The longest review ever
This is going in my LJ, so there's some inside jokes and personal notes in it, but hopefully you can understand most of it, should you choose to read such a long thing.
We sat down around 7:15...we were in the upper level, but I was surprised at how well we could see. It was an arena, obviously, not a stadium, so we could easily tell who was who and what was going on. We were on the side of the stage which I thought was great. I prided myself in the fact that I had almost every song they played over the loudspeakers on my iPod (yea, I'm a geek, and fuckin' proud of it, bitches.) White Stripes -Seven Nation Army, The Strokes - 12:51, Television - Venus, The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now, The Killers - Mr. Brightside, Modest Mouse - Float On, David Bowie - Rebel Rebel, The Velvet Underground - Rock 'n Roll, Interpol - Obstacle 1, and Coldplay - Clocks... I'm pretty sure that's it (tho not in order). There were one or two songs I didn't know.
Kings of Leon came on around 7:30 I think and played about 45 minutes...they were alright, but everyone was there for U2 (though at that point the arena was only half-full, it was packed by the time U2 came on) so as far as I was concerned anyway there were just delaying the main event. Plus they didn't seem very into it (except the bass player. He was really good and really energetic and such). It's like, c'mon guys, you're opening for U-fuckin-2. I can mathmatically (or at least logically) prove your lives are going downhill from this moment on (until the next time you open for U2, anyway), so you could at least TRY to pretend you're SLIGHTLY stoked.
Close to 9:00 Wake Up by Arcade Fire came on the loudspeakers...lights went down, everyone stood up, that voice started ("Everyone. Everyone. EVERYONE!"). People began cheering like mad as that grimy, industrial guitar started...the world's greatest band had arrived.
1. Love and Peace or Else - Dark stage. The band came out with spotlights; Larry and Bono were at the tip of the ellipse. What a way to start the show! Such attitude. The band played it perfectly, of course. I thought I was going to die after the bridge when Bono sang "Where is the love? Where is the love...LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE AND PEACE!" He fuckin' held that note FOREVER, and his voice was so DEEP and POWERFUL. It was back to the strength of the bloody Joshua Tree! Edge's solo was great, and Bono played drums...he continued the beat for I'd say at least four measures after the song was over.
As soon as LAPOE ended, I thought, okay, they're gonna do Sunday Bloody Sunday next. I'd been paying attention to the setlists and I had some bootlegs, so I totally knew what was coming. Except I didn't because they didn't go into SBS at all (they'd done this before at Seattle 1 at least, but I hadn't seen that setlist.)
2. Vertigo - Vertigo second song in! As much as I love the polit-rock set, I thought it was cool that U2 decided to just completely change their setlist order. And you really can't go wrong with an entire arena of people shouting "UNO! DOS! TRES! CATORCE!!!!" Bono sang the verses a little off-beat (intentionally I presume, he likes to play with rhythms and such) so it sounded a little odd, but once the band hit the chorus it was gold. Total crowd singalong, jumpalong. They didn't do the Stories for Boys bit, but they did extend the song as they always do. The stage lights were crazy! Red around the ellipse and some crazy shit came down on those beads of light. It was so cool.
3. Elevation - This is a song that a lot of people despise. And while it's true that it's a little low on the list of Brilliant U2 Songs, live it ROCKS. The whole arena was singing "WOOOOHOOO" (though Bono was singing too. He was hittin those falsettos like mad, yo!). In fact, we were singing along to the entire song... "a MOLE! diggin in a HOLE! diggin up my SOUL! now goin down EX-CA-VA-TION! i and i in the sky you make me feel like i can fly, so high, EL-E-VA-TION!" The best part was when the band kicked in and everyone was jumping and it ruled. Anyone that wants to remove Elevation from the setlist probably hasn't seen Vertigo Tour live yet... it's one of the more interactive songs and definitely high-energy. I thought it was better than Vertigo, myself.
4. An Cat Dubh - This was great... I've really come to appreciate the Boy album as of late, and this made me love it even more. They played it better than they ever have before (but besides this tour, when have they played it? Axver, info? I'm pretty sure they weren't doing it past War tour, and that was '83... talk about a welcome comeback!). It was very moody, with blue spotlights on the band members... toward the end, when the singing part was finished, Bono slowly went down on the ellipse and took a nap or something. Seriously, he laid down and didn't move until it was time to sing Into the Heart. I thought maybe he died or something.
5. Into the Heart - Essentially an extension of An Cat Dubh, but technically a song in itself... beautiful. Bono "woke up" and got up to sing his part obviously. Everything was perfect.
