U2360° at the Rose Bowl


U2360° at the Rose Bowl is a 2010 concert film by Irish rock band U2. It was shot on 25 October 2009 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, during the band's U2 360° Tour. The Rose Bowl concert featured a sold-out crowd of 97,014 people, breaking the US record for single concert attendance for one headline act. It was live streamed over the Internet via YouTube, and was later released on DVD and Blu-ray on 3 June 2010 in the United States, 7 June in the United Kingdom, and 8 June in Canada.

Background

The U2 360° Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2, launched in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. The tour was designed by Willie Williams, who has worked on every U2 tour since 1982. Mark Fisher is the architect. The tour featured a 360-degree configuration, with the stage being placed closer to the center of the stadium's field than usual. Williams had been toying with ideas for 360-degree stadium staging for U2 for a number of years, and presented sketches of a four-legged design to the group near the end of their Vertigo Tour in 2006. The inspiration for the "spaceship-on-four-legs" design, nicknamed "the Claw", came from the landmark Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport.
The initial tour dates were formally announced in March 2009. U2 played 44 shows in 2009, with an additional 38 concerts scheduled for 2010. The performance in Pasadena was the group's penultimate concert of 2009.

Filming

The 25 October 2009 concert in Pasadena, California was streamed live on U2's YouTube channel, the first time a concert was streamed live on YouTube. The feed was initially set to be restricted to 16 countries but was later made available worldwide. Over 10 million viewers streamed the concert, making it the largest streaming event in the website's history.
The shoot was directed by Tom Krueger, who had previously worked with the band on the film U2 3D. Following the success of U2 3D, show director Willie Williams asked Krueger to design the photography and video coverage for the U2 360° Tour. Originally 13 cameras were used for filming close-ups during the tour; however, Kruger added additional cameras for the Rose Bowl concert, resulting in a total of 27 cameras for the shoot. The additional cameras were used for crane shots and capturing footage of the audience. The show's attendance reached 97,014 people, breaking the US record for single concert attendance for one headline act, a mark U2 previously held.

Release

U2360° at the Rose Bowl was released on 3 June 2010 in the United States and 7 June in the United Kingdom. Four different formats were available, including standard DVD, deluxe DVD, a super deluxe box-set, and Blu-ray Disc. It is the first U2 concert available on Blu-ray. The DVD release was available in one- and two-disc formats, the latter which featured bonus features. Both releases featured the concert with a PCM stereo soundtrack, as well as DTS and Dolby Digital surround sound. The Blu-ray Disc release features the concert in 1080i with a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, as well as PCM stereo.
The bonus disc of content included with the deluxe and super deluxe editions contains the U2 360° Tour documentary Squaring the Circle directed by Tom Kelly, Tour Clips directed by Cutter Hodierne, and a timelapse video of a concert in Berlin. "Breathe" opened the concert in Pasadena, but was cut from the regular release; it is included as a bonus track. Other bonus material includes the music video "Get On Your Boots", the video for "Magnificent", the animated and live-action videos for "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight", and the making-of videos for "Get On Your Boots" and "Magnificent".
The standard release contains the concert only, while the deluxe release has the concert and the bonus disc. The super deluxe boxset includes a 32-page hardback book; a limited edition 2-disc DVD of U2360° at the Rose Bowl plus 2 hours of bonus material; a Blu-ray of U2360° at the Rose Bowl plus 2 hours of bonus material; a 7-inch vinyl containing the previously unreleased song "Soon", which was played on tour preceding the band's arrival on stage and was previously titled "Kingdom of Your Love"; three U2 360° guitar picks; the Tour Programme; a limited edition numbered drawing of the final stage design; and five art prints in an embossed wallet. The Blu-ray release contains bonus live features; footage from the forthcoming 2010 North American and European legs of the tour will be available to download to the Blu-ray player through an exclusive live feature on the disc.

Reception

U2360° at the Rose Bowl was well received by critics. The Irish Times gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, mainly praising the staging in the film and how it "houses everything required to make a good band seem great". Scotland's Daily Record said that the release was not U2's best "but still pretty damn good". Inthenews.co.uk compared the release to U2's performances of the 1980s and the more powerful vocals of the time, but said that the band "make up for it with a revolutionary stage, top-rate musical ability and plethora of instantly recognisable tracks". Andrew Mueller of Uncut felt that the concert was well-translated onto a home video release, and praised the political aspects of the film, but called the final song of the film—"Moment of Surrender"—an "ll-chosen closer" and "overlong and under-realised". Entertainment Weekly called the concert set "groundbreaking", and ranked U2360° at the Rose Bowl at number one on "The Must List" for the week prior to its release.
The Associated Press felt the video release of the concert was much better than its original live stream on YouTube, and stated that the concert showed the band "well-rehearsed and in good form", although criticized how Bono's voice was "audibly hoarse" in several songs. The Sydney Morning Herald said that the concert's songs from No Line on the Horizon "stand out for freshness" and referred to the performances of "MLK" and "One" as a "lovely interlude". Cameron Adams of various News Limited-published papers cited "The Unforgettable Fire" and "Moment of Surrender" as highlights of the concert, and said of the concert as a whole, "In a word: Enormous." Q gave the film a maximum score of four stars, saying the video proves that "The Claw is indeed breathtaking", and that "U2 are far too experienced to let themselves be overshadowed by the world's most expensive Doctor Who prop. It's the songs rather than the spectacle that drives the show."

Track listing

The show is preceded by an introduction montage, showing the "babyface", complete with a helmet, staring at a screen of U2 photographs inside a space ship.

Personnel

;U2
;Additional performers
;Technical

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Music DVDs Chart44
Dutch Music DVD 16
US Music Video Sales 8

Certifications