U2 at SUNDANCE Film Festival

"There's a lot of love and Irish whisky in the air," U2 front man Bono said Saturday night. The Irish rock superstar was speaking onstage at the Eccles Theatre, main venue of the Sundance Film Festival, surrounded by his bandmates The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. They were dressed in the skiwear that is both weather and fashion necessity here, and pleased to be on hand for the world premiere of the finished version of U2 3D, their 3D concert movie. Opening in Toronto Feb. 15, it's about 30 minutes longer than the work print that screened at Cannes last May. It was the hottest of the hot tickets at Sundance, with scalpers out front and a celebrity guest list that included Nobel Prize winner Al Gore and Sundance founder Robert Redford. So realistic were the images of Bono and the band reaching out to the audiences onscreen (the movie was filmed during South American dates of the band's recent Vertigo tour), that the 1,200 moviegoers in the Eccles reacted as if they were at a real rock concert. The Eccles audience and the audiences on the film seemed to be as one. Those in the theatre applauded after songs, especially such hits as "One," "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "With Or Without You."

They did the 21st-century equivalent of the Bic lighter salute, holding up glowing cellphones and swaying in time to the music. A highlight of the film is when Bono makes a plea for all the world's religions to stop fighting one other. The stage lights up with giant religious symbols aligned to spell out the word "Coexist." The band returned to the stage for a Q&A session afterwards, accompanied by co-directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington. But the band is still the same as it was when it formed 32 years ago, he said, pointing out that U2 3D was premiering in a theatre that is part of a high school when Sundance isn't on. "There's something fitting about seeing this in Park City in a high school. We are a high school band, after all."