“America: A Tribute to Heroes”: Music, Mourning, and the Unified American Community

Abstract

U2 was a case in point: fans (including the authors) lucky enough to attend the band’s “Elevation Tour” prior to 9/11 were not only entertained but politicized vis-à-vis gun control and the NRA; the band also engaged in consciousness-raising around the international imbalance of wealth, particularly as it pertains to debt-laden Africa. Discrepancies between the first show we attended before the attacks (Buffalo, New York, May 31, 2001) and the second show after 9/11 (Hamilton, Ontario, October 13, 2001) included the abandonment of both of these agendas. Instead, the names of the 9/11 victims were scrolled on a screen. Moreover, a number of songs were omitted (“Mysterious Ways” and “Desire,” among others) and replaced with an invitation to an enthusiastic fan to perform with them onstage. The link established between the band and the audience through the interaction of the young performer was a particularly poignant and symbolic union, a stripping away of the boundaries to which we are usually accustomed in stadium concerts (to say nothing of the new social and political “boundary making” since 9/11). This invitation to a male audience member replaced a cornerstone of previous U2 performances: Bono’s practice of choosing a woman with whom to dance onstage. As such, the concert’s traditional voyeuristic display of desire and romance (between just two people) was circumvented and a moment of connection between the band and an enthusiastic fan (representing all enthusiastic fans) was inserted. As moving as this performance was, however, perhaps the most poignant moment of the band’s performance was at the end of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”: on the oversize screen the audience could see the silhouette of an audience member’s hand forming the peace sign with Bono standing behind, draped in an American flag which he held tight and cradled, as if he meant to console the United States in the wake of the attacks. Moments later, the song gave way to applause and the screen faded to black, leaving behind a powerful, lingering, political image.

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