by Charlie Richards

Wow! Where to start!?

Show number 5 has come and gone. The show, the tour, and the band can be summed up in one word: AMAZING!

Was the show perfect? No, the boys are human, and a show of this size and caliber would be impossible to pull off without little problems now and then. You know what, though? It doesn't matter! The energy flowing through the stadium was enough to fry any little glitch that may have come along.

Eugene, Oregon, Autzen Stadium - a great place for Stadium Rock Super Shows. Our stereotypical rain patterns left us alone and for 2 hours we were America's biggest Disco!

The show unfolded pretty much as the first four did. To chose a favorite part of the show is very difficult. The moment, however, that was for me the greatest "high" was Streets!

The most spectacular number, however, was without a doubt Discotheque! The world's largest Lemon-shaped disco ball delivers the band to the auxiliary stage to open the second set just a few minutes after concluding Streets. It is a grand entrance fitting to very few in Rock & Roll today. Also, and perhaps most important, the band has NOT forgot how to play to their audience. They have a way of turning a stadium of 50,000 people into a small Irish pub with a hundred or so rock fans drinking a pint of Guinness. An art that no one has mastered better than U2, which is why I'll gladly pay $50.00 to see a show of this caliber.

PopMart vs. Zoo T.V. - and the winner is..... BOTH! The two tours should not be compared, they are siblings of one another, brother and sister if you will. Without ZOO T.V. we would not have PopMart. The stage visuals are stunning with far fewer video images that are displayed rather than flashed by the hundreds like Zoo T.V. A wonderful compliment to the Zoo tour I think.

Finally, the set list. I, like most U2 fans, would love to hear them play more "old stuff." In fact, they could have played nothing but Boy and October and I would be happy. The tease of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" during "Please" is nothing more than a tease so don't get your hopes up. They insert it, however, to convey a very important message that I wonder if many people actually get. See if you can figure it out! U2 is touring to promote their new album. It stands to reason then that they will play many songs from that album and to expect more "old stuff" is not realistic. With that in mind I was able to cope without hearing them play "Bad." That says more than you know so if you're one who dwells in Joshua Tree Land, LIVE IN THE NOW!!! If all they played was "old stuff" I imagine they would get quite boared with the whole thing and move onto something else. That would suck! "I Will Follow" and "Pride", the two oldest songs, are both incredible. Those, combined with the 4 songs from Joshua Tree and the 4 from Achtung Baby made for a well rounded mix of the old.

Get into the new stuff folks! It's great, the band loves it and they love to play it. The passion is there, probably more intense than ever, but these boys have toughened up a little and will never be as raw as they were in the beginning.

I'm doing whatever it takes to make it to the Seattle show in December, it's an event worth repeating several times!!!

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