Maybe that’s why they call him The Edge. U2’s guitarist fell off the stage at Rogers Arena Thursday night in Vancouver near the end of the concert that kicked off the Innocence and Experience world tour. But this is a band that knows how to pick itself up after a stumble, and The Edge was soon on his feet to enjoy a lengthy standing ovation.

Fans got an early taste, quite literally, of what U2 appears to be focusing on with this new tour. Over the past few days, the people camping outside the stadium in Vancouver have been treated to pizza and croissant deliveries courtesy the band. Bassist Adam Clayton and singer Bono even stopped by to say hello in person. It seems like this is a band looking to reconnect with its fan base and that effort reached full force on stage.

Remember rock 'n' roll concerts? Think back, way back, to the days when people wearing leather jackets using real instruments played really loud music they’d written themselves in front of screaming fans who sang along to every word. A rock 'n' roll concert is a shared emotional experience of sweat, laughter and sometimes tears. When it’s over, your ears should be ringing, your hair smells like smoke and let’s hope there’s a smile on your face. U2 wants you to relive that experience and they made that abundantly clear right from the start of the show.

They began with “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone),” the first release from U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence and that early nod to punk rock’s influence on the band launched an evening of autobiographical storytelling in song.

“We’re a band from north Dublin called U2,” Bono called out in his Irish lilt.

Then he took a swig from a water bottle and spit it back into the crowd. A single light bulb hung from a string over the stage, a symbol perhaps of a return to basics.

Bono confirmed as much as he announced, “This night is about first experiences, first love, first fights on the playground.” So he started at the very beginning, with his mom. The song “Iris (Hold Me Close)” was Bono at his most vulnerable. He crouched low as he sang the ode to his mother, who died when he was 14. A constellation appeared on an enormous, horizontal screen that stretched out above the centre of the crowd.

“Free yourself to be yourself,” he sang over and over, quoting the woman who first inspired him.

The story continued and a visual feast began as a set of stairs descended from that horizontal video screen and Bono walked right up into it for the song, “Cedarwood Road.” Another nod to his childhood began as animated images of the street where he grew up flew past and suddenly Bono appeared inside them on an elevated walkway. The rest of the band would join him there for a 3D multi-media experience.

“This is me at 18, writing a song for Ali who is still with me tonight.” A reference to his wife, Ali Hewson - the other woman in Bono’s life as a cartoon boy appeared.

The whole night was intensely personal. An acoustic Sunday Bloody Sunday performed behind the faces of Ireland’s bombing victims was more eulogy than anthem. The sound of an explosion shook the place hard and the lights went out. When they came back on, animated tidal waves on that giant screen destroyed the childhood images as Bono became Prospero, waving his arms madly and launching the second half of this life story.

A video ode to more punk rock idols and suddenly we’re into 1991’s Achtung Baby. “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and “Mysterious Ways” kept everyone on their feet. When 1988’s “Desire” began, the apparent effort to reconnect with fans that may have inspired those pizza and croissant deliveries became more overt and wildly successful.

Bono pulled a young woman from the crowd, gave her a cellphone and linked the phone’s video camera to the giant screen. Suddenly, she was in charge, shooting the whole performance. The symbolism was powerful. The band's relationship with the public and their cellphones has been strained lately, thanks to a creepy marketing ploy that saw the new album appear in the iTunes libraries of millions of Apple customers who never asked for it. Look at your iPhone right now and you’ll notice Bono’s image is still there as the “Artists” icon, no pun intended. As the song ended and the fan climbed back down, Bono muttered, “Technology has its uses.” He might have been saying, “We’re sorry.”

In fact, the iTunes controversy just might just be the best thing that could have happened to U2. It seems the band that’s achieved everything has something to prove again.

This tour is a stark reminder to anyone who may have forgotten that U2 is, at its very core, a rock band. They’re still loud, they’re still telling stories and they’re still political. References to the excesses of Wall Street and the preventable tragedy of HIV and AIDS felt like the old, activist U2 with a fresh twist and it made the crowd even hungrier for the best songs from 1987’s The Joshua Tree that rounded out the set. A stripped down “With or Without You” felt almost like gospel. As Bono and the boys walked off stage just before the encore, he turned and said, “Thanks for sticking with us.”

They returned for “Where the Streets Have No Name” and at the end, Bono looked out at the crowd and said, “Incredible.” Then he pulled out his earpiece and listened to the roar. The place quieted down as Bono thanked drummer and band founder Larry Mullen Jr. for his strength “in saying goodnight to his father.” Mullen’s 92 year old dad died just a few days ago in Dublin. This reference to family and grief was, like the whole performance, intensely personal, but sharing it with 20,000 people still felt authentic. And that is the magic of U2. This was an authentic emotional connection between band and followers. Bono turned again to the crowd for one last confession.

“Without all of you, we’d be still be back in a garage in Dublin.” The band then slowly walked off the stage (The Edge taking a shorter, unintentional route), as satisfied fans finished the final bars of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” A connection made, and despite one brief stumble, mission accomplished.

Ethan Faber is the Managing Editor and Assistant News Director at CTV Vancouver