U2 tour winds down with TV concert

It's been a beautiful year for U2.

The Irish rock veterans have enjoyed the success of a multi-platinum album, nabbed three Grammy awards for their hit "Beautiful Day," and staged their most successful tour to date with sold-out dates across the country.

Now, the band begins to wind it down with "U2: Elevation Tour 2001," which airs Friday on VH1. It's the band's first full-length televised concert.

"This thing that people are going to see on Friday is a moment in time where everything came together for us," lead singer Bono told The Associated Press.

Taped this past summer at Boston's Fleet Center, the concert airs a week before the band concludes its world tour in Miami on Dec. 2.

"We've been waiting since we were kids to play this tight and to have this kind of material. It took awhile and we've done some good stuff along the way, but this is our finest hour to date," Bono said.

For years, the group resisted doing a televised concert.

"It's hard to fit a head this big into a box that small," Bono joked.

The real reason was that band felt its live performances didn't translate to television.

"I think we've always been suspicious of television because it's such a passive medium. ... People keep walking in and out of a room, and turning you up and down," Bono said. "There's no control over the environment. Whereas when people are in the arena, you've created the environment."

But Bono said when the band released its album "All That You Can't Leave Behind" last year, U2 was committed to reintroducing itself to the United States.