Ok I finally looked at the setlist from the previous shows and I'm a little pissed we got one less song than the previous two shows.
At the risk of giving you guys review exhaustion, I have some words to add. Consider this encompassing of the tour in general, since I probably won't be seeing it again.
First, a negative: they missed a great opportunity to start the show with Black Hole Sun blasting over the PA but decided to follow character and stick to the script. I'm not even a Soundgarden fan but was feeling the intensity and emotion of 70,000 people singing along to that song with their cell phones held high. That was an awesome start to the show and transitioning directly into Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song about the inevitable cycle of death, from that would have been potent. But whatever, Pogues sounded good.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is a strong opener. It gets right to the point. Nothing fancy, no visuals, just a great band playing a classic on a small stage. I've heard it many, many times and will not likely get tired of it at this point. As always, I think the studio version's violins are necessary to add drama to the song, but it's explosive as is. The one and only really good picture I snapped last night was during this song:
New Year's Day was special for me because it somehow managed to elude me at my previous four shows, spread over twelve years. I can't compare it to previous performances as such, but what I saw was very powerful. Edge's guitar was mixed to the breaking point last night, almost blown out with a blend of distortion and delay and it sounded fucking great here, but it was a real treat to see him on double duty with his piano. That last verse is such a monster, very relevant and I was thrilled to hear it.
What can I say about A Sort of Homecoming? I knew it was coming and it still bowled me over. Never thought I'd get to hear this one live. It brought me the same level of excitement that I experienced the first time I heard it, 12 years old, listening to a copy I'd been gifted for Christmas. A blizzard ripped through my little town and I felt lost in these lyrics. It was just as evocative and transportive last night. The synth driven arrangement modernizes instead of dates the track, referencing a new era of electropop. Bono sounded great on this and I was thrilled to hear the track more or less intact, as I'd heard they lopped off a verse on first pass.
I'm kind of tired of Pride but in a sea of overused WOOOAHHHH OOHHH OHHHHs on mainstream radio, this outro sounds earned. They didn't play Bad afterward, so I figured that one was DOA, but the transition into Streets was perfectly fine, better than I had expected.
Red lights. A gentle synth swell. Good God do I fucking love Streets. This version was pretty straightforward, with a little less pulse to it than the 360 version that I often go to bat for, but it closely mirrored the classic album take, as much of the Joshua Tree section did. Except for the extraordinarily brief California snippet, of course. It's the one and only sign of SOI anywhere in the set and I'm more than OK with that.
This was the best version of ISHFWILF I've ever heard in person. That's not saying much, I suppose, it's been uninspiring for years, but I was just thrilled to hear Bono sing the damn thing himself. I like to people-watch during the hits I'm tired of and the crowd really seems to love the song still, so that makes me happy. I love it too, it's just been a long time since I've felt that way about it in a live setting.
My review of WOWY closely mirrors my review of Pride. I still love the song in a broader sense, but it's the outro that really takes it to the next level at this point. No Shine Like Stars, of course, but the WOOOOAAAAHHH OHHH OHHHH OHHHHHH singalong at the end was spine-tingling stuff. Great crowd participation happening here.
Bullet was not as good as last tour but OH MY GOD EDGE SOUNDED SO DAMN GOOD. What a fucking nasty guitar tone, holy shit. And with a rhythm section is powerful, how has this song not been sampled by a hundred hip hop producers by now? I haven't said much about the visuals yet, but they were wonderfully disorienting here. After a couple of bad tours, Bullet has really come back to life over the past few years.
Running to Stand Still was heart-in-throat brilliance. This wasn't my first live experience of the song; the first couple legs of Vertigo were blessed with it, but it's just as good now, if not a little better. Bono was in fine form here, making every word count and sending the track off with a cathartic harmonica solo. Despite a gripping buildup, it really was that solo that got the tears flowing. What an incredible song, a testament to the affecting potential of a couple heartrending chords.
Red Hill Mining Town was a highlight partially for the sheer fact of it, and partially because they really got the climax of the song right. It was not the same lumbering, insistent juggernaut it is on the album, it had more grace to it than that, but there was still a lot of force behind the song's most important sections. The horns sound OK, but I would rather have Edge ripping it up on guitar than piano. It's a sweaty, exhausted track and should stay that way.
