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ASTs

MONDAY
JUNE 4, 2001 1 -

MUSICAL MAGIC

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'Moulin Rouge:'
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Dy: : rene
h set the level of decodeace for
this t r pop tours like The Ia
street Boys, 'NSYNC and Destin
Child. Yet, these boys of summer hay"
left the hype and hoopla hehod. Wit
their Detroit premiere of the Elevation
Tour 2001 on Wednesday at the Palace
of AubEurn Hills, U2 proved that their
show would be all
about music, and
not the glitz that
U showcased their
Palace of past tours.
Auburn Hills To start the
May 30, 2001 show, the band
walked onstage
humbly, with full
house lights on. If
it had not been for
the exploding,
recognizable riff
to the title track of the tour, "Elevation,"
the audience might have mistaken the
band for common stagehands. It was
not until he addressed the crowd with a
slight bow that he, along with the other
band members, became modern day
rock gods.
Well-known rhythms from "Sunday
Bloody Sunday," "Pride" and "Where
the Streets Have No Name" induced an

ocean of hadt and waves of sound as
tn cenmed out the Iytics from the pit
surrounding the hea-shaped stage.
Songs from their newest album, All
That You Can't Lease Behiid, compie-
mented the standard of excellence that
U2 fans have come to expect. The
crowd embraced the blend of new songs
with established classics.
Still, it was the antics and compelling
theatrics of Bono that made the crowd
explode with emotion and loyalty. With-
out relying on ordering 10,000 pizzas to
the Palace, as he did in his 1992
Zooropa visit (although he did mention
it was a nice night for a slice), or phon-
ing another President Bush, Bono capti-
vated the audience with his energy and
endearing ability to play right into the
palm of the audience, literally.
Several times, Bono fell into the
hands of many screaming fans who
reached out to touch only him. He often
laid down on the extended stage to
embrace a hand or two that he couldn't
have reached any other way. Kissing
audience members' hands and serenad-
ing them two feet from their faces,
Bono carried the show.
The peak of the band's flare and flash
came during their first of two encore
performances when Charlton Heston,
surrounded by visuals of gun violence,
school shootings and children with

Bono works the crowd.
guns, spoke as a proponent of weapon-
ry. U2's visual mockery of the NRA
president was a prelude into their politi-
cal stance against guns and violence
with, "Bullet in the Blue Sky."
One of the highlights of the show
came when the band was at its simplest
and most pure. Bono, along with gui-
tarist The Edge, bass Adam Clayton and
drummer Larry Mullen gathered at the
peak of the extended stage, bringing
with them their single instruments, and
played "Desire" with no aid of glitz or
glamour.
Such modesty, yet commanding stage
presence like that has kept U2 on top as
one of rock's most endured and most
loved bands for two decades. For their
show at the Palace, they did not rely on
flashy techniques, exploding fireworks
or even complex lighting to set the
mood. U2's potent success fell on the
strength of their music alone.

By tMandy Taylor
Daily Arts Writer
The first image of "Moulin
Rouge" suggests the theatrical. A
curtain fills the entire frame and is
drawn back to reveal the movie title.
The film begins in a desolate,
gray Parisian
setting, circa
1900. Quickly, it
k turns to a suc-
Moulin cession of flash-
Rouge backs narrated
Grade: B+ by Christian
(Ewan McGre-
At Showcase gor), the penni-
less writer, as he
types his story
in a hotel room.
a The plot is
that of a typical
dramatic love
story. Christian
meets and quickly falls in love with
Satine (Nicole Kidman), the star of
the famed Moulin Rouge cabaret,
and highly desired courtesan. Satine
does not know Christian's true iden-
tity at first; she believes he is a
Duke, and falls in love with him
when he composes and sings "Your
Song" (originally written by Elton
John and Bernie Taupin). Despite
the truth of Christian's financial sit-
uation, Satine finds she really does
love him. The problem is that the

future of the Moulin Rouge depend
upon Satine seducing the real Duk
(Richard Roxburgh) into supportin
the club.
The Duke agrees to pay if
owner, Harold Zidler (Jim Broad
bent), agrees to sign over both th
deed to the Moulin Rouge an
Satine. Satine and Christian mus
overcome these obstacles in order t
openly love each other.
The plot may be simple, but it
presentation is more complex. Ba
Luhrmann's always-interesting visu
alizations make the film stunn
and lively. While Satine struts he
stuff before the audience of th
Moulin Rouge, the entire screen i
filled with vibrant colors and lights
The club and the area that surround
it have a Las Vegas feel. Glamour
beauty, exoticism, artificiality an
over-the-top objects, such as th
Moulin Rouge windmill an
Satine's bedroom within a giant ele
phant, are packed into a small cit
space.
The glitz is appropriate for <
musical that writers Luhrmann ant
Craig Pearce have created. Insteat
of developing a highly complicatec
plot, the writers draw upon the idet
of performance itself. A play-with
in-a-play effect is achieved, wher
much of the story is conveye
through performances of the actua
See MOULIN, Pag


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Newly single Kidman grabs hold of the
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