Bono and The Edge (Getty Images)

For some, U2’s concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, also broadcast globally on YouTube, was the ultimate rock show. That’s understandable, depending on one’s vantage point at the massive stadium, and also the individual experience.  I don’t buy any genuine greatness this time out, for a variety of reasons, and it makes me a little sad, considering this is one of my favorite bands — especially live — of all time.

U2 is still one of the greatest rock shows ever, whenever the band tours (but not the greatest — just e-mail me here at Buzzine if you can’t figure out my all-time champs, and I will win any debate too). But the Rose Bowl show, nor the “360″ tour overall, is hardly the band’s best — not compared to the passion, power and emotional resonance of post 9/11 performances in 2001, or even the Vertigo tour shows of 2005. Those arenas dates seemed more urgent, though one can also find stadium concerts in Los Angeles that were equally dramatic and landmark: Zoo TV at Dodger Stadium in the early ’90s and the L.A. Coliseum some 22 years ago.

The Rose Bowl date, with an audience of nearly 100,000, made history as the YouTube event, but also led to big problems in the “Inner Circle” on stage surrounding the band.  That’s something most music critics in a comp ticket situation with an ivory tower approach/perspective fail at reporting. But I went as the everyday concert fan, with family…and it wasn’t all wonder. Far from it.  More on that in a bit. First, a show overview.

Black Eyed Peas (Getty Images)

As U2 opening acts go, Black Eyed Peas aren’t exactly on par compared to even other bands on this year’s tour — Muse and Snow Patrol.  The Peas are rah-rah party fluff, really. They have some catchy songs and bound about with unlimited energy, yes, but there ain’t much there, kids. Perhaps they were the right choice for a stadium show where many aren’t U2 hard-core, hoping for something obscure but purely there for the biggest hits only.

So from “Let’s Get It Started” (an obvious opener for ‘em) to their flaccid lip-service attempt at social commentary, “Where Is the Love?” it was…okay, let’s say. However, a move for rock credibility (yeah, right) found Slash — one of the most overrated guitarists in rock (he wrote some good riffs two decades ago, okay?) — turning up so Fergie could warble a bar-band passable version of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”  It was probably his first time in the venue since Guns N’ Roses opened for the Stones there 20 years ago.  For anyone who might make claims about the cultural/racial diversity of the Peas coming out of L.A. and all, that’s delusional and just a side-note. They’re a dog-and-pony music variation most of all:  The boys rap and sing; Fergie sings — mostly belts — the same way for most of the numbers.

Of course, anticipation for U2 was manic, but overall was hit-and-miss in pacing.  The lead songs of  ”Breath” and “Get On Your Boots” from the band’s current album, No Line on the Horizon — hardly one of its strongest works either artistically or in sales — were somewhat lackluster; then the group hit the mark with “Magnificent.”  The quest of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” was also moving, and an acoustic “Stuck in a Moment” was a definite highlight because of its simplicity and intimacy, even in the giant surroundings.

U2 (Getty Images)

The title song of the latest album actually fared much better live, as did the bittersweet “Unknown Caller,” while “Elevation” was charged and rising, and “Vertigo” rocked with a Rolling Stones “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll” coda.  In fact, Bono dropped in bits of songs by other artists throughout, as he’s done before. Best was “Stand By Me,” which turned into a full crowd sing-along.

Though surely one of rock’s finest front-men ever, he nonetheless seemed a bit off his game at times, flustered when some quips didn’t sail high or stage gimmicks didn’t work. (Who cares, really? They’re just silly gimmicks.)  When he flubbed a lyric or two, that was okay because it’s human.

Now about those gimmicks and the staging:  it wasn’t as spectacle of the sake of it as one might of thought, because the music did come first, but the production was still perhaps too much.  One might argue that’s needed in a stadium, but the counter to that are artists who’ve played stadium shows with video screens and lighting period.  The whole spaceship concept was a bit of B.S. bells-and-whistles, really.  The “claw” — mobile ramps/scaffolding — plus a catwalk all around the massive stage out to the crowd on main grass/floor of the stadium was impressive as a structure and a way to take the band, except for drums — planted Larry Mullen, Jr.  In fact, bassist Adam Clayton, with that James Bond cool look and the ever-zen The Edge in some John Fogerty plaid, worked it as well as Bono.

The show certainly has some emotional heights, especially “Walk On,” as ONE organization volunteers with masks of political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma took to the catwalk, and many in the audience also donned cardboard or paper masks as well. Yet, however a dramatic gesture, masks of various political prisoners from all over the world would have made an even greater statement.  The song closed out the main set, followed by a return with Irish gospel of “One,” then “Amazing Grace” into “Where the Streets Have No Name,” always an epic U2 moment, though this time not as much as in past tours — flash over soul.

Adam Clayton of U2 (Getty Images)

Among the final encore selections, a closing, certainly lovely “Moment of Surrender” came off more as another move to flog the current album rather than cap what was supposed to be an extra-special night. A probing stunner, such as “Bad,” would’ve done it and truly thrilled the most faithful.  But that didn’t happen.

As said above, what really colored my feelings about this show was the total experience.  Music critics’ in general call to over-pack the stage pit area’s Inner Circle because of the YouTube broadcast was a terrible disservice to those fans.  One can only share an experience and perspective, and for my wife, myself and our son, as well as others we got to know around us, it was not good.  It had been earlier in the day.

We arrived in the morning around 7:30 a.m. — hundreds already lined up.  Everyone was friendly and welcoming.  We made new friends during the day, which was like a picnic day in the park, complete with a nap under the shade of a tree for me.  Someone from either the venue or security used a sharpie to write numbers on the top of each person’s hand, presumably to be used in a line-up later…but that wasn’t the way it happened.  The organization was inept.  By 4:15, the line began to scrunch up, and not by numerical order all. The later arrival of the rude meant it didn’t matter if you had 715 and someone else had rushed the unstructured line with 1025.  Tough luck — folks seemed to be the unspoken yellow-jacket security mantra.

Then it was a move to that coveted Inner Circle — something to celebrate, we thought, to be part of a joyful evening.  That’s not how it played out at all. The pushing, shoving and general rudeness that surfaced was downright nasty as times. I’m upset with myself for losing my temper a few times over it (not good for health at all at this point). These were not the U2 fans you’d find in the heart of the Elevation tour or the pit ellipse of Vertigo. Not at all.  Some celebrity-types acting like they had entitlement over regular folk, also everyday boorish men — and women, so it wasn’t by gender — not thinking of others in a too-tight crowd that ranged from adults in their 50s or so down to quite a few pre-teen kids, in fact.  It was kind of ugly, really, and for every song that chimed right, another was spoiled by these people.  I wanted joy, comfort and to be lifted up — a lot to ask of a band, but U2 is not just any band. But I got little of any of that.

According to some who’d been in Las Vegas just two days earlier or at other dates, the same pit area offered more room to move, especially toward the rear.  But not in Pasadena.  Some women next to us, who’d flown in from Scotland, were wondering if it all had been worth it, visibly upset by halfway or so through the show.  And they weren’t the only ones.

Blame either U2 management or YouTube production for allowing that supposedly special Inner Circle to be stuffed beyond claustrophobia levels with little room to breath unless a stage fan or breeze hit right for a minute — and all for the sake of making it look even bigger for the world?  Was the band even aware of the horrible crush in front of them?  I don’t think so. And the truest U2 fans deserve much better than that. But on this night, some of them were just cattle to be herded and not cared about, other than some actually quite concerned security folks between the area and catwalk, and we thank them for that humanity. What a sad commentary on promotion and commerce over compassion and caring from a band known to champion the latter two.