Boston 1 was hands down the best concert I’ve ever seen. And I saw Bruce play for 3.5 hours in a comparatively small (10,000) arena in Baltimore not long before Christmas where he did Born to Run in its entirely. That was fucking awesome. That was the best concert I’d ever seen. Until Boston 1.
Boston 1 was actual musical transcendence — the “tight narrative” worked, kept you in its grip, and then it exploded in ecstasy and I left my body several times. And they ended with “40” and hi. Shining the stage light on the crowd. I walked away thinking that if that was the last time I saw U2, I’d be fine with it.
I would put I/E & E/I as their best tour after Zoo TV. They really put together something great this decade that was extensively thought through and coherent. Like Zoo TV. Twice.
I thoroughly agree with all of this. Especially the observation that the narrative "kept you in its grip and then exploded in ecstasy." YES! That was the feeling.......everything was cohesive, they did an amazing job of introducing the band and how growing up influenced them as people and artists. Everything that followed from there was much more understandable in context. The end of the very tight narrative, for me, was the conversation between old and young Bono in "Bullet."
"Explosion in ecstasy" is the perfect way to describe everything after "Bullet." I felt a form of the same feeling at all of the 5 I/E shows I attended. However, the feeling that night, Boston 1, was head and shoulders above the other nights. It was almost as if you could feel the roof lifting off the Garden from "Pride" on.
I'd say I/E & E/I was the best tour since ZOO TV as long as, in my opinion, you leave out the American leg of E/I. European leg, absolutely. Strong as hell and a nice, full Experience narrative once the Berlin songs got added. E/I was great in Boston, but if I had to pick a U2 show that wasn't on the level of the others I've seen, it was that one.
i'm looking at it now -- he was in fantastic voice, and we got everything. send in the clowns. MOS at the end of Bad, which he should do more often. even shine like stars
no COVID. and Obama was still president!
i needed nothing more when it was finished.
maybe The Troubles. that would have been good. but, really, no complaints. although i guess "one" was subpar.
anyway ...
Damn, are you speaking my language!
It was the best I've ever heard Bono sound.
MOS/Bad was when I knew for sure that this night would never be forgotten.
WOWY, I distinctly remember being 6 rows straight back from the E Stage. The energy was building and building through Edge's outro. Bono felt it as he walked back to the main stage and I remember just taking it in- knowing I was witnessing something special as it was- then all of a sudden, Bono stopped, turned half way around and belted out "shine like stars."
That of course was the end of the main set, and I don't think I've EVER heard a crowd roar like that! I worked concert security for many years in Boston and I saw U2 up at the Montreal Hippodrome in 2011. Not even close for crowd noise.
One was definitely sub par, but it was more than made up for by an amazing COBL/Streets run that featured Bono telling off a few hecklers over his global health work. Then to have 40 at the end. An amazing version of it at that, with Dennis Sheehan's Red Rocks story told.
Though I am only 33, and no one can time travel, I feel like I experienced the closest thing I possibly could to seeing U2 in the 1980s that night.
Walking out, everyone had the same feeling, it seemed. A few were still carrying "40" all the way out of the building and into a beautiful summer night in Boston.
Obama was President. No COVID.
I was at a hopeful turning point in my own life.
WOW! What a world away from the times we find ourselves in now.
The more I think of this show, it was the recent peak of my life. LOL!
