This Saturday, Raleigh will play host to a stadium full of U2 fans for a spectacular live show—but for those as interested in intellectualizing as listening, there is an alternate option.
Durham and North Carolina Central University will be the site of U2: The Hype and the Feedback, the inaugural conference exploring the band’s work and influence. The three-day event kicks off with a double feature movie screening held at Durham’s Carolina Theatre. The first film is a 30-minute documentary of Bono’s work spreading awareness of the AIDS plight in Africa. The second, It Might Get Loud, focuses on guitar greats Jimmy Page, Jack White and, of course, The Edge.
This all might come off as self-important had U2 initiated the event, but it’s actually the brainchild of scholars who moonlight as big fans.
“I’m an English professor, but I write about and study U2 as artists, as if I were studying Ernest Hemingway or Bob Dylan,” said Scott Calhoun of Cedarville University in Ohio, who was instrumental in organizing the conference.
Although Hemingway had a genius knack for prose and Dylan for songwriting, U2’s unique legacy is largely centered on the philanthropy that stems from their art.
“The whole conference is designed to study their effect on history—the humanitarian and social justice issues, from [activist] Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma all the way back to Nelson Mandela,” Calhoun said.
University of Pennsylvania English Professor Anthony DeCurtis, a renowned music critic and contributor to publications like Rolling Stone and The New York Times, will deliver the keynote address. He most recently interviewed Bono for the 40th anniversary edition of Rolling Stone.
“I’m more interested in talking about ideas and reminding people what we’re doing here: engaging this band, their career and their music,” DeCurtis said. “I’m trying to remind people of what’s important about U2 and get them in touch with it—in a sense, lend a kind of emotional charge to what they’re going to be doing.”
Following DeCurtis’ speech, days two and three of the conference will feature an expansive series of academic discussions with titles like “Interpretations of Laissez Faire Inherent in U2’s Music” and “Bono Versus Nick Cave on Jesus.”
“They’re both preachers: one an Irish optimist with a ladder to Heaven, the other a twisted variation of the raging, Southern Gothic fire-and-brimstoner,” said Greg Clarke from The Center for Public Christianity of the latter discussion. “Bono speaks of Jesus as a lifeline to God, as the source of grace. Cave speaks about his art as his lifeline to the universe.”
Yet all the serious discussions on the band are unlikely to overshadow the actual music.
“Listen, 80 million people are going to see this band,” DeCurtis said. “I don’t think they’re doing it based on the mythology.... This is one of the great live rock bands.”
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