An electric In God's Country was actually my most anticipated song of the set and, you know, it was fine. Played at album tempo, maybe a little slower, and without the gorgeous break before the solo, but holy fuck was that solo great. This song can't be ruined and the current version certainly beats the acoustic versions they used to play on Elevation. It's just not R&H good.
Trip was a major highlight, as good if not better than everyone has been saying. It's almost exactly the same as the album version in every way and the band seems to be enjoying playing it very, very much. I have a video of Ashley listening to the song with a huge, beaming smile on her face as Bono shouted random inane shit like "SEXY MAN THE EDGE!" and "SEXY COUNTRY AMERICA!" I will treasure that video until the day I die.
The last time I saw One Tree Hill, the band was falling over drunk in Chicago, paying a tribute to a fallen friend. This version was about a million times more polished but seemed to be missing something. I think it was the relatively subdued outro. Edge ripped shit up but Bono kind of sleepwalked through it. One Tree Hill just isn't One Tree Hill without RAIINNNNIIIIING IN MAAAAHHH HAEARTTTTT RRRRAAAAAINNNINNN RAAAAINNNNNINN WOOOOOO!!! Oh great ocean oh great sea, etc. was as stunning as always and the crowd really seemed to be into it, unlike some of the deep cuts of the album. I must say, I felt mildly awkward being one of the only people shouting the lyrics to RHMT.
Other than the stupid eeny meeny miney moe shit, Exit was every bit as potent as people are saying it is. Absolutely fucking rips. Bono had a big smile on his face as he performed this one, seemingly approaching it less as an adversary to conquer as he did in the 80s, as an old friend in need of a return. If you were to spend $100+ just to see this one song, you wouldn't regret it.
Mothers was the meditative beauty it always is. I've complimented Edge's guitar tone on numerous occasions in this review, but it had necessary grit on this track that put it over the top. The visuals were extremely powerful, candles of life snuffed out one at a time until the song was over, placing us in the dark. So good. Apparently a lot of people left after this song, but there were some surprises still to come.
Beautiful Day wasn't one of them, but it was OK. Probably the weakest version of it that I've heard in person. The dance remix vibe of the new intro was exciting in the same manner that EBTTRT was on 360, but after that it's kind of all over the place. There's a weird shot of the band's heads floating in space, glowing with fluorescent pinks, reds, greens and blues, that hangs in the background during the break. I have no idea what's going on there, but WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE, YOU DON'T NEED IT NOW, WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW, YOU CAN FEEL IT SOMEHOW is still one of the most inexplicably affecting lyrics I've ever heard.
Elevation kicks ass without the obnoxiously long intro that they used on Vertigo. I loved the version last night and made me remember dancing around the room to it when I was a little kid. It's back at that 2001 level of dominance on this tour. Crowd loves it too. There are songs I'd rather hear, but this version is worth keeping around.
Ultraviolet has become one of my favorite U2 songs and I was thrilled to finally hear it, but the mixing was muddled (Edge was far too loud), Bono was rather uninspired vocally and the message was a bit heavy-handed, if agreeable. I don't know how I feel about U2 comparing Lena Dunham to Maya Angelou. Actually, I do: it's fucking stupid. But still, great song.
The studio version of One is still a gem, a track that makes me feel a whirlwind of emotions if heard in the right context, but when preceded by interminable human rights speeches as it was last night, it's hard to relate its universal message to one's own experience. That said, I enjoyed this one a lot, as I usually do, and there was a woman next to me that was on the verge of tears the whole song. At one point she shook my hand and said it was great to be next to someone who knew the lyrics to every song. I'm glad my earnest bellowing was actually a positive for someone else. We get to carry each other, you know.
Miss Sarajevo is one of U2's best songs and I never tire of hearing it, even though this time around Bono changed the final verse, one of my favorite moments in U2 history, into something infinitely worse. My thoughts on pumping Pavarotti's voice in: I love Bono's voice as much as anyone (except Sil), but he's not one of modern history's greatest tenors. Pavarotti is a ghostly presence on this track and gives the song's message an eternal circularity. Bono cannot provide that.
