About that steering wheel microphone…
It was just last week that I asked a simple question: What’s with the steering wheel microphone?
Thanks to this awesome video shot by U2gigs.com, we have an answer.
Your thoughts? Cool? Awkward?
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It’ll be cool if he can get out over the crowd farther and as long as that cable doesn’t snap. The suit is amazing too.
So, 26-7 years later, they have at last come up with a way to Bono to re-commence doing gasp-inducing acrobatic feats a la climbing up the scaffolding, except he’s pretty much guaranteed not to fall his death with this one. Awesome.
(It also is a tad awkward at points, though.)
This is simply AMAAAZING
I love it 
out of every clip i heard last night, this one made me the most excited, and Ultraviolet sounds sooo strong (which bodes well for it staying in the set!). I like the microphone. I think it gives Bono something to emote at, and something to pour into, which, given the clip, worked perfect.
and man, that lazer suit. nice.
the mic is not as cool as they hoped, the light beam jacket is even worse. Right up there with the flying on wires they thought of before the Zoo TV tour started. Thank god they dropped that idea.
this tour will trump POPMart for most ridiculous and obnoxious.
This is what bands do when they can’t play any more. But U2 doesn’t need to do this. They can still play, as witness Letterman, the BBC, the appearance in Boston. Plus, Bono can hurt himself and then the tour goes up in smoke.
i love it.
Awkward! (as of now). I do have faith in Bono’s ability to learn quickly and be able to do something cool with it. It is a shame it doesn’t extend into the audience more, as was said earlier. It does seem a little bit “dog and pony” show right now though.
The jacket is fantastic. I want it.
The microphone has potential. I think as the tour progresses Bono will find less awkward ways to use it, but for now it’s a work in progress. It seemed Bono was having more fun playing with the microphone than he was singing the song!
I thought it was a solid effort for the first night, but that version of Crazy was . . . well, I hope it goes away (HAHA).
i hate to flog my own ideas, but i think, especially on that clip, there’s an intensity evident in bono’s voice, maybe because of the song, or maybe because of the function of that microphone. I think spatial separation is a bigger deal than we think. when bono’s talking the catwalk with a wireless mike, there’s no real filter between him and the audience, so sometimes he struggles to fill up the space, especially in this show. with a circular mike lowered from the rigging. there’s a part of the structure, an extension of it, that he can pour into, while still reaching the audience (literally, if you consider the lazers). Look at how fucking intense he is with his singing into that microphone (at least before he starts throwing it around, while let’s be honest, was going to happen all along. and, let’s also be honest. I think it used to be a lightbulb ["your love is a lightbulb, swinging over my head"] but they they realized that coldplay used that in an entire tour before they did, which is okay, but they gotta amp it up. how about, bono swinging back and forth above the audience, covered in lazers?).
now if we can geta couple more 90s songs to make their way into 360, even better.
kinda awkward at the moment – I don’t think bono has quite figured it out yet.
if he can get the timing and weight of it right, working out how far and for how long to swing it as well as figure out a more graceful way to swing on it himself then it could be a winer. it’s a great idea and a nice piece of set, but I don’t think he’s quite got the hang of it yet
That microphone + that jacket + that song live = way cool. Work in progress, but the way he “struggles” with the mic is very deliberately desperate. Love it.