Even in U2's staggering catalog of chart-topping hits and fan favorites, “Pride (In the Name of Love),” the musically infectious paean to noble self-sacrifice, remains the band's signature track.
So of course the Toledo Symphony Orchestra String Quartet will perform “Pride” at some point during its two-hour-plus U2 tribute concert Wednesday night at Fleetwood's Tap Room, 28 N. St. Clair St. in downtown.
But it's not going to be easy, said Merwin Siu, one of the quartet’s two violinists.
“ ‘Pride’ is tricky," Siu said. “It's pretty raw, especially if you’re looking at something like ‘Mysterious Ways’ or ‘Beautiful Day,’ which don't feel like their skin is being scraped off” by a string quartet arrangement.
Musicians, however, often confront such creative challenges for precisely that reason: their difficulty.
“ ‘Pride’ ... is so viscerally powerful” in a live setting, Siu said. “We really want to do it. I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get it done.”
TSO Performs the Music of U2
When: 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Fleetwood's Tap Room, 28 N. St. Clair St.
Admission: Advance tickets are sold out, but more tickets may be released
Information: hensvilletoldo.com
The 1984 single is one of 15 or more U2 songs the string quartet — Cheryl Trace, violin; Reed Anderson, viola; Robert Clemens, cello — will perform in its pub show. The intimate setting of the concert, though, isn’t unnatural to the rock band’s music.
U2 has been filling up and shaking arenas for long enough that memories and connections to the band’s early club days as punk-inspired teenagers with amp fuzz to spare are foggy and spotty. Listen to early bootlegs of the Dublin quartet in boisterous venues from the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, and U2’s power to connect with an audience of 100 or less, as they do now with 60,000 or more, is profoundly clear, even if the audio isn’t.
What will be missing in the Fleetwood's Tap Room is the multimillion-dollar concert production — the lasers, the massive video wall, the towering speakers, and, yes, even Bono's iconic eye wear — that is as much a part of U2's legacy as the music.
“U2 is a big, glorious communal thing,” Siu observed. “That's going to be a fun challenge for us to pull off.”
That’s not unlike the challenge the TSO’s String Quartet faced with its first performance at Fleetwood's Tap Room this time last year, a tribute to Radiohead. Breaking down and interpreting Radiohead’s deconstructed rock songs “was a really kind of obvious first start for us,” Siu recalled, given the band's orchestral approach to its music. Lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, in fact, has written arrangements for string and brass such as “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)”, as well as the Oscar-nominated film score for Phantom Thread, among others.
Radiohead's songs offered “a lot of entry points that would make sense for us,” Siu said. The sold-out show went so well that the string quartet began planning its U2 performance six months ago, including the difficulty of assembling a narrow but audience-satisfying setlist from four decades of recordings.
But it’s worth it, the violinist said.
Playing in the pub is an opportunity for the musicians to reach an audience who may not be familiar with classical music or, conversely, who are not familiar with rock acts like Radiohead and U2.
The looser format of the show is also a change for the musicians, certainly when compared to their performances with the highly disciplined Toledo Symphony Orchestra.
In fact, the concert’s closing song is still to be determined from a handful of possibilities, and might even be decided that night based on the crowd’s reaction throughout the show.
“We'll be reading the audience and trying to get a sense of what people want to hear,” Siu said. “We’re leaving ourselves a little more freedom with that.”
Advance tickets for the show are sold out, but more tickets may be released closer to the show, with the announcement coming via hensvilletoledo.com.
Mike Keedy, director of strategic planning for the Mud Hens, Walleye, and Hensville, said the Radiohead and U2 concerts were born of conversations between him and TSO President and CEO Zak Vassar from a year and a half ago about showcasing classical music through contemporary works in a “really casual setting.”
The audience reaction during the Radiohead performance convinced them that they were on to something.
“It was really cool,” Keedy said. “It wasn't a quiet crowd; people were cheering and singing along and there were multiple standing ovations. It was like a rock concert, so we were really excited to try it again.”
In fact, there are discussions about making this series more than an annual event, if the busy schedules of the two organizations can align.
“It's a great thing for both of us,” Mr. Keedy said, “and a lot of fun. I think you can expect there to be more shows like this.”
First Published January 18, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
