(Is Rockinist Even a Word???)

I’ve always been of the frame of mind that there are just certain bands everyone needs to see. Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Beastie Boys all come to mind. Perhaps the one band I’m convinced puts on the best live show is the one band I have been dying to see the most. U2, without a doubt, the world’s biggest band, are of a different caliber when it comes to performing live. Or at least thats what I assume. I’ve been online the moment tickets have gone on sale and never gotten them, bought DVDs and blasted the sound to the max. I’ve tried to get close to that feeling but to no avail.

Last Thursday, I got my biggest taste of live U2 to date. I had a chance to catch a screening of U2 3D, the first digital 3D IMAX movie, at the National Museum of Natural History. In a word, it was unreal. Anyone who has been on a 4th grade field trip has probably seen an IMAX but instead of a trip Mt. Everest or to the bottom of the ocean, you are in the crowd, behind the drums and on stage with the pride of Ireland. Combine that with impeccable sound and 3D images, you’re in a different world. It’s (and sorry for the U2 pun) even better than the real thing.

The movie was shot over a series of shows in South America from U2’s Vertigo Tour. Two and a half decades are covered with songs ranging from the classics (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Where the Streets Have No Name) to the recent (Vertigo, Beautiful Day). Some highlights:

• During Sunday Bloody Sunday, when Bono sings “wipe your tears away” and reaches out to the crowd to wipe their tears away in 3D, you’ll gasp.
• The transition from Pride in the Name of Love to Where the Streets Have No Name is just unreal. The crowd jumping in 3D, the build of the drums, everything. It is awesome.
• Bono goes on a trademark whole world peace, coexist, poverty, human rights rant. When you’re right in his face, you believe him a little more. When he drums during Love and Peace or Else, as staged and corny as it was, it felt pretty sweet.

The film is playing at the National Museum of Natural History through March 1. Click here for showtimes.

Check out footage from the premier at Sundance: