MANCHESTER, Tenn. - U2, along with the Rolling Stones, can lay claim to being the world's biggest rock 'n' roll act working today, and they proved why Friday night at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.
Accustomed to selling out the largest venues in the world, this was only their second festival ever. One of the reasons for that is their over-the-top stage shows demand lots of space for extra lighting, staging, video and pyrotechnics. On this tour the band is playing its 1987 hit record "The Joshua Tree" in its entirety, in addition to other hits from their 41-year career.
While that means Friday's show was smaller by U2 standards, it was by no means small. A giant, five-story-tall screen covered the entire back of the main stage, with equally big screens flanking the stage.
U2 used the screens to show videos of everything from Joshua trees to historic figures to streets to scrolling texts, including words from poet Walt Whitman and civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The size of the crowd was also notable, as it felt more like crowds of earlier years here when the entire field in front of the main What Stage was full and there were still plenty of people in the main Centeroo area. No other acts played during U2's set.
The band opened with "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," "New Year's Day" and "Pride" before launching into "The Joshua Tree." There also were the expected politically and socially motivated comments from lead singer Bono, but the night was mostly about music.
Last year's crowd was the smallest in the festival's 16-year history. Though Bonnaroo doesn't release numbers, tickets are capped at 80,000, and estimates for last year had the crowd at around 47,000. Friday night's crowd was much larger than that.
The crowd represented what Bonnaroo officials said last week are its target audiences: baby boomers, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, and millennials. Presumably U2, which has been around since 1976, drew much of the former, and electronic dance music and hip-hop music programmed all weeked on The Other stage drew the latter.
Earlier in the day Friday, U2 guitarist The Edge was presented the Les Paul Spirit Award in a private ceremony.
He is the second recipient of the award, given annually to a person who represents the spirit of the late Paul, a musician and guitar designer, through innovation, engineering, technology and/or music. A grant was made to the Les Paul Foundation and Bonnaroo Works Fund in The Edge's name.
The Edge told the gathered crowd that Paul, who would have turned 102 on Friday, was an engineer who liked to experiment, throw away accepted ways of doing things and "tear the rule book up."
"He liked to look at things and say, 'Oh, how can I do something that no one else has done?'"
That has been his approach as well, The Edge said.
Like U2, Norwegian band Klangstof played its first Bonnaroo on Friday on the Which Stage. Afterward, band members said seeing American fans singing the lyrics to their songs was "incredible."
"That was crazy. I didn't expect that at all," said drummer Jun Christian Villanueva.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.