totally a last minute decision to go. i woke up and went to work thinking i'd just periscope it with a cold beer but i saw a post here offering a face value GA, figured i didn't have anything else to do in the evening, did some math wrt my finances and realized i could easily afford it so i jumped on the chance.
didn't see the lumineers and didn't care to, my ticket seller was stuck in traffic and i didn't get in the venue until 8ish. still lots of room on the floor towards the back but filling up quickly. it was extremely hot. they opened the roof while i was in line for beer and all the humidity and tension was instantly sucked out of the building. it seemed like they took a real long time getting on stage, i think it was about 9:10 before larry came out.
i liked SBS as an opener and NYD right after it. not having the screen on at this point added to the rawness. crowd seemed a lot more focused on getting their videos and photos though which was distracting trying to see through all the phones.
bad really suffers from being this early in the setlist. pride suffers from the same issue, though not as much as bad. best performance of pride i've heard in person. the crowd was really starting to get into it at this point.
of course the reveal of the screen was such a cool moment. loved the desert driving visual. i liked how the band let the visuals take centre stage for streets, it works really well.
loved the desert time lapse for ishfwilf - it's like they went into my psyche and dug out the images i've always had in my head listening to the joshua tree. pretty uncanny, really.
i was convinced we were getting shine like stars - so much so that i started screaming it out at top volume when it would have started and got weird looks from everyone around me when they (and bono) sang the "ohhhhhhhh"s instead. fuck em. bummed it wasn't really shine like stars though.
bullet was so cool. also liked how the focus of the visuals switched more to the band and i was able to see edge's solo. some of the effects were boggling my mind (the video is editing itself on the fly? how the fuck is that even possible). seemed like this one was a bit rushed though.
very meh on red hill mining town. it was cool to hear it live but i'm not a big fan of the arrangement. adam chilling on the drum riser near edge and them all playing closely together was a neat moment.
i was worried that in gods country would lose a bit of its punch and wild momentum in a live setting but it really didn't. unfortunately it seemed like this was the point where the crowd around me started to lose interest, and i was getting distracted too - an extremely drunk girl who could hardly stand up and her boyfriend were causing a scene to one side of me, and the group of 4 or 5 people in front of me were very openly and obnoxiously doing a lot of cocaine (and they didn't even offer me any).
trip seemed to pull back a lot of the audience's interest. the film of the woman painting the barn was pretty cool. kinda wish they had figured out a way to put a canada flag in there with the way bono went on about the 150th several times during the show but that's a minor complaint. the song itself was really strong, one of the highlights of side 2. i need to take a piss soon.
one tree hill dedicated to leonard cohen was nice. this was the point where i reeeally started needing a piss, but there was no way i was missing exit. sadly i was a little distracted by my bladder and don't really remember much specific about the song itself.
the trump video was hilarious, but i think a lot of it was lost on the people around me because there was a lot of echo and it was hard to hear (holy fuck the acoustics in that stadium are awful). exit was everything i wanted it to be. this was the one JT song i hadn't heard and really really wanted to. so fucking badass. worth the price of admission alone.
mothers - oh FUCK exit made me completely forget, i really need to piss NOW. this one sounded pretty good from the urinal, at least.
i missed the intermission and first verse of miss sarajevo coming back from the can and buying a beer for the encore before the bar closed. the visuals were very moving and fit the song perfectly. i'm ambivalent about the pre-recorded opera portion and nobody around me seemed to notice or care.
i actually quite liked beautiful day. i expected it to be absolutely awful based on all the complaints i'd heard, especially about the bridge, but i really didn't find it to be that bad at all. in fact i thought it was kinda nice to hear a new arrangement of this song, i've gotten a little bored of the usual version beautiful day at this point and the variation was welcome.
fuck anyone who thinks they should drop elevation or play it much less. the crowd was going bananas, the song absolutely rips, the camera work was super cool - this is a great live song no matter how many times they play it. exact same with vertigo. those two back to back gave everyone in the stadium a new burst of energy. loved the throwback to the vertigo tour visuals with the red swirling effects.
i loved the tribute to great women during ultraviolet. it had every potential to be corny and overwrought but it definitely did not come across that way at all. the history nerd in me loved seeing some of the older, less known historical names on there. great performance of the song to go along with it, and the theme works so well. i had a big grin on my face by the end of this one. super cool.
one was the best version of this song i've ever heard in person. i remember looking up at the lights of the CN tower and the spotlights scanning the clouds most of the time feeling very emotional. hear us coming hit me like a ton of bricks. it was a quasi-religious moment for everyone around me and it was beautiful.
at this point it feels like the show has to be over, it's well past 11. a lot of the audience must have felt this way too because the exodus started the moment one ended. then i will follow started and everyone stopped where they were and started jumping around. i love this song as a closer, it brings everything full circle with the theme of the show too. everybody was bouncing and into it and it was a great send-off with lots of impact.
overall an amazing experience. the venue sucks acoustically but
thank fuck they opened the roof because it added so much having the open atmosphere and the view of the CN tower lights were such a cool addition to look up on, not to mention the light breeze was a blessing. super glad i ended up going, like elfa i don't feel like i need to see it again but that's the way i am with pretty much all concerts and performances, i've never been the type to see the same show or movie more than once.
can't wait till they come back again in a couple years. hopefully that time around my life is a little less tumultuous in the months leading up to the show and i won't be buying a last-minute ticket.