U2 sings its heart out

CHARLOTTESVILLE — U2 enveloped the Piedmont in only love Oct. 1 at Scott Stadium, singing its heart out for a devoted crowd of 60,000.

After decades of making music, U2 still leaves an enormous impact with its live show, nearly knocking our boots off with its high-tech blend of blinding lights and time-honored songs so beautiful and true.

Add to that front man Bono’s always-unambiguous call to stand up and change the world and U2 gives us something we can really feel. Acting is up to us.

Arms out, Bono began the Scott Stadium show with “Breathe” from U2’s latest album, “No Line on the Horizon.”

It’s one of the record’s most poetic songs and not even the roar of the crowd could drown out its message.

The day of the concert arrived in the Virginia foothills with the best that early autumn has to offer, and so U2 almost had to perform “Beautiful Day,” the mega hit from 2001. Dozens of spotlights reached higher than the nearly full moon that night, giving the feeling that Charlottesville was going global.

“What do you make of our space junk?” Bono asked of the elaborate production complete with a giant claw-like stage whose talons changed color like a mood ring. “We built it to take us to all kinds of interesting places, but we really built it to get closer to you.”

Right on.

Consummate concert songs “Vertigo” and “Elevation” kept the crowd swinging to the music, as did the title track on the new album. The Edge’s guitar was triumphant on the futuristic “Magnificent,” as was Bono singing once again about perfect love.

One supposes he was born to sing for all of us. Talk about a joyful noise.

“Mysterious Ways” from 1991’s “Achtung Baby” was as funky as ever while “City of Blinding Lights” soared, shining ever brighter than the thousands of blue-faced cell phones.

No one quite understood when Bono started talking about taking the VRE from Fredericksburg and Manassas, but nobody really cared either, so long as he mentioned Thomas Jefferson, which he did.

“Sing for your sanity, Charlottesville,” Bono commanded, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. going nuts on the bongos to a wicked remix of “I’ll Go Crazy.”

Guitarist The Edge stood out with his vocals on “Stuck in a Moment,” lest one forget that U2 is not just Bono and his amazing voice — a point the superstar recognized as well.

“I’m still standing on this stage because I feel like I have a lot to learn, and these three guys are going to teach me,” Bono said of his band, which formed in 1978 in Dublin.

The love anthem of all love anthems, “With or Without You” from 1987’s breakout album “The Joshua Tree,” came second to last, proving that a solid song from the heart never gets old.

On the night it first played Charlottesville, U2 sang 20 songs, including the always unforgettable “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from 1983 — a political hymn still relevant today.

“Freedom was bought on Christmas Day,” said Bono, talking religion, before shining a light on “the nonviolent revolution being suppressed on the streets of Iran.”

Two that didn’t make the official song list included a heartbreaking verse of “Amazing Grace” and “a broken Irish lullaby” — let it rain down — that Bono dedicated to the struggle of Burma’s people to be free.

A local chapter of Amnesty International walked on the Charlottesville stage during “Walk On,” a life-affirming song about freedom. Some things you can’t leave behind.

“There’s a lot of energy on this campus that the world could do with,” Bono said, and also, near the end, “All you need is love.”

U2 left the stage for good at 11:11 p.m. following three encores and the final, powerful “Moment of Surrender.”

We are not worthy, U2. Ya’ll come back now, y’hear?