U2 speaks of fame, their new movie, new music and Utah

PARK CITY — Bono and The Edge walk across a footbridge over an ice-crusted stream, surrounded by onlookers whose cell phone cameras are raised in a kind of group salute.

The U2 bandmates have just finished a lunch with Sundance Film Festival founder Robert Redford, and now they're heading away from the actor's ski resort in snowy Provo Canyon for the hour-long trek back to Park City, where the annual movie showcase is in full swing.

It's Saturday, and this evening the band will gather at the town's 1,200-seat high school auditorium for the premiere showing of their new concert film, "U2 3D", a state-of-the-art three-dimensional immersion into their 2006 Vertigo tour. The movie opens in select theaters nationally — including Salt Lake City — on Wednesday.

The Edge hops into the back seat of the SUV, and Bono takes shotgun. (Their driver, Jordan, says the singer likes to play with the stereo.) Some of the dozen or so fans gather at the passenger side, pressing their hands against the windows, and the singer and guitarist roll them down to wave goodbye.

One man in his mid-20s has watery eyes over his encounter with one-half of the world's biggest rock band and offers blessings, choking for words. Then they are off, leaving the onlookers with only memories. What's it like to have that intense effect on people?

"It's the weight of responsibility," The Edge says in mock graveness. He smiles. "And it's fun, really. It's fun."

Bono leans back. "Which is it, Edge? A weight of responsibility or fun? Come on, now. You can't have it both ways."

The Edge says flatly: "The first was irony on my part."

Bono: "Sorry, I might have missed that. We hate whinging rock stars. Come on, why else do this?"

Throughout the long drive through the northern Utah countryside, the pair banter like the schoolyard friends they are, discussing their past, present and future in the context of a movie they hope will set a new standard for concert films. By the end of the ride, they're playing a demo CD of songs they hope to include on an upcoming album.

The Vertigo tour grossed roughly $377 million from March 2005 to March 2006, a tally surpassed only by the Rolling Stones' Bigger Bang tour, according to "Billboard." The band has sold more than 30 million albums domestically in the SoundScan era (since 1991) and won 22 Grammys.