I'd really been looking forward to the Zagreb shows as I had a wee theory that the audiences would be some of the most up-for-it on the whole tour as it's U2's first time in Croatia, and there'd be big U2-heads travelling here from all the neighbouring countries.
Maybe it was because last night was the "second" night here but it took a while for the place to warm up and get going. And it didn't quite go off as well as I thought it would.
I met Interference's Kevin051269 and his chilled mates for a few beers in central Zagreb in the afternoon. His two mates are only going to tonight's show so Kev and I took a cab down to Makismir, well as close as we could due to the police roadblocks.
We got through the fairly overzealous security just for the start of Breathe. My security bloke had a wee notion to check with his supervisor about whether the five books I was carrying were allowed in, and the spare batteries for my camera - "you might throw them", "yeah but I might throw my phone, my coins, my shoes, an over-ketchupped hotdog, small children, who knows!"
I love Breathe as a song, and I love the phased introduction of each band member to the concert but I don't think it's a great concert opener. It just doesn't engage the full stadium from the very off like Vertigo or Elevation did on previous tours. NLOTH didn't really rally the whole crowd either. The big "Oooooooh! Oh-oh oh-oh-oh!" fist-pumping bit in the middle has got a huge audience response in more English language savvy places like Berlin, Amsterdam, Gothenburg and (ahem) Dublin, but not so much in Chorzow and Zagreb. I wonder how you say "Ooooooh!" in Polish and Croatian
Kevin and I were in the seats at the far end of the stadium from the stage. Bizarrely, the seating was unallocated, so it was a free-for-all to find a seat. And because people had to enter from the top and back of the stand it was impossible to spot two empty seats. So we forced our way down the stairs and ended up standing on them instead of going to seats.
I didn't see any flash mob with balloons, but I may have missed it. I didn't notice anybody giving out balloons before, or even any posters around the stadium about it. Maybe it'll work better tonight.
Anyway, some random observations of the show:
- One was excellent, Bono called for the Milky Way effect during the song instead of at the start, and I really liked the heightened power and emotion from having the song come from a darkened stage and the extra singing from the crowd
- there were a few changes to the visuals from other shows, it's good these are still evolving. The "Let Me In The Sound" text wasn't flashed on the screen during Boots. The running buffalo is back during One. The start of SBS had the image of Bono kneeling live on stage shrunk quickly down and merged into the pupil of the eye of the protestor's face from Iran on the screen. I'm sure there were others, these are just the ones I noticed and remember.
- Edge has had a bit of a clanger week, probably too much birthday champagne. Another two last night. He missed the openers for both Pride and UV. But he recovered immediately - and, really, I'm sure very, very few people noticed at all. And no-one cared.
- Almost every single time that Adam appears on the screen he's got a huge smile on his face. Love it!
- Larry controls when a song ends. He does that little drum roll thing to tell them, "right, that's done, we're movin on". But he does it too soon in some songs for me, like during the anarchic thrash around bit at the end of UTEOTW, and also in WoWY. Let Bono sing about stars shining in the night please Larry!
- Bono's voice continues to amaze. Especially on MoS. It's my favourite song of the tour and last night his voice was sensational. But I can't help thinking the song should be moved into the middle of the gig where Bad used to be for example. It's not their best song to end a show, as many people don't know it (or UV) and I think the concert sorta fizzles out for them after the collective choir of WoWY.
- Bono is becoming more multilingual. He said a few lines in Croatian at a couple of points during the show.
- One for the boys: the girls in Zagreb are drop-dead, double and treble-take stunning. The best tourist attraction there is
Overall it was a great gig, a bit of a slow boil but they got there in the end as they always do.
I'd love to find out if Miss Sarajevo would be a politically acceptable song in Zagreb. I've genuinely no idea. Would the Croatians take to a song about Bosnia? The war was only fifteen years ago, but the Balkan states seem to be all best buddies these days if their blatant block-voting during the Eurovision Song Contest is anything to go by
I think I'll make some discreet enquiries today ...