A Generous Gesture Bound to Look Good on Videotape

U2 played a surprise concert yesterday at Fulton Ferry State Park, next to the Brooklyn Bridge. Don’t miss Jon Pareles’ bemused reporting in the Times article, “Word of a Free Concert, Next to an Oft-Sold Bridge, Spreads Quickly”:

U2 played a not-so-secret free concert yesterday afternoon at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park on the bank of the East River in Brooklyn. For slightly more than an hour, with the Brooklyn Bridge overhead and the lights of downtown Manhattan as a backdrop, the band played songs from its new album, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” and a few older songs to thousands of well-behaved fans ready to shout “Yeah!” or clap along at any cue from Bono.

The concert was the culmination of a well-orchestrated video shoot that doubled as a publicity stunt for the Irish band. Through the afternoon, the four members of U2 were set up on the back of a flatbed truck. They were plugged in and performing the band’s next single, “All Because of You” as the truck’s route wound downtown from the Upper West Side, trailed by a helicopter for aerial shots.

. . .

The concert will be telecast by MTV on Dec. 8. But Bono played to the local audience, adding references to Brooklyn to some lyrics. “Why does this feel like a hometown concert?” he asked, to cheers. For an encore, U2 played a triumphal second take of “Vertigo.” As one lyric went “All of this can be yours,” Bono turned to the skyline, then changed it for the occasion: “All of this is yours,” he proclaimed with a grin. Like the concert itself, it was a generous gesture that is bound to look good on videotape.

(Note to self: remember phrase “a generous gesture that is bound to look good on videotape” for future use!)

Bonus point: Overheard in New York’s “Something Bloody Something”.