Bono at Music Hall

(Photo from DMN pool photographer)
In front of a mixed crowd wearing T-shirts, flip flops and business suits, U2’s lead singer, Bono, captivated a Dallas crowd Friday night at the Music Hall at Fair Park – without the help of his legendary rock band.
The event was a fund raiser for Dallas’ World Affairs Council, with tickets going from $25 to $500.
Bono was introduced by Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and welcomed to the stage with a thunderous standing ovation.
He assured the “loud ones in the crowd” that the rest of his band would not be joining him for the night.
“If you were expecting the band, I don’t even tell them that I do these things,” Bono said as he loosened his canary yellow tie. “I’ve become a student of the Soviet way of speech making and they don’t want to sit through three hours of me talking about Africa.”
Donning a dark grey business suit, his trademark sunglasses and flashing the UT “Hookem,” Bono told the crowd of 4,000 that he wasn’t accustomed to wearing a tie and joked that he didn’t wear ties for politicians -- but only for the people of Texas.
Bono recounted his journey to becoming “a rock star with a cause.”
And he encouraged Americans to make friends out of potential enemies in Africa, rather than defend against them later.
“The global war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty. Collin Powell said that. And when an American military man says the American military is not enough, we need to take notice,” he said. “I know you’ve been through a lot with Katrina and Rita and the War in Iraq. But every generation has its defining moral struggle. This is our Omaha Beach. This is our moon shot. Our one true grab at greatness.”

Bono | Dallas | Music Hall