The Original Achtung Baby

My friend Dawn and I went to see a U2 tribute band called The Original Achtung Baby on Saturday night. They were playing at The Venue in Dumfries, Scotland 30 miles from where I live.

The Venue was quite a small club, and had black leather sofas and armchairs scattered around the floor, I've never seen that before in a place like that! But they were very comfortable and we sat in a raised area close to the stage. There weren't that many people there, maybe 40-50, and most of them were aged 35+, which maybe says something about the Dumfries crowd or U2's fan base.

The band took the stage at 9.10pm and opened with Where The Streets Have No Name. "Bono" looked strange because he was quite tall with long legs, nothing like the short, stocky real version! Facially he wasn't much like Bono either. "Edge" was actually quite like the real thing, but played the guitar left handed. "Adam" did have a bit of the look of Mr Clayton and he had his mannerisms off to a "t" as they say. "Larry" looked nothing like the real Larry, but I've found most Larry's in tribute bands are unlike him - maybe that's because "It's all about the drums".

The set only consisted of songs up to Achtung Baby, there were no songs from later in U2's career which I thought was very strange and disappointing. "Bono" could sing, but his voice didn't really sound much like the real Bono's and he didn't really establish a rapport with the audience either. "Edge's" guitar playing was quite good, but sometimes the mix wasn't brilliant and the guitar wasn't as upfront as much as it should have been.

However, on a positive note it was really nice to hear some of the old songs again. A treat was when they did A Sort Of Homecoming and One Tree Hill, both rarely performed by U2 in the past, and both favourites of mine. They also did my all-time favourite song Bad, I never tire of it and I find it hard to believe it's 25 years old! Hearing all those songs from The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby made me realise the sheer brilliance of those albums and I feel U2, though still relevant, will never attain that level again.

The Original Achtung Baby were ok, but I wouldn't go to see them again, ZU2 who we saw last year were much better, and the now sadly disbanded NU2 were the very best. But it was nice to hear U2 songs played live again and it's an exciting thought that when we next hear some of those songs they will be performed by the real U2!