Elevation 2001: Live from Boston

Elevation 2001: Live from Boston is a concert film by Irish rock band U2. It was filmed on 5–6 and 9 June 2001 at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts, during the first American leg of the group's Elevation Tour. It was released as a two-disc DVD by Island Records in the United Kingdom on 26 November 2001, and by Interscope Records in the United States a month later. Elevation 2001 was the first of two video releases from the tour, the second being U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Ireland in 2003.

Elevation 2001: Live from Boston
Video by
U2
Released26 November 2001 (2001-11-26)
Recorded5, 6, 9 June 2001
VenueFleet Center (Boston, Massachusetts)
GenreRock
Length107:58
LabelIsland
DirectorHamish Hamilton
ProducerNed O'Hanlon
U2 chronology
All That You Can't Leave Behind
(2000)		 Elevation 2001: Live from Boston
(2001)		 7
(2002)

The first disc contains the standard concert footage, while the second disc contains alternate camera feeds from a small recorder in lead vocalist Bono's trademark glasses, showing unique perspectives of the band while on and off stage. Several bonus features were included on both discs. Elevation 2001 received certifications in several regions including Mexico, where it was certified gold based on imports alone,[1] and the United States, where it became the band's best-selling video.[2] The video sold 700,000 copies by the beginning of 2002.

Background and production

U2 started their 2001 Elevation Tour on 24 March at the National Car Rental Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with the final concert held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami on 2 December. The tour was divided into three legs, two in North America and one in Europe, and also included two concerts at Slane Castle—one of which was documented and released on U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Ireland.

Two "Easter Eggs" are also included on the DVD, these are the Bono Cam views of "Until the End of the World" and "Elevation" from June 9, 2001 in Boston. In fact the whole DVD/VHS although labelled as being from June 6, is actually mixed footage from June 5 and 6, with additional Bono cam footage from June 9. The concerts were directed by Hamish Hamilton and produced by Ned O'Hanlon. Both have worked with U2 on several other occasions, including for the videos U2 Go Home and Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago.

Elevation 2001: Live From Boston captures the band's return to performing to indoor venues, making for a more intimate experience. The band had played mostly large outdoor stadiums over the previous decade on their Zoo TV and PopMart Tours.

After U2's performance was filmed in Boston for the video release, producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer John Harris (of Effanel Music) created stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes of the concert. The band could not be physically present to give feedback, as they were still on tour, so guitarist the Edge collaborated with Lillywhite and Harris remotely on the mixes. Using technology provided by Rocket Network, the Edge used an interface at Abbey Road Studios to access the mixes on secure servers and make edits in Pro Tools, which were then shared with Lillywhite and Harris.[3]

Release and promotion

Part of U2's 6 June concert in Boston was broadcast on NBC during halftime of Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals; the network aired a live performance of "Where the Streets Have No Name", followed by a pre-recorded performance of "Elevation" from earlier.[4]

The video was released on a two-disc DVD set for a list price of US$32.98 and on VHS for US$19.98. In North America, Interscope Records agreed to give retailer Best Buy a two-week exclusivity window in which to sell the video starting 20 November 2001, before offering it to other retailers on 4 December. Sources told Billboard that the promotion was proposed to the band by a consortium of media partners consisting of DirecTV, VH1, Clear Channel Communications, and Best Buy, who agreed to commit US$10 million to market the video. The deal as originally proposed would have given Best Buy the exclusive rights to sell the video, but Interscope was concerned with how other retailers would react and negotiated a reduced exclusivity. The concert was broadcast on VH1 on 24 November and on DirecTV on 2 December.[5]

Many retailers reacted negatively to the two-week exclusivity given to Best Buy. Glen Ward, the president of North American operations for Virgin Entertainment Group, said Interscope was acting irresponsibly, stating, "They should be helping us to stimulate the consumer, instead of restricting our business and kowtowing to creamers". Ward said his chain would not sell Elevation 2001 and would not feature the band's most recent album All That You Can't Leave Behind in any price-and-position promotions. Smaller merchants said they were considering collaborating with each other to send a unified statement against the video. Many of them feared that the promotion would usher in a trend of large retail chains demanding similar promotions, which would hurt the business of independent stores. One retailer said, "I always thought [U2] were about helping the little guy and promoting world peace and things like that, but it turns out they are just another corporate sellout [that] doesn't care who they hurt in making money."[5]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmovie[6]
The Arizona RepublicAbove Average[7]
Edmonton Journal[8]

During the first week of Best Buy's two-week exclusivity window to distribute Elevation 2001, the video sold 23,000 copies at the retailer.[9] The video sold 700,000 copies by the beginning of 2002.[10]

Track listing
  1. "Elevation"
  2. "Beautiful Day"
  3. "Until the End of the World"
  4. "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"
  5. "Kite"
  6. "Gone"
  7. "New York"
  8. "I Will Follow"
  9. "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
  10. "In a Little While"
  11. "Desire"
  12. "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"
  13. "Bad" / "40" (snippet)
  14. "Where the Streets Have No Name"
  15. "Bullet the Blue Sky"
  16. "With or Without You"
  17. "The Fly"
  18. "Wake Up Dead Man"
  19. "Walk On"