I'll just come out and say it: I cried on my wife's shoulder listening to Bad. It's a vulnerable track and it brings that out in me, what can I say. Been waiting over a decade to finally hear this song and my GOD did it deliver. There was this subtle minor chord mixed in with the synth backing that gave it a particularly strong feeling of sorrow last night. Fuck me, this is such a great live song. Everything wonderful about U2 is contained in these 6 minutes. Part of me is OK with them not running it into the ground like Pride because it made moments like last night so special. But it's still probably the best song in the set, as it almost always is.
So yeah, I figured that might be all. Why not close with Bad, given the opportunity? But they gave us one more, a rock solid version of I Will Follow that the crowd REALLY got into. Context and placement are so important in developing a setlist and this instance of I Will Follow worked extremely well despite being a rough transition out of Bad. There wasn't any transition, really. They just kind of stopped, talked amongst themselves for a second and started kicking our asses like it was second nature. They can nail this song at the drop of a hat, which makes sense after its 320758750730703999394th performance.
If you guys couldn't tell, I love this band. Though I'm pretty critical of the newer material, it's merely a reaction to my fondness for their past and a dimming hope for their future. I don't know how I should feel about their fond embrace of the past, but I know that felt unbridled happiness for two hours last night. I hope all of U2's fans can briefly set aside their concerns of U2 sinking into the rock n roll tar pits and enjoy this show as much as U2 seem to be.
At the risk of giving you guys review exhaustion, I have some words to add. Consider this encompassing of the tour in general, since I probably won't be seeing it again.
First, a negative: they missed a great opportunity to start the show with Black Hole Sun blasting over the PA but decided to follow character and stick to the script. I'm not even a Soundgarden fan but was feeling the intensity and emotion of 70,000 people singing along to that song with their cell phones held high. That was an awesome start to the show and transitioning directly into Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song about the inevitable cycle of death, from that would have been potent. But whatever, Pogues sounded good.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is a strong opener. It gets right to the point. Nothing fancy, no visuals, just a great band playing a classic on a small stage. I've heard it many, many times and will not likely get tired of it at this point. As always, I think the studio version's violins are necessary to add drama to the song, but it's explosive as is. The one and only really good picture I snapped last night was during this song:
New Year's Day was special for me because it somehow managed to elude me at my previous four shows, spread over twelve years. I can't compare it to previous performances as such, but what I saw was very powerful. Edge's guitar was mixed to the breaking point last night, almost blown out with a blend of distortion and delay and it sounded fucking great here, but it was a real treat to see him on double duty with his piano. That last verse is such a monster, very relevant and I was thrilled to hear it.
What can I say about A Sort of Homecoming? I knew it was coming and it still bowled me over. Never thought I'd get to hear this one live. It brought me the same level of excitement that I experienced the first time I heard it, 12 years old, listening to a copy I'd been gifted for Christmas. A blizzard ripped through my little town and I felt lost in these lyrics. It was just as evocative and transportive last night. The synth driven arrangement modernizes instead of dates the track, referencing a new era of electropop. Bono sounded great on this and I was thrilled to hear the track more or less intact, as I'd heard they lopped off a verse on first pass.
I'm kind of tired of Pride but in a sea of overused WOOOAHHHH OOHHH OHHHHs on mainstream radio, this outro sounds earned. They didn't play Bad afterward, so I figured that one was DOA, but the transition into Streets was perfectly fine, better than I had expected.
Red lights. A gentle synth swell. Good God do I fucking love Streets. This version was pretty straightforward, with a little less pulse to it than the 360 version that I often go to bat for, but it closely mirrored the classic album take, as much of the Joshua Tree section did. Except for the extraordinarily brief California snippet, of course. It's the one and only sign of SOI anywhere in the set and I'm more than OK with that.
This was the best version of ISHFWILF I've ever heard in person. That's not saying much, I suppose, it's been uninspiring for years, but I was just thrilled to hear Bono sing the damn thing himself. I like to people-watch during the hits I'm tired of and the crowd really seems to love the song still, so that makes me happy. I love it too, it's just been a long time since I've felt that way about it in a live setting.
My review of WOWY closely mirrors my review of Pride. I still love the song in a broader sense, but it's the outro that really takes it to the next level at this point. No Shine Like Stars, of course, but the WOOOOAAAAHHH OHHH OHHHH OHHHHHH singalong at the end was spine-tingling stuff. Great crowd participation happening here.
