who's "See Me, Feel Me." Two songs later, during "Beautiful Day," Bono sang a few bars of "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band."

While the beginning of the night started strong, around the middle U2 got snoozier than Coldplay on sleeping pills. Starting with "In A Little While," then playing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and finishing their slow set with How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb's "City Of Blinding Light" and "Miracle Drug," the night's initial momentum was completely sucked dry.

As soon as the opening chords to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" were played however, the crowd went nuts and the energy returned. It was no coincidence that the group followed their famous political anthem with the raw song-against-America rocker "Bullet The Blue Sky." It was around this time that Father Bono began to preach.

"These are strange times to live in London, and New York and Toronto," said Bono. "We have a song to dedicate. We want to turn it into a prayer... we do not become a monster to defeat a monster."

"Take out your cell phones," said Bono a little later on, right before launching into "One." "You can even call my friend Paul Martin." After some boos, Bono continued, "He's a good man, he's improving. I want you to give your permission to spend your money on the poorest of the poor."

At this point Bono decided to thank all his celebrity friends for coming out. "Thank you Kate Hudson... George Stromboloupolous, the great Daniel Lanois is here tonight, Cuba Gooding is here tonight. Steven Page, Raine, Chantal, gorgeous Chantal."

If you came to the show to forget about the Toronto International Film Festival happening this week, then you were out of luck. Besides saying hey to his wealthy buddies, Bono mentioned the film fest on more than one occasion, even telling people to go see the Irish flick Breakfast On Pluto.

Fortunately, the night wasn't all chatter and calls to "make poverty history." U2's encore featured some of the better performances of the night including, "Zoo Station" and "With Or Without You," which featured the band's usual call-a-girl-up-on-stage routine. The second encore consisted of mostly Atomic Bomb tracks including "Fast Cars," a song Bono said they've never played live before.

Because the band played for two hours and 15 minutes they were able to cram in some great oldies, but eight new lackluster tracks and Bono's incessant rambling brought most of the set down. It was clear the fans had more fun than they knew what to do with, but in the end we could have used more of Bono the rock star than Bono the Star TV Film Fest correspondent.