The concert was absolutely incredible. I braved a combination of awful Houston rush hour traffic and awful Reliant Stadium event traffic to make it to the stadium still forty-five minutes before Muse started. I had a great seat, in section 110, to the side of and a little behind the stage on field level. I got to the stadium and was a little disappointed to see that the roof was closed, because I had read on Interference that it was opened... and then they opened it right in front of us.
Muse came on, late as usual. I enjoyed their set, but not as much as I had hoped. They have very good music, but didn't show a particularly good stage presence here - Snow Patrol held the audience better than Muse, IMO. And they were LOUD. Louder than U2, and not entirely clear even in my really good seat. Still, I enjoyed it.
I nearly exploded when I heard Space Oddity. A lot of people disagree with me, but I still think Space Oddity->Kingdom->Breathe is an amazing opening sequence.
Breathe was, as usual, amazing. Everyone was standing and seemed to like the song, even if not many people knew it, and the band were filled with energy.
Boots is awesome. I know it gets attacked a lot here, but it is really incredible live, especially with the extended intro.
Magnficent was also awesome, even though people were starting to sit down by this point (listen to the new album, bastards!).
Mysty Ways really got the crowd back on their feet. I miss the solo, but it's still a great song, and it's not stupid. I really enjoyed it, even without the solo.
Beautiful Day was... well, beautiful, for everyone in the stadium.
Still Haven't Found... I'm not a huge fan of this song, but it's really cool to sing the first verse with the rest of the crowd (even if the Houston crowd was less awesome than the Chicago crowd). When Bono mentioned that a lot of astronauts' families were in the crowd before the song, I started really getting my hopes up for Your Blue Room.
I'm not a big fan of Stuck, but I do love Edge's falsetto at the end. I would note here that the crowd were not particularly interested by this song at all, at least where I was.
No Line is just
-worthy live.
Elevation... I wholesale loathe this song. However, I guess it fits thematically (Elevation? Altitude?), and it sent the stadium bouncing, so I can (not happily) accept it. Towards the end of the song, I noticed that the piano had been brought out. It was too early for TUF, so I put two and two together, and...
YOUR BLUE ROOM. I can't believe I got to see this live. I looked like an idiot in my section, because I was the only one who knew the song, stood, and was singing. I didn't care. Note that while everyone sat down, no one really left for beer/bathroom... the whole stadium seemed to be in a bit of a spacey trance.
I was fully expecting UTEOTW, but that didn't make it any less glorious. This song has never been played badly. It was incredible; unfortunately, the crowd outside of the pit didn't really seem to be into it, but, again, I didn't care and was jumping up and down, singing, the whole damn time.
The Unforgettable Fire... one emoticon will suffice to describe it:
I was on the verge of tears for COBL.
I also wholesale loathe Vertigo, but I accept its presence because I know that they'll never be able to get rid of it. I subconsciously and accidentally ended up singing "at a place called VERTIFAIL" out loud, without realizing it. I'm poisoning my own mind with negativity.
The Crazy Tonight remix was insane. The crowd had no idea what it was, but, after Vertigo, they ended up getting really into it by the end. And I adore the transition into...
Sunday Bloody Sunday, which isn't my favorite song, but which seems very timely and is performed incredibly well on this tour (no complaints here).
MLK->Walk On... err, I miss the Hallelujah ending, but it's still a great set of songs, and I was able to just sing the Hallelujah ending by myself to be happy.
One was beautiful. I don't care what people say; I loved it. I wasn't expecting Bono to sing Hear Us Coming, but he did, so, again, I nearly cried.
Streets is just Streets.
I love the new last-encore intro video. It ties the whole show together into the space (both physical and emotional) theme, and I love seeing the Achtung Babyface singing Space Oddity. It also really establishes a character that Bono is in for the last encore.
Ultraviolet is
this tour. Even better than ZooTV. I can't say enough about this song, so I won't even try. It's even more incredible now that they've totally tied it in thematically.
With or Without You is the perfect song for where it's at, and I perfectly enjoyed it, despite how Bono sang it. He didn't sing Shine Like Stars, but I did!
Moment of Surrender is amazing live. They seem to have but the song down closer to its SNL length, but I don't care. I really didn't see the mass exodus of the stadium that most people witness... a handful of people left after Streets, thinking there wasn't another encore (a woman next to me almost left at that time, too, but she asked me if there was another encore first), but people seemed to really like MOS. I love MOS to pieces. It is my favorite U2 song to come out since Pop or Zooropa, easily. The song gets major
-points from me.
There you have it. I can't find anything to complain about with this show. It was better than Chicago. It was absolutely amazing.
There was a Joshua Tree dad behind me with his daughters and I think they only stood up for Mysterious Ways, Streets, and ISHFWILF.
