LimeWire Music Blog

As if behemoth band U2 wasn’t busy enough recording yet another album, saving AIDS infected African babies, and penning the score to Spiderman the Musical, the lads somehow found time to stop by Chicago’s music venue Metro to promote their 12th record, No Line on the Horizon, and the September 12th kickoff to their U.S. tour commencing at Soldiers Field.

U2 is used to playing stadiums and emerging from lemons in their live shows, but last night was the most understated U2 event you probably ever experienced. During a radio promotion with only 500 audience members, the quartet sat with Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson to field questions from the audience and be DJs for the night. Each member took a turn “spinning” a song that played on the airwaves. Well, I think we all know they aren’t really pushing the buttons themselves, so maybe it’s best to describe it as “light DJing.” It seems the guys have kept up on hip music playing everything from Arcade Fire to Leonard Cohen.

“As I do come from a long line of traveling sales people on my mother’s side… here were are, traveling from town to town, laying out our wares,” Bono told his fans. For the past few years, Bono and Co. have been trying to oust the Rolling Stones as the biggest (well, most lucrative) band in the world. For a band that’s sold over 145 million records worldwide and inked a multi-million dollar deal with Live Nation last year, why do they even need to promote themselves? Sure, their last record came out in 2004, but we haven’t forgotten them in that span of time. As Jim “DeRo” DeRogatis of the Chicago-Sun Times pointed out, “The Irish rockers did not perform, and they declined to talk to the press, lest they be forced to confront any mildly thorny questions” – like encroaching on the subject of an impending Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger that could be the death knell to the already floundering music industry. U2’s aptly named theater-in-the-round 360 Tour will hopefully enable all fans to see the band perform. DeRo was pretty focused on Bono’s opinion of the Live Nation merger, but the real burning question is: Seriously, does Bono ever take off those shades, or are they sewn into his face? — Garin Pirnia

image via MySpace