began an end today

A long time ago, the guitarist tried to convince me that we should do a cover of U2's 'Numb' with the vocals somewhat mimicking a certain impassioned speech given by Denzel Washington in the role of Malcolm X (Hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!). I just couldn't see how that would work, and we never tried it. But it hit me today. I get it now. I don't know if I would have had the confidence as a performer to pull it off, but I do wish we had tried it.

Another time in Christian and Uncle Paul's apartment in Alexandria (perhaps it was the same time as the one previously mentioned, I don't know), we treated ourselves to a viewing of the U2 Live in Sydney LaserDisc. Man, what a great show. When the band played 'Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car', always one of my favorite U2 songs, cannons on either side of the stage shot fake money into the air, and thousands of bills bearing Bono's face fluttered into the crowd. At which point Uncle Paul spoke up and said "I just wish this show could be more decadent. It's so understated." I keep hoping the show will be released on DVD, but so far no dice. What has been released to U2.com members (of which I am not one) is a CD of, I think, the previous night's show. Now, I'm not 100% sure of this, but if I remember correctly from reading U2 at the End of the World, that was the night Adam Clayton didn't play with the band because he was passed out in his hotel room, the only time anything like that ever happened on a U2 tour. Would they have released that recording? At any rate, Christian dubbed that LaserDisc onto cassette for me, and I wore it out, and later he dubbed it onto MiniDisc (a format which should have gained more traction), and I got to know every minute of that show very well. This new release, being the night before(?), is not quite as good. There are some highs reached in the video that just don't quite come through in this performance, but it's still a damn good listen.

U2 - Numb [Soul Assassins Mix]
U2 - Numb (Live in Sydney)
U2 - Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car (Live in Sydney)

Almost completely unrelated:
Sia - Numb