Bullet was not as good as last tour but OH MY GOD EDGE SOUNDED SO DAMN GOOD. What a fucking nasty guitar tone, holy shit. And with a rhythm section is powerful, how has this song not been sampled by a hundred hip hop producers by now? I haven't said much about the visuals yet, but they were wonderfully disorienting here. After a couple of bad tours, Bullet has really come back to life over the past few years.
Running to Stand Still was heart-in-throat brilliance. This wasn't my first live experience of the song; the first couple legs of Vertigo were blessed with it, but it's just as good now, if not a little better. Bono was in fine form here, making every word count and sending the track off with a cathartic harmonica solo. Despite a gripping buildup, it really was that solo that got the tears flowing. What an incredible song, a testament to the affecting potential of a couple heartrending chords.
Red Hill Mining Town was a highlight partially for the sheer fact of it, and partially because they really got the climax of the song right. It was not the same lumbering, insistent juggernaut it is on the album, it had more grace to it than that, but there was still a lot of force behind the song's most important sections. The horns sound OK, but I would rather have Edge ripping it up on guitar than piano. It's a sweaty, exhausted track and should stay that way.
An electric In God's Country was actually my most anticipated song of the set and, you know, it was fine. Played at album tempo, maybe a little slower, and without the gorgeous break before the solo, but holy fuck was that solo great. This song can't be ruined and the current version certainly beats the acoustic versions they used to play on Elevation. It's just not R&H good.
Trip was a major highlight, as good if not better than everyone has been saying. It's almost exactly the same as the album version in every way and the band seems to be enjoying playing it very, very much. I have a video of Ashley listening to the song with a huge, beaming smile on her face as Bono shouted random inane shit like "SEXY MAN THE EDGE!" and "SEXY COUNTRY AMERICA!" I will treasure that video until the day I die.
The last time I saw One Tree Hill, the band was falling over drunk in Chicago, paying a tribute to a fallen friend. This version was about a million times more polished but seemed to be missing something. I think it was the relatively subdued outro. Edge ripped shit up but Bono kind of sleepwalked through it. One Tree Hill just isn't One Tree Hill without RAIINNNNIIIIING IN MAAAAHHH HAEARTTTTT RRRRAAAAAINNNINNN RAAAAINNNNNINN WOOOOOO!!! Oh great ocean oh great sea, etc. was as stunning as always and the crowd really seemed to be into it, unlike some of the deep cuts of the album. I must say, I felt mildly awkward being one of the only people shouting the lyrics to RHMT.
Other than the stupid eeny meeny miney moe shit, Exit was every bit as potent as people are saying it is. Absolutely fucking rips. Bono had a big smile on his face as he performed this one, seemingly approaching it less as an adversary to conquer as he did in the 80s, as an old friend in need of a return. If you were to spend $100+ just to see this one song, you wouldn't regret it.
Mothers was the meditative beauty it always is. I've complimented Edge's guitar tone on numerous occasions in this review, but it had necessary grit on this track that put it over the top. The visuals were extremely powerful, candles of life snuffed out one at a time until the song was over, placing us in the dark. So good. Apparently a lot of people left after this song, but there were some surprises still to come.
Beautiful Day wasn't one of them, but it was OK. Probably the weakest version of it that I've heard in person. The dance remix vibe of the new intro was exciting in the same manner that EBTTRT was on 360, but after that it's kind of all over the place. There's a weird shot of the band's heads floating in space, glowing with fluorescent pinks, reds, greens and blues, that hangs in the background during the break. I have no idea what's going on there, but WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE, YOU DON'T NEED IT NOW, WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW, YOU CAN FEEL IT SOMEHOW is still one of the most inexplicably affecting lyrics I've ever heard.
Elevation kicks ass without the obnoxiously long intro that they used on Vertigo. I loved the version last night and made me remember dancing around the room to it when I was a little kid. It's back at that 2001 level of dominance on this tour. Crowd loves it too. There are songs I'd rather hear, but this version is worth keeping around.
