10 November 2006 Sydney Telstra Stadium

[dsmith2904]

Please post all reviews of the November 10th Syndey show here.

 

[AndrewCowley]

So I am the first to post a review! Cool.

Same setlist as Brisbane.

It rained for the first few songs but it did clear after that. It meant the covers over the equipment and Larry were kept in place unlike Brisbane where they were removed prior to the concert starting.

Different 'commentary' from Bono in SBS. In Brisbane Bono talked about David Hicks and tonight he made a dedication to the Bali bombing victims.

I didn't think Bono nailed his opera part in Miss Sarajevo as well as he did in Brisbane. Still amazing, but in Brisbane he seemed to hold the notes longer.

The mistakes in Brisbane (e.g. Walk On) seemed to be ironed out.

Not many other significant differences that I can think of at the moment.

The crowd weren't as into it as the Brisbane crowd. Not as animated and not as loud. I still maintain that on the whole Sydney crowds are pathetic.

All in all Brisbane was better for me due to the crowd but from the perspective of U2's performance Sydney was also top notch.

GA tomorrow. I am stressed. Of course there are people queued up already. Wish they weren't. Some of us can't queue up.

 

[bono_man]

Ahhh Sydney One....

Well, its started for me arriving late for GA at around 4:30. Nautrally, we were outside the inner zone. We (my wife & I) waited near the gates as they let people in after Kanye West in Brisbane. Scotty (U2's venue security head) came over to tell us they probably wont be letting anyone else in and if they did, they would just stamp people from the BACK of the venue!!

ANYWAY!! I went for a bottle of water after Kanye and on the way back, bumped into Scotty. He remembered me from the Brisbane rehearsals and I asked if they were going to stamp more people. He goes "You wanna get inside, come with me" (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

So I got my wife and he waited for us at the gate and said "they're with me!" and we walked right in!! Amazing! So lovely...he must have been sooo busy at this stage of the night and he did this! Made our day.

Onto the show...Musically better than Brisbane. The little mistakes that popped up on Tuesday were gone although Bono had the odd mike problem.

However, the show just wasnt as good! The band didnt seem to enjoy themselves like they did in Brisbane. Brisbane was just like one big party! Maybe Sydney-siders are just too cool. They didnt even cheer when U2 were soundchecking!!

Overall...a good show. Not as good as Tuesday however. As I said the other night, Id take a nite of passion over a night of error free playing anyday!

Highlights:
COBL
Zoo Station
With or Without You
Angel

 

[OceanGirl]

The show last night was bloody fantastic!!!! The guys sounded awesome and the setlist was excellent! I was very happy to hear Walk On and Kite was amazing!!!

I was sitting up in C Reserve and I don't know where you guys were sitting/standing, but where we were, the crowd was awesome! Everyone was really into it and danced and sang the whole way through! It was great!

I was a little bit disappointed with where we were sitting, because we didn't have much of a view of the screens, apart from the ones at the very side. Our seats are A Reserves tonight, so hopefully we'll get a much better view than we did last night!

I really enjoyed it and can't wait to do it all again tonight!

 

[french1111]

I have to agree with bono_man. I thought the crowd was a bit lacking in the enthusiasm department at times. I guess the dynamic of the venue and the crowd can have a varying impact on the atmosphere. Sydney crowds have a terrible tendency to use all their energy cheering shortly before the song finishes so that when it does there is less crowd noise.

From where i was in the GA i thought the sound/mix was average. No where near enough Edge. Numerous times during a solo there would be a spike in his volume where the mixer caught on. I also found the volume of the band very low. When I go to a concert I want to be able to strain the hell out of my ears when trying to listen to what the person next to me is saying, but i didnt get that.

I thought the guys had a really tight set and pulled off everything they went for. During the rain i thought they did an especially good job too. However I think the unresponsiveness of the crowd at various times rubbed off just a little on the band.

This may seem a bit negative, but I thought the guys did a great job which was not always backed by good sound.

Dan

 

[daveyboy]

Well what can I say... Got to Telstra Stadium around 2 and waited in line for three and a half hours. There were about 1000 people in front of us and I imagine the same in the other GA q on the other side. When the gates opened at 5:30 it was a mad dash. Me and my mate managed to get in the elipse at the very front of the stage just before they closed it off. We were so stoked and took up our position about 5 meters from the end of the runway that leads into the crowd. We could have pushed further to the front but we were happy where we positioned ourselves as we had heaps of room to move and as it turned out was on the side that Bono came to most during the show. We could come and go as we please safe in the knowledge that we could get back into the inner sanctum from the green shamrocks that were stamped on our necks.

Kanye West opened the show about 7. He was pretty groovy if you are into that type of music but i must say I was very impressed by his female singer who had such an amazing voice.

U2 came on about 8:45 and played two encores in their two hour set. The same setlist as Brisbane. The fact that we got so close to him as he played little more than 5 metres from us was just amazing. Never thought i would ever get this close to Bono but was up there with 3rd row at the Ent Centre in 89. Bono also mentioned the Bali bombing victims during one of his many rallying moments. As you can tell I am on such a high. I won't spoil it for you by telling all that happened during the show. Thought the cell phone thingy was pretty cool.

One thing that was pretty interesting though was when Bono went looking for his mike after playing around with the kite he couldn't manage to find it. He looked very pissed with the techo who seemed to be asleep on the job. Then later in the song he gave up the mike again but this time it was promptly returned to his hand in a heartbeat.

If I had one regret it would be not hearing Bad or I Will Follow.

Favourite song was Streets.



To all those going have the most brilliant time and let the music wash over you....

 

[AchtungBLOKE]

Hi...I'm a newbie here, just got registered 3 days ago...I'm a mad NewOrder/JoyDivision fan ( ...and JD's the band that inspired Bono & co in the early days, hee-hee )
My last U2 concert was the Zooropa tour in Sydney Football Stadium - the night they played without Adam Clayton, I think that was Nov'93? 94?
Anyway I thought the Sydney First night was fantastic and sitting in A reserve just above the Corporate Boxes I could see a huge wave of fans responding very enthusiastically, I thought and I remembered saying to myself 'wow, the phalanx of the U2 army is def in Sydney tonite!'.....Seeing the spirit of the crowd I got many 'goose-pimple' moments during the concert - you see New Order fans may be as passionate but definitely lacking in the numbers department!
As usual 'streets' & 'pride' were the best moments but it was really good to hear 'walk on' , 'kite' and 'the fly'....I just couldn't understand why not many there showed interested in that song but I thought 'the fly' is one of the best U2 song - the energy-driven beat, pumping bass, soaring guitar, bono falsetto & great lyrics and in fact, together with 'zoo station' these 2 songs injected so much faith and interest back into the band for me after (....totally my personal opinion here....) the convulated, bloated and tired Americana-theme of Rattle & Hum.
Overall I really enjoyed it and now will make sure I would never miss any U2 from now on - I missed the last one - the Pop tour I think.
Tomorrow I'll be in GA for the third gig and I'm dreading the stomp - me being a not-very-tall and smallish person...duh!

 

[shortfuse]

My first ever u2 show. Was up in the stands but surprisingly the view and sound were both very good. Imagine my excitement when wake up started and i knew my moment had almost come!! Then the lights went of, and soon the gorgeous opening sounds of city of blinding lights filled the stadium... and there were bono, edge, larry and adam and oh.... it was unbelievable. The concert i thought was great considering it was the second after being away for a while.
The highlights for me
City of blinding lights
Walk on
The Fly