The Musical Influence of U2

At my church we have started a night service, so far we have been going for about 8 weeks and it has been a lot of fun.

I have been involved in the music every week except one, so a lot of my thoughts about music have been related to this service. One thing that has struck me recently is how heavily influential U2 is on modern day worship music.

U2’s signature sound is basically repetitive simple guitar riffs using modulated delay effects. Listen to almost any modern worship band (especially Hillsong) and that style is prevalent.

I was trying to figure out why it is such a popular sound with worship bands and while I can’t explain in technical terms (Because I don’t know them) the way the mind responds, there is something in that riff which makes you sway and distracts your mind from other things just drawing your attention to the music. Then the way that you can swell the sound to create a feel of excitement, or drop it back to create that feel of contentment.

I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but it has been interesting considering it, and generally considering how influential U2 has been in music.

Their influence extends well beyond worship music too. Today I heard this new John Mayer song for the first time which to me has that U2 sound. I’m not saying he copied because he is a brilliant musician in his own right, and the songs are still quite different, but compare these songs and maybe you can see the U2 influence I am thinking of.

And these for the influence I am thinking of in worship music. Again, obviously not a copy of a track but certainly a style that has influenced.

I find it interesting anyway.

U2 – Expect a great show, Get a great show.

Last night was the second time I have had the pleasure of seeing U2 live in concert.  The first time was in Auckland 3 years ago where the show was opened by Kanye West. For a long time now I have believed you should never miss an opportunity to see a great band live, and this time the show was being opened by the Black Eyed Peas so I got to see a quite good band as well as a great band.

The cool thing about this opening act was it didn’t really feel like an opening act. Usually opening acts don’t use the big screen and don’t get full light shows, they usually tone it down so that the main act doesn’t get shown up. Black Eyed Peas didn’t tone anything down, they had full stage setup, full lights, weird robot back up dancers and the whole deal. They did a good show, some old stuff, some new stuff, some Fergie solo stuff, but the best was their final song “I Gotta Feeling”.

U2 can afford to let other bands who open for them do what they want to do, because there is really not much chance of them being shown up. When you go to U2, you expect a great show and a great show is what you get. From the moment you walk in to the building you know how much of a show you are in line for with a giant stage that is almost too big for the giant stadium and looking as if it could start walking at any second.

We were fortunate enough to get right up beside the rail, close enough to see the scuff of the soles of Bono’s oversized “I wish I was taller” shoes. This is a necessity when you have a short wife and I kind felt sorry for all the other short wives behind us, but oh well – we got their earlier than them and earned the spot.

I was actually really nervous about this show as I have heard horrible things about the acoustics at BC place. While the Black Eyed Peas were on, the sound was o.k. with 1 or 2 exceptions where it was really quite bad, and the first 2 U2 songs were a little distorted but after that I was really quite dialed for an indoor stadium. Ironically though just as Bono was listing off thank yous and just as he had thanked the amazing sound crew, his microphone gave an ear-piercing crackle.

My only criticism on the night is that with a 360 degree stage, you inevitable feel neglected when the bad goes to the other side. There were certain breaks in the concert when that happened which sort of drained the energy from around you for a few minutes.

There is not much point in a detailed review of U2, because everyone knows what it is going to be like. Rousing anthems, great guitar rifts, solid bass playing, marching band like drum beats and excessive ego strutting. That combined with an exceptionally cool stage setup and amazing lighting. You go to U2 expecting a great show and that is exactly what you get.

Dan Ray once said “it just hit me that i’ve never been to a U2 concert. And that’s maybe the most tragic thing about my life.” Regardless of what you can read in to that statement, I think it’s true that everyone should go to a U2 concert!

Where The Streets Has No Name is still the greatest live song I have ever heard.
Setlist:

Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stuck In A Moment
No Line on the Horizon
Elevation
In A Little While
Unknown Caller
Until The End of the World
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy – Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name

Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

2010: It’s going to be a great winter

Environment Canada has been freaking me out a little with all their too hot to snow forecasts. So in an act of desperation for some good news, I did a search and found the Farmers Almanac.

Apparently the Farmers Almanac has an 80 – 85% accuracy rating on long range forecasts and they predict snow and lots of it. Therefore, for the good of the Olympics and my mental health I have chose to believe the Farmers Almanac.

So far, they are right. There has already been a few snowfalls on the local mountains and if you look at the Whistler webcams you would think the season was ready to start. And it’s only October.

2010 Long-Range Weather Forecast

Location changed to Vancouver, BC

Annual Weather Summary: November 2009 to October 2010

Winter temperatures will be below normal, on average, with above-normal precipitation and much above normal snowfall. The coldest temperatures will occur in mid- and late December, mid-January, and mid-February, with the heaviest snowfalls in mid- and late December and mid-January.

April and May will be drier than normal, with slightly cooler temperatures.

Summer will be warmer and drier than normal, with the hottest temperatures in mid- to late July and early August.

September and October will be slightly drier than normal, with near-normal temperatures.

Detailed Forecast for the Next Two Months

OCTOBER 2009: temperature 9°C (avg.); precipitation 60mm (10mm below avg. east, 70mm below west); Oct 1-6: Rain, then sunny, warm; Oct 7-16: Showers, then sunny, seasonable; Oct 17-21: Showers, then sunny, cool; Oct 22-25: Rain, mild; Oct 26-28: Snow northeast, rain elsewhere; cool; Oct 29-31: Showers.

