dsmith2904
ONE love, blood, life
Please post your reviews of the June 21st show here.
RABIDLAMB said:I've had about exactly 12 hours to chew the fat on the Hampden gig without typing anything. So with a clear mind I begin.
Interpol left the stage at exactly 8pm & we had the usual flurry of guitar & drum techs doing their stuff. I'd advise anyone going to any future statium concerts to get their hotdogs or whatever at this point as you'll be waiting a long time for the setup to be complete. U2 came onto stage at 8:50pm to the usual thunderous applause. They hit the ground running & had the crowd on the side straight away but it wasn't until Elevation that Bono got them eating out of his hand. The 2 note intro was repeated way into the song with the crowd trying to predict when the big guitars & chorus would kick in. One big misjudgement by the crowd left Bono laughing & saying "down boy".
The next stand out moment was City of Blinding Lights where the full use of the very impressive screens kicked in for the first time, an amazing sight nearly worth the admission alone. This might start to sound like a glowing review but I'm afraid it's not. After that we were pretty much at a political rally for 45 minutes. From Sunday Bloody Sunday through to One it was like a party political broadcast on behalf of the "Bono for God" party. I know I will probably get slated for this but when I paid my hard earned I expect to to entertained, not to be sermoned by some self appointed second coming.
Zoo Station, The Fly & especially Yahweh restored my belief that they are the greatest band on earth. It's just about time they concentrated more on their rock n'roll side than trying to engrave their legacy for history.
I'm expecting to be shreded for this but It's what I believe.
WASTID said:Well just what can you say about this performance at Hampden Park. Probably hard to really put into words just how good a gig this was.
From the 4 dublin lads walking on stage, to the "uno, dos, tres" of Vertigo, thro a blistering set list to once again the closing bars of Vertigo the crowd just lapped it all up.
Last night was the 6th time of seeing U2 which stretches from PopMart Leeds & Edinburgh, Elevation Tour Manchester and Birmingham and a previous Vertigo night in Manchester and to last night in Glasgow I have probably seen one of the best live performances I've ever witnessed with only the first time in Leeds being up there for in my memory.
There are some songs that I am often not a fan of, but when they play them live they just re-invent it and blow you away. Elevation was one of those. Following a rip roaring burst thro Vertigo, ABOY and Electric Co. (how good was Edge during that btw?!) they move into Elevation and re-invent from a song that I previously thought was weak and re-invent it as "building an orgasm" (as the girlfriend described it after Manchester last week!!) with Bono taunting the crowd with "down boy" as they all get ready to go for it when they expect to only to be held back.
New Years Day I can never tire of hearing, and following it with Beautiful Day is only let down by one thing.... where's Dirty Day??!
Variation from the Manchester set I saw comes next when they bring back Still Haven't Found, and the crowd are singing along and hanging on to every word... what next... Oh yes.... here's it comes..... I recognise the into immediately... we've got Wild Horses running through Hampden Park!!!
At long last they seem to of found the formula and Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses kicks in and sends me into overdrive at least. Great to hear a full band electric version of a song that you know has not been aired very often. Bono informs us at the end that he thinks its only the 2nd time its been played in its entirety and asks "I hope we did okay with that for you". Yes, yes and yes. Not like Bono to understate something. Amazing would of been a better way to describe it.
This led superbly into another 3 songs from the bomb with Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug and Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own. Its obvious from Miracle Drug and explaining about the future and scientists, and medicines, doctors etc that it means a lot to him and Miracle Drug is a heart rendering song, but is topped by Sometimes which is just so personal for Bono (and the rest of the band I suppose). Bono makes his way down the BStage (Adam side) just in front of us during Sometimes and it was some feeling to see his eyes as he sang this with his heart so heavily into it, and you can just tell that he loses himself with his thoughts during this song. No picture could ever do it justice.
After this it seems such a natural transition into "Coexist" section which is opened by Love and Peace (perfect to follow a song about his father with a song about Love and Peace in the world). Love and Peace is a song that I am personally not a big fan of on Atomic Bomb, and also not a great fan of Bullet these days, but they sit perfectly together and make an integral part of the show with Bloody Sunday sandwiched in between leaving no doubt as to what the message is. Despite the serious nature of this though, we still got a laugh from Bono as he struggled to find the mic with the blindfold on during Bullet and he seemed to struggle for a short while to keep the words coming as he tried not to laugh too much about it.
Streets is up next, and its not the usual slow build up to it this tour, and the segue from Pride is not as natural as what we have had previously from the likes of Please (PopMart), Running (ZooTV) etc, but it works well tonight as the crowd are so into the show that they need no invitation from Bono to keep Pride going with the "oh oho oh's" as Streets builds up and the African Flags replacing the traditional blood red screens and as soon as Streets kicks right in the Crowd are away again, singing to every word and at times taking over from Bono.
How do you close out a set after all of that? Well suppose you couldn't go far wrong with a song like One, as the lighters and mobile phones are out in the air (and fingers texting in to make poverty history at the same time), and before you know it thats the main set over in what seemed like 5 minutes.
Screens and lights kick into action again though as we are thrown back in time to ZooTV and the intro to Zoo Station starts up. Why has this song been missing from set lists since the ZooTV years? Certainly gets you thinking that after hearing it performed live and then followed by The Fly. Two songs that are made for the live loud stages and bring the place alive again as we are flooded with information overload.
Mr. Clayton gets that base going as we move straight into to With or Without You, and this is by far the most memorable version I've ever heard of this great song. In Manchester I was amazed at the amount of people standing near me with hands in pockets and not even singin along to this one. This week I am standing in amazement at hearing the crowd behind me up in the stands clapping and singing along to every word. Seemed surreal to kind of here the crowd clapping and singing from way behind you and about 1/2 a second behind to U2. Just had to stand and look round the stadium and take it in as it felt so good.
Unfortunately, after WOWY you just know its nearing the end of the stage, and the place is quiet as we get the slow burning Yahweh and the visuals again fit perfectly with the moment and allow everyone to take a breath and take it all in. No pause at the end tho as Edge cracks open some more Vertigo, we're told what an Encore really means and "uno, dos, tres" we've come full circle, the crowd know this is it, its almost over so lets go for it and enjoy the closing moments of a truly momentous night.
Oh for more of this tour, but for me its going to be the consolation prize of seeing them do a short set in Hyde Park at Live8! :-o
Vertigo is over for me, and its time to start hoping and searching for a download of this performance. Be missed if this performance has not been caught on some recording device to be heard time and time again.
to say it didnt go well in your section is one thing, but to say the it didnt go well with the whole crowd is weaird, because many people have already said that the preachiness went over with alot of respectpopshopper said:Good gig but the sound was appalling. Bono's preachiness didn't go over well with the glasgow crowd and I think it will fare similar in dublin.
KUEFC09U2 said:to say it didnt go well in your section is one thing, but to say the it didnt go well with the whole crowd is weaird, because many people have already said that the preachiness went over with alot of respect
super fly guy said:That was an awesome gig although like most people i thought the sound was below par, as it bounced off the main stand. But apart from that it was great, the stand out track forme had to be ZOO Station
andrew_farrell said:Could I have a look at the photos please?
email is andrew_farrell_1986 AT yahoo . co . uk
nickypiemcg said:
Sure the the invitation should be with you in about 30 mins.
andrew_farrell said:
Thanks for sharing those pics and videos. The videos are really good! Nice to relive part of a great night