6. City of Blinding Lights – Wasn’t expecting this one so soon, I thought it’d be somewhere in the encore… the lights on this were amazing. The light curtains became a city in motion, essentially. It was especially cool during the bridge when they had Chinese (or Japanese, whatever) writing changing on the light curtains. It’s hard to describe but those who have seen it know what I’m talking about. The chorus was a perfect punch-along and the drums at the end of the song were especially good.
7. Beautiful Day – The band NAILED this one. Bono was falsettoing like mad!! I couldn’t believe he went so high on the re-e-e-EACH me part. Probably the first highlight of the show (with many more to come!) The end of the song (the slow part) was extended and they did a snippet of Blackbird…very, very cool.
8. Miracle Drug – Bono talked for awhile before the song (as he usually does), something about Chicago being a city of the future (I cheered even though I don’t live there
). He also mentioned that Coldplay was in the arena…well, Mr. Martin, I hope you were taking good notes, because you’ve got a long way to go to become “bigger than U2.”
There were one or two false starts, but I hardly even noticed, just problems with the pre-recorded thing I guess. One the song took off, well, it took off! Edge’s solo was heavenly and he sang his verse perfectly from what I remember. The blue lights going around the ellipse were way cool.
9. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own – Wow. This was brilliant (and I love hearing songs in album order! That’s so cool!). The four split-screens were all different angles of Bono (who, I may add, looked incredibly good…honestly, when he takes off his sunglasses, he looks ten years younger! I kept thinking he looked like he did during ZooTV!). There was this walking man that would move from light curtain to light curtain. The whole song was sung well (some people said he hit a sour note, but I didn’t notice), especially the falsetto chorus, and “can you hear me when I….SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING” practically brought me to tears. I’d say it was the best Bomb track they did and highlight number two for me.
10. New Year’s Day – This song really made me miss my cell phone, because my cell phone had a New Year’s Day ringtone, and so hearing the intro to New Year’s Day reminded me of my ringtone, and that dumb bitch Dean Wright should give me back my cell phone because a cell phone is a dangerous thing and this is the twenty-first century, BITCH. And she’s just jealous that she didn’t see U2 on May 7th in Chicago and hear my ring tone except not a ring tone. Dumb bitch.
If the show wasn’t already awesome (which it was), then this is when it really started to pick up. Adam walked around the ellipse (which he did a lot during the show – at least three times I’d say!) and the song was played perfectly. My favourite part was clapping all fast during the bridge right before “I…will be with you again…” Bono sang NYD with gusto I haven’t heard in awhile.
11. Sunday Bloody Sunday – I loved the LAPOE-SBS-BTBS trio, but I have to say SBS sounded really good after NYD, too (and the crowd sure went wild!). This was one of the best versions I’ve heard in a long time! It was full of energy and the bridge was extended for an extra long time, but done so well as Bono was singing most of the time as opposed to giving some really long speech. At first he was singing a snippet of some song I didn’t know…it was really pretty, whatever it was. Then he did the coexist thing (Jesus-Jew-Mohammed-same? Something like that. He was pointing at the religious symbols on his bandana which rules and makes me think “NINJA BONO!!!” along with that jacket which I think rocks even though a lot of people say it’s fugly), then “NO MORE!” which totally rules to shout along to, then back to the actual song (“wipe your tears away…”). Sunday Bloody Sunday has always been one of my favourite U2 songs and I thought it had a lot of vigor Saturday night.
12. Bullet the Blue Sky – Overall good, I’d say. Edge’s solo was good but not nearly as good as, say, Phoenix 2 (based on the bootleg, obviously). I love the bits of “Johnny Comes Marching Home.” They’re very eerie. Probably the best part of this song was when Bono got on his knees, blindfolded, hands up. Talk about total HOTNESS. Then when he was walking toward the mic blindfolded with his hands out, slowly feeling for the mic… I liked that.
13. Running to Stand Still – Fucking gorgeous. Bono held some notes on harmonica for a really long time at the beginning of the song… he also had a guitar, I’m assuming he had one during the other shows too but I could never really hear it on the bootlegs. Obviously he didn’t play a whole lot but I could hear when he did. He even played a little “lead” part (very quietly, of course). He didn’t do the “still running…” part but he did do the hallelujah’s. Very, very well done.
At the end of the song they played that “nine minute human rights video” which was actually about a minute long. I thought it was cool, kinda unnecessary but whatever, U2’s always gotta make a point about something.
