The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 131

The Tampa Tribune Friday, June 17, 1983 15 Main Events This U2 flies high in 'War' 172 and The Alarm play at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Curtis Hixon Hall. Tickets are $8.75 plus a service charge and available at all Se-lect-a-Seat outlets. by David Okamoto 2 and the J. Geils Band have about as much in common as Billy Martin and Mr.

Rogers. I iiiPS MW fell? 1 it mm litmMMM: But somehow, Geils, a veteran Flying high as U2 are, from left, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Bono Hewson and Adam Clayton. bar band raised on blues and booze, and U2, a fresh-faced, powerful, Irish new wave band, made a formidable combination when they toured together last year. At Curtis Hixon Hall, U2 was greeted warmly. No bottles were thrown (the same couldnt be said for acts that have opened at other Geils shows in Tampa).

Instead, the band drew cheers and an array of lit matches and lighters, a ritual that the band had not experienced in its previous shows in small clubs. "What's with the lights?" asked mystified lead singer Bono Hewson. "Is that good?" Originally, U2 had sworn never to open shows for anyone. When it released its first LP, "Boy," in 1981, the group purposely routed around small clubs in small towns (including a show at the now-defunct End Zone in Tampa). But last year, the band was having trouble promoting its second LP, "October," because of legal hassles its record company was having with its distributor.

So it hopped on tour with Geils and won oyer new fans who were not yet familiar with such U2 classics as "Gloria," "Out of Control" and the group's first hit, "I Will Follow." "At that stage, we were in a situation where having us on the bill was actually a draw and benefit for Geils," said bassist Adam Clayton during a recent phone interview. He added that opening for an act with such a fervent following was a good experience. has left them open for rides on the rock "n' roll rumor mill. Last year, much was written about a falling out between Clayton, the only non-Christian in the band, and the others. Such talk came to an end, however, when Clayton served as best man at Hewson's wedding.

"It was never a falling out," Clayton explained. "There was a period when we were all confused about what we were doing and where we were going." But the conflicts "actually gave us real strength we had been working for five, six years at that point and there was confusion between work, girlfriends and Christianity. We had to reassess it" Despite all the political and religious overtones to U2's music, many Americans still relate to the band chiefly as a rock group with a great guitarist in The Edge. Such oversimplification is to be expected, though, since U2 doesnt print the lyrics to every song on the albums. "It's really the songs that we think people need to see written down," Clayton said.

"Some songs dont look good written down If you try to show people too much, you lose the charm of people relating to it in their own way. When people dont hear specific lyrics, they get the atmosphere of the song, and that's the way it should be." El there's been lots of slop, 'I love you stuff. But great rock 'n' roll has to have personality, you have to lay yourself on the line It has to have soul, it has to have personality." Although earlier songs always showed the band to be more intelligent and mature than most of its peers, Clayton said the group couldnt have taken such stands on its first LP. "I dont think we were mature enough then," he said. "I think the trilogy worked quite well.

'Boy' was sensual, and it deals with teenage sex, searching for oneself, a teen-age ritual we all go through." "October" was "more spiritual," he said, as songs like "Gloria" and "Rejoice" showed the first glimpse of the band's Christian leanings. On the new LP, "we arrived at a situation where we could actually comment without being little boys and be taken seriously," Clayton added. He isn't worried about all the publicity surrounding U2's Christian side. "It's really up to the members of the public to interpret," he said. "If they find it particularly threatening, that's their problem Most of their fans "dont see it as a soapbox situation," he said.

"They vjew us with a bit more respect than that" But the group's religious side "It makes a band go out there and really fight for the gig," he said. The release of the critically acclaimed "War," its third LP, has vaulted U2 beyond cult followings. The band is headlining large halls on the strength of such haunting hits as "New Year's Day" and "Two Hearts Beat as One" (the album holds the No. 19 position in Billboard's Top 100 chart). Yet, as the title suggests, there's more to "War" than just the hypnotic guitar work of The Edge (real name David Evans), the emotive singing of Hewson and the powerful rhythm section of Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen.

The album sharply addresses a number of political subjects "Sunday Bloody Sunday" relates to the violence and segregation between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland; "New Year's Day" draws from Poland's Solidarity movement; and "Seconds" deals with nuclear holocaust All are strong, stark statements, hardly what one might expect from a band whose members' average age is 21 "I don't see anything wrong with it," 23-yearnold Clayton said. "You should be relevant, you should reflect what's happening in the world. For a long time there hasn't been any relevant music In terms of relating to humanity.