I read an article this week in the Denver Post about how important Colorado has been to U2. Much like Chicago and Terri Hemmert, who took the band to see the Unforgettable Fire exhibition at the Peace Museum, Denver has always been a place of welcome for the four Irishmen.
As the band toured in a white van crisscrossing the United States in those early years, fan attendance was low and the venues they played in were quite small. All of that changed when they made the WAR tour stop at Red Rocks Amphitheater, which put U2 on the map in the 80s. The event, as we all know, was taped for a live album release Under A Blood Red Sky as well as recorded to film for a VHS release. Both recordings became a foray into how the band played live. Thanks to U2’s release of the videos to MTV, we got our visual answers to all of the rumors we heard on the street “…you gotta see this band out of Ireland, U2.”
Now, I wasn’t a U2 fan at the outset. I will be honest. When I was introduced to the Boy LP, I excused it for all the things I didn’t understand. I was into AC/DC and The Who. What I didn’t know was the album was actually speaking to me as I grew up in a similar home as Bono, broken. I was very antagonistic towards my pal who made the U2 introduction to me. The Northside Dubliners were taking over my peers, but, as I said, I didn’t find comfort in the first listening to their music. It took me a few months to get the courage to seek the band out on my own. The purchase of, and constant listening to, Under A Blood Red Sky, on cassette, was my self-discovery that grew my U2 fandom into what it is today.
A few years later after my initial emersion into U2, my dorm-mates and I ventured to the local movie theater to see Rattle and Hum, U2’s Joshua Tree road movie. It opens with the band covering The Beatle’s Helter Skelter, which was shot live and onstage in the old McNichols Sports Arena in Denver no less. Rattle and Hum took off where Under A Blood Red Sky ended. Instead of the being filmed in color, the band was captured in stark black and white as they played their classics in that fabled sports arena – Sunday Bloody Sunday, Exit, Silver and Gold and Pride (In The Name of Love). U2 must have known how special Denver had been to them as they returned to film their historic Joshua Tree tour stop in the Mile High state.
Although both films/recordings are well over 25 years old, they still stand the test of time and both cemented our band into history. I like to go back to these videos every so often to relive my youth. I just happen to be one of the lucky ones who attended the Joshua Tree stop in Iowa City. Lucky, because it was a change of venue and not on the initial tour list of cities. Rattle and Hum keeps those memories alive for me. I am grateful that U2 filmed that tour. Not just for me, but for those who followed behind me in fandom.
