Seriously, Bono, lead singer of the mega-popular band U2, really just needs to shut up.

Last night I tuned in to the live U2 concert on YouTube with some trepidation.  See, I used to be a major fan of U2 up through the late 1980’s.  I loved their first five albums, and I really enjoyed their concert film, Rattle & Hum to the point I have seen it numerous times, something I have never done with any other movie of the type.

When their next album came out, Achtung Baby, I was not sold on the new musical direction of the band, and I was even less sold on Bono’s increasingly holier-than-thou attitude he was taking with world events such as hunger, poverty, world peace and eventually climate change.  It seemed that no matter what the cause du jour was, Bono felt his opinion on the matter somehow mattered as he was, after all, the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands in history.

I continually tried to ignore Bono’s antics and pay attention to their music, but I was growing less and less happy with the band with each passing album.  After the latest album, No Line On The Horizon, I gave up as I found it pretty much impossible to listen to.

All this being said, I decided to check out the concert that was being shown for free on YouTube tonight, and I lasted exactly two songs before I turned it off.

I was struck almost immediately by a multitude of things that felt hypocritical for a band that has been annoying in their “save their world” attitudes.  When they launched the 360° world tour, a lot was made of the insanely large stage they were using, and the fact it took a multitude of semi trucks to transport it.  When the tour began in England, the criticism over the carbon footprint of the tour was almost instantaneous, and U2 guitarist The Edge found himself having to defend the band to the media, and also stressing that they had plans in place to offset their carbon footprint for the amount of materials they were transporting between shows.

Fine, but what about all of the other problems?

• The Sunday night show at the Rose Bowl was able to accommodate an extra 30,000 attendees due to the way the stage was set up, bringing attendance into the range of 90,000 people at the stadium.  Did their carbon credits include the number of vehicles used to get that many concert goers to the show?  The amount of water used in stadium bathrooms?
• While being escorted to the stage by numerous people, I noticed that there were spray painted markers on the ground telling the band where to stop and when.  (because the people walking with them wasn’t enough?) Was that eco-friendly spray paint?  was it going to be removed in some way so as not to wash into the sewer system?
• I know Google offsets their carbon emissions for their servers, but was U2 doing anything about the amount of energy being used by the people watching at home on their computers?

Okay, so even I thought I was probably being a bit overly harsh, and I decided to tune back in and give it another try.  As I watched Bono walking around on the outer section of the stage that extended through the crowd, he laid on the floor to sing, and as the song came to an end, the camera went to cut away, but just as it did I saw a stage hand pass a plastic water bottle to him … a plastic water bottle?  Okay, yeah, I gave them a second chance, and they blew it.

Honestly, I am not this concerned about the environmental issues, I do my part, but I don’t condemn others for their choices.  However, when you have been as insanely preachy as this man and his band have been, then you do have a different set of standards for them.  Apparently Bono will champion all of these causes all day long … until it comes time for him to fatten his already considerable wallet.

If this had been any other band up there on that stage I wouldn’t have paid one bit of attention to any of the things I have brought up in this post.  But when your frontman is one of the most holier-than-thou busy bodies in the world lecturing everyone in ear shot about how they should support this, do that, live this way, well, then you bring it on yourself.