Ultraviolet has become one of my favorite U2 songs and I was thrilled to finally hear it, but the mixing was muddled (Edge was far too loud), Bono was rather uninspired vocally and the message was a bit heavy-handed, if agreeable. I don't know how I feel about U2 comparing Lena Dunham to Maya Angelou. Actually, I do: it's fucking stupid. But still, great song.
The studio version of One is still a gem, a track that makes me feel a whirlwind of emotions if heard in the right context, but when preceded by interminable human rights speeches as it was last night, it's hard to relate its universal message to one's own experience. That said, I enjoyed this one a lot, as I usually do, and there was a woman next to me that was on the verge of tears the whole song. At one point she shook my hand and said it was great to be next to someone who knew the lyrics to every song. I'm glad my earnest bellowing was actually a positive for someone else. We get to carry each other, you know.
Miss Sarajevo is one of U2's best songs and I never tire of hearing it, even though this time around Bono changed the final verse, one of my favorite moments in U2 history, into something infinitely worse. My thoughts on pumping Pavarotti's voice in: I love Bono's voice as much as anyone (except Sil), but he's not one of modern history's greatest tenors. Pavarotti is a ghostly presence on this track and gives the song's message an eternal circularity. Bono cannot provide that.
I'll just come out and say it: I cried on my wife's shoulder listening to Bad. It's a vulnerable track and it brings that out in me, what can I say. Been waiting over a decade to finally hear this song and my GOD did it deliver. There was this subtle minor chord mixed in with the synth backing that gave it a particularly strong feeling of sorrow last night. Fuck me, this is such a great live song. Everything wonderful about U2 is contained in these 6 minutes. Part of me is OK with them not running it into the ground like Pride because it made moments like last night so special. But it's still probably the best song in the set, as it almost always is.
So yeah, I figured that might be all. Why not close with Bad, given the opportunity? But they gave us one more, a rock solid version of I Will Follow that the crowd REALLY got into. Context and placement are so important in developing a setlist and this instance of I Will Follow worked extremely well despite being a rough transition out of Bad. There wasn't any transition, really. They just kind of stopped, talked amongst themselves for a second and started kicking our asses like it was second nature. They can nail this song at the drop of a hat, which makes sense after its 320758750730703999394th performance.
If you guys couldn't tell, I love this band. Though I'm pretty critical of the newer material, it's merely a reaction to my fondness for their past and a dimming hope for their future. I don't know how I should feel about their fond embrace of the past, but I know that felt unbridled happiness for two hours last night. I hope all of U2's fans can briefly set aside their concerns of U2 sinking into the rock n roll tar pits and enjoy this show as much as U2 seem to be.
At the risk of giving you guys review exhaustion, I have some words to add. Consider this encompassing of the tour in general, since I probably won't be seeing it again.
First, a negative: they missed a great opportunity to start the show with Black Hole Sun blasting over the PA but decided to follow character and stick to the script. I'm not even a Soundgarden fan but was feeling the intensity and emotion of 70,000 people singing along to that song with their cell phones held high. That was an awesome start to the show and transitioning directly into Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song about the inevitable cycle of death, from that would have been potent. But whatever, Pogues sounded good.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is a strong opener. It gets right to the point. Nothing fancy, no visuals, just a great band playing a classic on a small stage. I've heard it many, many times and will not likely get tired of it at this point. As always, I think the studio version's violins are necessary to add drama to the song, but it's explosive as is. The one and only really good picture I snapped last night was during this song:
New Year's Day was special for me because it somehow managed to elude me at my previous four shows, spread over twelve years. I can't compare it to previous performances as such, but what I saw was very powerful. Edge's guitar was mixed to the breaking point last night, almost blown out with a blend of distortion and delay and it sounded fucking great here, but it was a real treat to see him on double duty with his piano. That last verse is such a monster, very relevant and I was thrilled to hear it.
What can I say about A Sort of Homecoming? I knew it was coming and it still bowled me over. Never thought I'd get to hear this one live. It brought me the same level of excitement that I experienced the first time I heard it, 12 years old, listening to a copy I'd been gifted for Christmas. A blizzard ripped through my little town and I felt lost in these lyrics. It was just as evocative and transportive last night. The synth driven arrangement modernizes instead of dates the track, referencing a new era of electropop. Bono sounded great on this and I was thrilled to hear the track more or less intact, as I'd heard they lopped off a verse on first pass.