NOVEMBER 2009: temperature 4°C (1°C below avg.); precipitation 105mm (20mm above avg. east, 20mm below avg. west); Nov 1-5: Rain, cool; snow northeast; Nov 6-11: Sunny, cool; Nov 12-15: Cloudy, mild; Nov 16-20: Heavy rain, seasonable; snow northeast; Nov 21-22: Rain and snow showers, cold; Nov 23-25: Rain coast, snow inland; cold; Nov 26-30: Rain and snow showers, milder.

http://www.almanac.com/WEATHER/LONGRANGE

 

I have a new goal in life

I might wait until I’m about to die anyway, I figure you can do this when you’re old right?

I’m starting to get pumped for winter

At the moment we have a friend from home who is here for the snow season and beyond staying with us. Before he arrived I was gutted that summer was ending and not really looking forward to winter. But we have been talking boards and runs and mountains and powder and watching some snow dvds and now I am starting to feel excited again.

Just to tease myself I found this. It made me happy

Sad Waste

I was sent this article today about a mountain biker called Sam Brown. It is one of those stories that really makes me sad and angry. I will abbreviate it for you.

Basically it is about a guy who grew up with his family in the middle of no-where, living off the land. The spent a lot of time in New Zealand in an area on the South West Coast which is about as deserted as you get in a country as small as NZ. After some family problems he moved back to Canada and lived in an area of central BC which would make NZ seem like a metropolis.

He got in to mountain biking and started building trails that no-one else could ride. He would show up as an unknown to a pro competition and beat all the pros. Basically he was a fearless thrill seeker, out to enjoy every opportunity he was given and when no opportunity was given he would make his own.

He was working in the logging industry and learned to fly helicopters so he could access some of the back country areas you can’t drive to. He would use the helis for fun too, doing back country  bike trips.

Central BC is world renown for growing marijuana and there are whole towns in the mountains that survive on it as their main industry (no it is not legal). After listening to stories from drug runners and narrow escapes, he thought it sounded like another fun adventure to go on, so he started flying drugs over the border.

From there it is just another sad drug story, he starts using, gets hooked on money and greed, takes a bunch of risks and gets caught. The story ends with an apparent suicide in his jail cell.

Drugs make me so mad. This guy seemed to be quite innocent, just out for fun. I can relate to him because there is so much of me that wants to be as free and loose as he lived, but I guess I have just that right amount of sense to hold me back. For him, I wonder if he would have got pushed over the edge in to insanity if it wasn’t for the drugs.

I don’t want to defend him, I’m sure he wasn’t any angel before the drugs, but how many people does it have that grip over that pushes them to the next level of mistakes. Broken homes, school drop outs, job losses, friendships ruined, poverty, crime to pay for them, prostitution, murders, suicides. Drugs are so ugly, so sad.

The full article is here, I found it a good read. http://pro-webpage.com/kathy/SamBrown.php

This is him riding one of his creations which apparently only one other person ever succeeded in riding it.

Free MTB movie

I love free stuff!

If your a mountain biker you are probably on Pinkbike.com often, if your not then you should be. For those who made the right right choice and regularly frequent the site you will be familiar with Aaron LaRocque and his amazing filing and editing skills.

He has made a movie and wisely decided to put the whole thing on-line for free viewing. I can’t figure out how to post it to my site, but you can watch it directly on the pink bike site following this link

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Whats-Next3F—Watch-free-Now21.html

Or you can download it for free from this site.

http://www.geax.com/

The trails are the sort of thing we are riding now (though we don’t have quite the style of these riders), so it is really fun to watch.

Enjoy

Blog Suggestions

Sometimes I run out of ideas of things to put on here. Usually it is time that holds me back, but sometimes I need suggestions. This was suggested by Ryan:

Freight Train

Probably my favorite bike route at the moment is at Whistler, it starts up the top and goes down Freight Train, to Dirt Merchant and finishes on A-Line. Such a fun route!

This picture is the only one we have of either of us riding this year. It is Kirsty doing a step up jump on to a set of 4 shipping containers, which has a drop off on the other side.

Power Ballads

I don’t know what it is about them, but for some reason power ballads just make me want to yell and scream like a teenage girl at a Beyonce concert, or sing at the top of my lungs like an old lady at a Celine Dion concert.

Apparently I am not alone. I was just listening to Don’t Stop Believing by Journey and in consideration of those I share an office area, resisting the urge to belt it out. Marjorie who works in my office asked me when it was released so I had to google it. 1981 is the answer, but I also found out this other fascinating information:

The song reached #8 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, and #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also peaked at #62 on the UK singles chart. In 2006, it was ranked as the 11th greatest song of the list of the 100 greatest songs of the ’80s by VH1. It is the most downloaded song not released in the 21st century of all time in the iTunes Music Store^[2] and was the 72nd most downloaded song of 2008 in the store, over 27 years after its release. The song is one of the most popular rock tracks in Ireland and continues to remain in the top ten most downloaded songs.^[3] On August 31, 2009 the song had topped the 3 million mark in paid downloads. “^[4]

I particularly found the non-21st century part interesting. That means it beats everything from the 80’s and 90’s and before. That means it beats the likes of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson. I found that quite surprising and strangely satisfying.

If you are unsure about what song I am talking about – shame on you! but you can listen here: http://widgets.grooveshark.com/make?widgetid=15409012