Snapshots from two shows in San Jose.
Two great sets in San Jose - eight shows and counting and 'Vertigo//2005' is really starting to find its feet.
'Hola Area De Bahia! ' said Bono during Vertigo on night one, 'Es El Sol Que Brilla Para Usted ?' In fact the sun was shining for everyone, from the unknown women who made it on the catwalk (hello Ali and Iris) to share the spotlight to the super-celebrated you expect to find on the the US West Coast.
On night one actor Sean Penn was at the show, along with the founders of Google - Sergey Brin and Larry Page. (As if to confirm the intrigue of U2 for the gurus of the tech sector, Terry Semel was also in the house - the guy who runs Yahoo.)
But it's no secret who was in there first with the marriage of music, U2 and the net - Steve Jobs, head of Apple, who was getting down to the beat in show two here. Jobs' alliance with U2 came just a few months ago (think customised iPod, Vertigo promo etc), which was only about a quarter of a century after Chris Blackwell - also on the mix for Show Two - signed the band to his Island Records.
But none of these illustrious figures would have noticed that actress Michelle Pfeiffer was in the house - she chose not to hang in the Mix area in front of the sound and lighting desks. Instead she was getting on down with the hardcore fans in the Elipse. Lucky Bono didn't spot her - he might have hauled her up onto the catwalk for a moment in the spotlight. Maybe he would have reached for her lipstick as he did with someone else tonight - and put it on his own lips. ('Well, this is the Bay Area, isn't it?' as he explained.)
Perhaps it was the fact that Bono and Edge had premiered Original of the Species in live form at the Apple launch of the U2 iPod which prompted the band to give the track its live debut here - to a deafening response. While a band with this big a catalogue of hits can't perform them all on any night, of the unperformed tracks from the latest album, the verdict in the chatrooms is that Original of the Species and Crumbs From Your Table are the most in demand. So that' s eight tracks from the new album played on the tour so far. Can 'Crumbs' be so far away ?
One final name-drop: Rogan Gregory, New York Fashion designer and one of the prime movers in Edun, the new fairly-traded designer label dreamt up by Ali Hewson.