I'm kind of tired of Pride but in a sea of overused WOOOAHHHH OOHHH OHHHHs on mainstream radio, this outro sounds earned. They didn't play Bad afterward, so I figured that one was DOA, but the transition into Streets was perfectly fine, better than I had expected.
Red lights. A gentle synth swell. Good God do I fucking love Streets. This version was pretty straightforward, with a little less pulse to it than the 360 version that I often go to bat for, but it closely mirrored the classic album take, as much of the Joshua Tree section did. Except for the extraordinarily brief California snippet, of course. It's the one and only sign of SOI anywhere in the set and I'm more than OK with that.
This was the best version of ISHFWILF I've ever heard in person. That's not saying much, I suppose, it's been uninspiring for years, but I was just thrilled to hear Bono sing the damn thing himself. I like to people-watch during the hits I'm tired of and the crowd really seems to love the song still, so that makes me happy. I love it too, it's just been a long time since I've felt that way about it in a live setting.
My review of WOWY closely mirrors my review of Pride. I still love the song in a broader sense, but it's the outro that really takes it to the next level at this point. No Shine Like Stars, of course, but the WOOOOAAAAHHH OHHH OHHHH OHHHHHH singalong at the end was spine-tingling stuff. Great crowd participation happening here.
Bullet was not as good as last tour but OH MY GOD EDGE SOUNDED SO DAMN GOOD. What a fucking nasty guitar tone, holy shit. And with a rhythm section is powerful, how has this song not been sampled by a hundred hip hop producers by now? I haven't said much about the visuals yet, but they were wonderfully disorienting here. After a couple of bad tours, Bullet has really come back to life over the past few years.
Running to Stand Still was heart-in-throat brilliance. This wasn't my first live experience of the song; the first couple legs of Vertigo were blessed with it, but it's just as good now, if not a little better. Bono was in fine form here, making every word count and sending the track off with a cathartic harmonica solo. Despite a gripping buildup, it really was that solo that got the tears flowing. What an incredible song, a testament to the affecting potential of a couple heartrending chords.
Red Hill Mining Town was a highlight partially for the sheer fact of it, and partially because they really got the climax of the song right. It was not the same lumbering, insistent juggernaut it is on the album, it had more grace to it than that, but there was still a lot of force behind the song's most important sections. The horns sound OK, but I would rather have Edge ripping it up on guitar than piano. It's a sweaty, exhausted track and should stay that way.
An electric In God's Country was actually my most anticipated song of the set and, you know, it was fine. Played at album tempo, maybe a little slower, and without the gorgeous break before the solo, but holy fuck was that solo great. This song can't be ruined and the current version certainly beats the acoustic versions they used to play on Elevation. It's just not R&H good.
Trip was a major highlight, as good if not better than everyone has been saying. It's almost exactly the same as the album version in every way and the band seems to be enjoying playing it very, very much. I have a video of Ashley listening to the song with a huge, beaming smile on her face as Bono shouted random inane shit like "SEXY MAN THE EDGE!" and "SEXY COUNTRY AMERICA!" I will treasure that video until the day I die.
The last time I saw One Tree Hill, the band was falling over drunk in Chicago, paying a tribute to a fallen friend. This version was about a million times more polished but seemed to be missing something. I think it was the relatively subdued outro. Edge ripped shit up but Bono kind of sleepwalked through it. One Tree Hill just isn't One Tree Hill without RAIINNNNIIIIING IN MAAAAHHH HAEARTTTTT RRRRAAAAAINNNINNN RAAAAINNNNNINN WOOOOOO!!! Oh great ocean oh great sea, etc. was as stunning as always and the crowd really seemed to be into it, unlike some of the deep cuts of the album. I must say, I felt mildly awkward being one of the only people shouting the lyrics to RHMT.
Other than the stupid eeny meeny miney moe shit, Exit was every bit as potent as people are saying it is. Absolutely fucking rips. Bono had a big smile on his face as he performed this one, seemingly approaching it less as an adversary to conquer as he did in the 80s, as an old friend in need of a return. If you were to spend $100+ just to see this one song, you wouldn't regret it.