14. Bad – Oh. My. Fucking. God. This was probably the best part of the entire show. As soon as that synthesizer or whatever started, I screamed my lungs out (I felt a little out of place ‘cause I started screaming before most other people…). Bono gave a little speech about how the song had lifted many people, some of which were no longer with them, some who hopefully were… talked about getting the monkey off your back…and then when they actually did the song. Man. Just thinking about it gets me teary eyed, I’m dead serious! Infuckincredible. Bono sang it the best I have ever heard. He held those notes forever, and his voice was so deep-throated! He sounded so amazing!! And of course the band has this song down perfectly. Nice bridge with a snippet of “In the Garden” again (though before that he was whispering something, I don’t know if that’s part of the song or…?) My only complaint is I really, really wish the song would fade into Streets like it did on Elevation, because THAT was amazing… but this version of Bad was better than any I’ve ever heard. Just…wow. And the ending was really tight, it’s just that Bad lends itself so well to a fade-in.
15. Pride (In the Name of Love) – Like New Year’s Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride had an enthusiasm it hasn’t had in awhile. Edge’s solo may have been slightly off or something, but maybe I’m just crazy…regardless, Bono was actually SINGING the whole thing, and singing it well. The best part was doing the “Oh-oh-oh-oh’s” during Bono’s small little “speech” about Dr. King and well after the band had basically stopped playing… Bono prompted us to keep singing… it made for a really, really good transition to Streets. It seemed to go on longer than any of the bootlegs I’d heard, making a better build-up.
16. Where the Streets Have No Name – Honestly, I think it’s basically impossible for the band to mess this one up. The African flags coming down were really, really cool, but the best part was without a doubt the build-up during Bono’s “journey of equality” speech and then the final “release” when the whole band kicks in and it’s just heaven. One of the best parts of the show…I was jumping up and down like crazy, but who wasn’t?! The lights were AMAZING during this… I know there was at least one point (it was either what I was just talking about or toward the end when Bono explodes into the African chanting and the “Loooooooooooooooooooooooove”. Maybe both) when the house lights came on and it was so, so, SO beautiful. Streets was nothing short of rapture.
17. One – The two greatest songs ever written, back-to-back? I can dig it. Bono’s speech before One seemed short, but maybe that was just me. He talked about how politicians are getting bored of him (“They’re not the only ones…Bono gets bored of Bono sometimes”) and such. I love hearing that man talk. I love it even more when he sings, though, and he did well on One, and he also let the audience sing a line or two (of course we were singing along to the whole song). The screen was really, really cool… it was just Bono, but made out of little white pixels (kinda like the Popmart screen). Except, it zoomed in on the white pixels and they were actually faces of people (presumably from earlier before the band started), then it zoomed back out into Bono…I’m not sure how the fuck they managed that, but that was probably the coolest effect of the whole show, and it went perfectly with the song. Edge’s extended solo at the end was beautiful…I was a little disappointed that Bono didn’t do the extra verse but it was still really, really powerful with the “ooooooooOOOOOooooOOOOoooooh’s” at the end. What a perfect song.
The band went off-stage for the first encore… and before they launched into their Achtung set (though technically you could include One in that, but whatever) they brought back the lemon-boy!!!! With the slot machine and the little Zooropa alien lemon thing…it was so fucking awesome! I don’t know why but I really, really loved that part of the show…it made me nostalgic for a tour I was never at. Then when all four slots were the lemon it was like “What’s up? What’s up?” So cool. I want one.
18. Zoo Station – Holy Bono babies, U2 fucking NAILED this song! The lemon-boy slot machine really set the mood for me, and then the BRILLIANT intro (those drums. Those DRUMS!) and Bono prancing out in that sexy, sexy military-like outfit (god I love that hat. And Bono in it. And, well, Bono.) His stage presence during Zoo Station was incredible. He was marching and had the confident swagger of the ZooTV days…not to mention the fact that he got all the words right! I didn’t hear a single mistake! I’m so proud of him
He sang with a deep-throated Zoo voice, too. The audience was chanting along with “It’s alright, it’s alright…” and Edge was walking around the ellipse and his solo at the end was great and really the whole song was flawless. Based on the bootlegs I’d heard, much as I liked the song I honestly thought it might get dropped… no way it’s getting dropped now. It was actually one of my favourite parts of the whole concert!
