I enjoy the opening bands, provided the bands are talented.
I really enjoyed the openers on this tour more than any other tour.
Kings of Leon was especially good. Having never heard them before the concert, I was not looking forward to them. Now i hear them and I get excited because their music reminds me of that anticipation before the U2 show (is there any better feeling than that preshow excitement?... especially in an indoor arena?)
Snow Patrol was AWESOME in dublin, and really impressed me with how well they commanded the crowd of 80,000 plus.
PJ Harvey was fun once, but I saw her too many times on elevation to continue to enjoy her portion of the show.
Nelly Furtado was pretty good, but maybe a little young.
The Corrs were boring, and way too lightweight to open for a band like U2.
On POPMART I saw Third Eye Blind and Fun Loving Criminals open for U2, and neither band was interesting or fun to watch. (Somehow I missed seeing Rage Against The Machine AND Oasis open for U2 and got stuck with those other 2 talent free bands. Blah)
for my money, though, the best opener was Garbage on the third leg of elevation.
They rocked, they played all kinds of hits (i had no idea they had so many)... and they were fun to watch.
in general, i think i really like having openers, although i think there are some requirements.
for U2, i think the band should actually be able to ROCK to keep some attention (Like PJ Harvey, Garbage, Kings Of Leon, Snow Patrol). Because when a band can command the crowd and ROCK, the show doesn't get boring.
plus the anticipation wouldn't be there if the gates opened at 8:30 and the show started at 9:00. For my money, i want the option of seeing more than one band.
if you don't like opening acts, get to the show at 8:20ish. If you have floor seats, well... you would have been standing around all day anyway, so no point in complaining that you get to watch a band play music for an hour when you could just be standing around doing nothing inside the ellipse