Thunderbolt

  Column 1, Row 17: U2 , Rattle and Hum U2 are one of two acts that immediately conjure memories of my late friend, Matt (the other one is Dylan). Matt and I knew each other since first grade. Despite the comings and goings of other friends and girlfriends, we held on to that friendship until the early 2000s. It's a remarkable feat, when you think about it. We both left our suburban Cleveland hometown and moved west (he to Seattle, me to L.A.) and lived very different lives. What I remember of Matt was him chasing the that spark that brought him joy and wonder. He was always curious, sometimes to a fault, at least when I knew him. I can't tell you what he was like toward the end of his life; we'd lost touch. All that I have are the memories of the haunting young man I knew from young adulthood. Matt and I came of age in the mid to late 80s, as U2 made their commercial breakthroughs with War (1983) and The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and then became the most significant band ...

I spent the morning listening the U Talkin' U2 to Me podcast hosted by Adam Scott ( Parks and Rec ) and Scott Aukerman ( Comedy Bang Bang ) and their discussion about The Joshua Tree. I initially turned to this podcast to listen to the late Harris Wittels contributions to the show, but he left halfway through the recording. That's fine because the latter half of this particular episode touched upon side 2 of The Joshua Tree  and the lesser known songs from the album (lesser known by anyone unfamiliar with the band besides their radio hits). Man, that second side is almost perfect. It doesn't contain any of the anthems that side 1 does, and that makes the success of The Joshua Tree  all that more remarkable. New fans of the band may have expected a full album of rousing songs that shook the rafters of baseball stadiums. Instead, beginning with the last track on side 1, the heroin tragedy, "Running to Stand Still," the rest  of the songs have a shade of darkness t...