Mothers was the meditative beauty it always is. I've complimented Edge's guitar tone on numerous occasions in this review, but it had necessary grit on this track that put it over the top. The visuals were extremely powerful, candles of life snuffed out one at a time until the song was over, placing us in the dark. So good. Apparently a lot of people left after this song, but there were some surprises still to come.
Beautiful Day wasn't one of them, but it was OK. Probably the weakest version of it that I've heard in person. The dance remix vibe of the new intro was exciting in the same manner that EBTTRT was on 360, but after that it's kind of all over the place. There's a weird shot of the band's heads floating in space, glowing with fluorescent pinks, reds, greens and blues, that hangs in the background during the break. I have no idea what's going on there, but WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE, YOU DON'T NEED IT NOW, WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW, YOU CAN FEEL IT SOMEHOW is still one of the most inexplicably affecting lyrics I've ever heard.
Elevation kicks ass without the obnoxiously long intro that they used on Vertigo. I loved the version last night and made me remember dancing around the room to it when I was a little kid. It's back at that 2001 level of dominance on this tour. Crowd loves it too. There are songs I'd rather hear, but this version is worth keeping around.
Ultraviolet has become one of my favorite U2 songs and I was thrilled to finally hear it, but the mixing was muddled (Edge was far too loud), Bono was rather uninspired vocally and the message was a bit heavy-handed, if agreeable. I don't know how I feel about U2 comparing Lena Dunham to Maya Angelou. Actually, I do: it's fucking stupid. But still, great song.
The studio version of One is still a gem, a track that makes me feel a whirlwind of emotions if heard in the right context, but when preceded by interminable human rights speeches as it was last night, it's hard to relate its universal message to one's own experience. That said, I enjoyed this one a lot, as I usually do, and there was a woman next to me that was on the verge of tears the whole song. At one point she shook my hand and said it was great to be next to someone who knew the lyrics to every song. I'm glad my earnest bellowing was actually a positive for someone else. We get to carry each other, you know.
Miss Sarajevo is one of U2's best songs and I never tire of hearing it, even though this time around Bono changed the final verse, one of my favorite moments in U2 history, into something infinitely worse. My thoughts on pumping Pavarotti's voice in: I love Bono's voice as much as anyone (except Sil), but he's not one of modern history's greatest tenors. Pavarotti is a ghostly presence on this track and gives the song's message an eternal circularity. Bono cannot provide that.
I'll just come out and say it: I cried on my wife's shoulder listening to Bad. It's a vulnerable track and it brings that out in me, what can I say. Been waiting over a decade to finally hear this song and my GOD did it deliver. There was this subtle minor chord mixed in with the synth backing that gave it a particularly strong feeling of sorrow last night. Fuck me, this is such a great live song. Everything wonderful about U2 is contained in these 6 minutes. Part of me is OK with them not running it into the ground like Pride because it made moments like last night so special. But it's still probably the best song in the set, as it almost always is.
So yeah, I figured that might be all. Why not close with Bad, given the opportunity? But they gave us one more, a rock solid version of I Will Follow that the crowd REALLY got into. Context and placement are so important in developing a setlist and this instance of I Will Follow worked extremely well despite being a rough transition out of Bad. There wasn't any transition, really. They just kind of stopped, talked amongst themselves for a second and started kicking our asses like it was second nature. They can nail this song at the drop of a hat, which makes sense after its 320758750730703999394th performance.
If you guys couldn't tell, I love this band. Though I'm pretty critical of the newer material, it's merely a reaction to my fondness for their past and a dimming hope for their future. I don't know how I should feel about their fond embrace of the past, but I know that felt unbridled happiness for two hours last night. I hope all of U2's fans can briefly set aside their concerns of U2 sinking into the rock n roll tar pits and enjoy this show as much as U2 seem to be.
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Glad at least one person shares my view of it. Really great review man.It makes me happy to see so many positive reviews and expressions of joy. Yay.
How you liking Colorado IWB? Its nice to have one more of us representing the Mountain Time Zone! (Of course mofo had to leave us for Texas
Tonight's performances were better than last night's, I thought. They seemed to be having fun up there. Bono seemed pleased with RHMT as well.
I think I figured out the problem with Ultraviolet. It sounds desperate on the album, and it doesn't on this tour.
I had a blast these two days. I got to see Cobbler tonight after the show. Always a highlight.
