The singer and the guitarist of U2 engaged last week in the exercise of the acoustic concert of the American public radio, the famous “Tiny Desk”.
Bono and The Edge, playing alone these days, equipped with two microphones and an acoustic guitar, in an office, surrounded by books and files and in front of an audience of a few dozen employees. Rare images offered to us by the American public radio NPR, which has been delighting us for years with this acoustic program called “Tiny Desk”, in which dozens of groups and musicians have already participated.
Natural and cheerful
The singer and guitarist of U2, who just released a new album, Songs of Surrenderin which they reimagine 40 songs from the band’s repertoire in a stripped down fashion, could not find better than this exquisite program to prove that the new versions of their hits do without the stadium-grade rock power that U2 has come to expect.
In fact, The Edge and Bono engaged in the exercise with naturalness and good humor, joking between the songs. “All these years trying to avoid a desk job“, in particular joked the guitarist. According to NPR, whose offices are based in Washington, the two accomplices, who were traveling without bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr, had come specially from Ireland for the program, after a stopover five days of rehearsals in Bono’s New York apartment.
Four songs in acoustic version on the menu
In total, The Edge and Bono played four songs, including Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of inspired by their friend Michael Hutchence, the singer of INXS who killed himself in 1997, and a revamped version of walk on dedicated to the Ukrainian people, for whom U2 had been playing in May 2022 in the kyiv metro.
For the first two songs, Beautiful Day And In a Little Whiletaken from the album All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000), they summoned the choir of young students from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. During rehearsals, NPR reports, Bono advised students to think about Beautiful Day like the hymns you sing with friends when you leave a drunken bar. Until he pretended to have a heart attack, after suddenly realizing that none of the young people present were of legal drinking age…
1. Beautiful Day
2. In a Little While
3. Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
4. walk on