19. The Fly – Well this was nothing short of “brilliamt” (which is better than brilliant, I’ll tell ya that). Before Bono kept repeating the phrase “We do the show, we do the business, but this is not show business” or something like that, which was a little weird but totally set the mood. U2 got the intro perfect and Bono got almost all the words right, I think he maybe messed up once but it wasn’t too noticeable and didn’t throw off the song or anything. The lights during the song were like the ZooTV screens, flashing the different sayings (beLIEve, Everything you know is wrong, ect.), which was another nice throwback to ol’ Zoo tour. It was kinda hard to read what they were saying from my angle at least, but it still ruled. Edge ROCKED his solo and the third “Loooooove…” was perfect with Edge going totally crazy. I think the best part, though, was the ending, which was tighter than any version I’ve heard. Rock ‘n roll perfection.
20. Mysterious Ways – I was kinda hoping for Until the End of the World, but my disappointment was short-lived… totally groovy song, great performance. Adam was on the ramp again. During the bridge before Edge’s big slide-in solo, Bono gave Adam a hug. It was really sweet (and hot, duh). Then when Edge came in they did a bullfight, I guess you could say… Bono motioned Adam his way and kinda “led” him back to stage. It was totally hawt and the band rawked this song up, yo.
After MW they left stage again before coming back for the final encore.
21. All Because of You – Now there’s some rock ‘n roll! No Bono sex noises though. In my Seattle 2 bootleg there were totally some really really hot Bono sex noises, but none this performance. Oh well, the band still rocked!
22. Yahweh – I’m still a little lukewarm on the acoustic version (and I really wanted to hear Original of the Species), but it’s really starting to grow on me… it’s very intimate. The band members made their way one by one to the center of the ellipse during the song, and of course Larry did the synth. And man is that boy skinny. There was something very moving about the entire arena singing “Yahweh, Yahweh…”
23. 40 – There is no other song to end the show, in my opinion. I love it. I love how Adam and Edge trade instruments and I love Larry’s awesome drums that start the song (Bono: “Drum solo!”) and the blatantly spiritual lyrics (even though I’m not religious at all) and of course the fact that it’s THE audience singalong. After the verses (which, by the way, are basically from the psalm 40… so yes, Steven, U2 ARE smart enough to write about Bible verses, so don’t be dumb), Bono took a spotlight and shined it around the audience…it was kinda like doing the wave, you’d put your hands up when the spotlight was on you…I loved it. Then he left, then Adam left, then Edge, then Larry had the beat almost stop…then he started it over again, then he left… one of the most uplifting parts of the show was exactly after the entire band had left. The whole audience continued singing “How long to sing this song?” and we even started synchronized clapping…we were singing for at least five minutes after the band had left, ‘til whenever the lights came back on. I almost thought the band would come back out! It was a really, really amazing moment for me…a reminder that I am a part of something much bigger than myself.
Some general notes:
- Bono had his shades off for about half the show! It was nice, especially compared to the San Diego show where he had his sunglasses on for basically the whole concert…Bono looks so much younger without his shades, and it somehow makes the show seem more intimate and legitimate.
- After Bono, I’d say Adam was the liveliest and most audience-interactive…he was walking around the ellipse a whole lot, more than Edge even. At one point Bono was randomly like “Sexy man!”
- The B-man interacted with the band a lot; especially Adam…he also interacted with the audience of course. He tried to get everyone involved in the concert somehow. I noticed whenever he was on the ellipse he kept singing to our side (I was on stage left).
- Speaking of the audience, damn what a crowd! The crowd was singing along to every song and cheering and jumping and just in general everyone seemed to be really, really into it. Except this one lady next to me. Her husband or boyfriend or whatever was obviously a big fan, I talked to him for awhile, and he was into it…not really jumping around insanely like I was but he was singing along and at least stood up almost the whole time…this dumb bitch was standing next to me, completely expressionless, during the first few songs, then she SAT DOWN for the rest of the show. What a dumb hag. That guy probably bought her a $90 ticket and she sat down the whole time without even a mild interest in what was going on. He needs to dump her sad ass and go out with…well, anyone else there, because the crowd was GREAT. Really, really GREAT.
- No one got pulled up on stage… I’m not really disappointed, just mildly surprised.
- U2 is without a doubt the best fucking band on the planet!!!!
Sooooooooooooooooooo… that ends my long-ass review of a bloody brilliant concert. After the show, Alec and I tried to stalk the band, but to no avail… I was trying to find some crazy-looking PLEBA girls or something that looked determined, but all I found was two sad-looking girls that said people that worked for the UC said the band had already left. We didn’t know what hotel they were staying at and we were fairly tired, so we gave up… as Alec said, “Oh well, that’s what Cleveland is for.” Now I can’t bloody wait ‘til December 10th!