Bonus features
  • Disc 1:
    • The Making of the Filming of "Elevation 2001: Live from Boston"
    • Easter egg No. 1 – To access the Easter egg, click the "Making of the Filming of". Fast forward to the end and look for the Dreamchaser logo in the credits. At the top of the logo, you will see a little Bono head. Click on it as quickly as possible. Next, you will see a screen with flashing cubes. Enter the following: "1 enter, 9 enter, 7 enter, 6 enter" while the cubes are flashing to access the special BonoCam feature for the first 4 minutes of "Elevation". Also the audio during this is straight from Bono's ear monitor.
  • Disc 2:
    • Another Perspective – Concert with alternative angles: fan cam, director cam
    • Road Movie – Time-lapse footage of a day on the road
    • Additional tracks
      • "Beautiful Day" live from Dublin, September 2000 (Although on the DVD it is listed as "Toronto, Canada")
      • "Elevation" live from Miami, first show souvenir, March 2001
      • "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" live from Hanover, Dublin, and France, July 2000
    • Trailers
    • Easter egg No. 2 – To access the Easter egg, go to the help menu (the question mark in the bottom left). When in the help menu you enter "1 enter 9 enter 9 enter 1 enter" and you see "Until the end of the world" from the BonoCam.

Equipment

Guitars used:

Best Buy promo CD

On Black Friday in 2001, Best Buy distributed a free exclusive promo CD entitled 3 Live Tracks from Boston. It features three songs from the Elevation 2001: Live from Boston DVD. The CD lists all performances as being from the concert on 6 June 2001; however, "Gone" was actually recorded on 5 June.[11]

  1. "Beautiful Day" – 4:56
  2. "Gone" – 5:05
  3. "I Will Follow" – 5:34

Charts and certifications

References
  1. "Certification Search Results". Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (in Spanish). Archived from the original (PHP) on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  2. "Gold & Platinum Searchable Database" (PHP). Recording Industry Association of America. Search for U2 under Artist Name in the Advanced Search section and select Video Longform.
  3. Walsh, Christopher (9 February 2002). "Studio Monitor". Billboard. Vol. 114 no. 6. p. 40.
  4. Hoffarth, Tom (7 June 2001). "NBC pumps some life into halftime show". The Desert Sun. p. C2.
  5. Christman, Ed (24 November 2001). "Best Buy Coup On U2 DVD Leaves Indies Angry And Fearful". Billboard. Vol. 113 no. 47. p. 67.
  6. "U2: Elevation 2001 – Live from Boston [2 Discs]". Allmovie. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  7. Janes, Théoden K. (7 December 2001). "'Pearl Harbor' epic receives timely release". The Arizona Republic. p. P8.
  8. Sperounes, Sandra (29 December 2001). "U2 reaches even higher with Elevation". Edmonton Journal. p. E3.
  9. Mayfield, Geoff (8 December 2001). "Over the Counter". Billboard. Vol. 113 no. 49. p. 85.
  10. Koranteng, Juliana (4 May 2002). "Worth a spin: DVD's prime movers. (DVD Spotlight)". Music & Media. Vol. 20 no. 19. p. 8.
  11. :: U2 Discography – Three Tracks Live from Boston Promo Single – U2 Wanderer.org ::
  12. "The ARIA Report (Issue 616)" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Pandora Archive. p. 20. Archived from the original on 21 February 2002. Retrieved 19 August 2011.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. "Musik Video Top-10: Uge 49 – 2001" (in Danish). Hitlisten.NU.
  14. "U2 – Elevation 2001 - Live from Boston [DVD]" (in Dutch). Dutchcharts.nl. Hung Medien.
  15. "Top 20 DVD, Week Ending 6 December 2001". GfK Chart-Track. Archived from the original (JSP) on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  16. "Veckolista DVD Album – Vecka 49, 2001" (in Swedish). Sverigetopplistan.
  17. "Official Music Video Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company.
  18. "Billboard TOP MUSIC VIDEOS". Billboard. Vol. 114 no. 6. 9 February 2002. p. 52.
  19. "DVD: Classifica settimanale WK 32 (dal 08.08.2005 al 14.08.2005)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana.
  20. "ARIA Top 40 Music DVD for 2002". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  21. "Årslista DVD Album, 2002" (in Swedish). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  22. "Jaaroverzichten – DVD Music 2003". Dutch Charts (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  23. "2003 Music DVD Top 100". Music Week. 17 January 2004. p. 17.
  24. "Discos de Oro y Platino" (in Spanish). Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Archived from the original on 31 May 2011.
  25. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2004 DVDs". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020.
  26. "Austrian video certifications – U2 – Elevation Tour 2001-Live" (in German). IFPI Austria.
  27. "Brazilian video certifications – U2 – Elevation 2001: Live from Boston" (in Portuguese). Pro-Música Brasil.
  28. "Canadian video certifications – U2 – Elevation 2001 Tour: Live at Boston". Music Canada.
  29. "French video certifications – U2 – Elevation Tour Live from Boston" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
  30. "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (U2; 'Elevation 2001')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  31. "British video certifications – U2 – Elevation 2001: Live from Boston". British Phonographic Industry.
  32. "American video certifications – U2 – Elevation Tour 2001: Live from Boston". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Video Longform, then click SEARCH. 
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