U2's Serious Fun

This is definitely the most surreal night of my life!" Bono exclaims halfway through the show, with all the sincerity a guy in pelvis-hugging black leather and space-pimp sunglasses can muster. Coming from someone decked out like a futuristic-sleazeball version of the Lizard King, it still sounds like a standard-issue rockstar snake-oil pitch. But in fact, it's a king-size understatement. Even on a tour remarkable for its giddy spirit of postmodern pranksterism, tonight's edition of U2's traveling Zoo TV party in Stockholm, Sweden, is prize-winning weird.

The competition has been stiff. There was the night in Detroit when Bono, using his special onstage phone hookup, called a local pizzeria and ordered a thousand pies to go. There was the night when Bono, merrily zapping his way through the satellite-TV menu with his remote control, unexpectedly treated the audience to a live broadcast of Paul Tsongas's announcing his withdrawal from the Democratic presidential race. And there were the nights — quite a few, actually — when during the encore, Bono picked up the phone and dialed the White House (202-456-1414, in case you're interested). Although he never got through to George Bush, he did get chummy with the puzzled White House operator. "Who are you?" she'd ask. "Why do you keep calling at night? Sounds like there are a lot of people with you."

At the Globe arena, in Stockholm, through, the techno-clowning of Zoo TV mutates into interactive Zoo theater. The usual show is a dizzying feast of video high jinks and high-definitions irony (Bono kissing a mirror, pumping his crotch into the camera) set to most of Achtung Baby and the requisite hits from The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum. But tonight, Bono, guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. are supplementing their regularly scheduled programming with a live TV feed to and from the home of John Harris of Nottinghamshire, England. Harris, an ardent U2 fan who works for the Pretty Polly lingerie company, won an MTV Europe contest, the prize being a private simulcast of the Stockholm gig, complete with an ample supply of champagne.

Except Harris isn't just watching the show; he's in it, popping up in the hyperactive Zoo video mix with big, boozy grins and exchanging quips with the host via satellite, like Nightline gone nutty.

"So, John, you work in a knickers factory?" Bono say with a mock snicker. "Well, we don't wear underwear in Sweden."

"Prove it!" Harris retorts, emboldened by drink. Bono actually goes for his zipper but punks out to an arenawide chorus of female Swedish groans. Those groans soon turn to cheers when, as a consolation prize, U2 brings out Swedish pop gods Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of the late, great ABBA for a genial romp through its 1977 hit "Dancing Queen."

Later, during the melancholy sway of "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World," from Achtung Baby, Harris and Bono are caught on adjacent video screens in a moment of sweet serendipity: Harris slow dancing with his girlfriend, Bono giving the Edge a loving choke hold during the latter's guitar solo. The most genuinely surreal moment of the show, however, comes at the end, when Harris and his inebriated pals in Nottinghamshire appear on the video screens doing the Wayne's World bow — "We are not worthy! We are worthy!" The Swedes, already in hysterics, respond in kind, bowing and cheering in sync.

"You can't plan stuff like that," the Edge marvels later, stroking his thin, monkish beard. "Sometimes in amongst all the trash, these moments of incredible poignancy happen. In 'Even Better Than the Real Thing,' there were shots of the band and shots of the people in the house and all these TV ads superimposed over that. It was beautiful, this Nike ad with the big shoe coming down. And it was the perfect image and message for the song, sliding down the surface of things.

"That's the thing, I suppose," the Edge continues. "The jokes and the fun aspect, the props, the weird suits and all — they are making a joke of rock & roll stardom. But they do work."