by Andy Dunda

It's been 13 years since U2 last appeared in Adelaide (they missed us on the Pop tour), so I suppose we were so hungry that they could have just stood there and we'd be happy. Hopefully that hasn't affected the review.

Having scanned the previous shows' set lists to get familiar (down to burning up a CD with an anticipated order with songs from the Vertigo & Elevation DVDs to get into the mood), I was really expecting them just to go through the motions and get it over with.
However, they were as good as those DVDs.

They were tight and really on. A couple of sound glitches here and there (seemed to be mainly with the band monitoring), but nothing to not make it a fantastic show.

For me personally, the highlight would be Bono's voice solo in Miss Sarajevo (was it the Italian lyrics?), but he just seemed to nail it - all the highs and lows. Not really a favourite song of mine, but the vocal was a standout.

Edge was a machine, Larry ever-dependable, but Adam seemed to be enjoying himself more than usual. Interesting, slightly different bassline in Sunday Bloody Sunday, that made a nice change.

Best all-round performance for me was Where the Streets (but I'm probably a bit biaised, seeing it's my favourite). Made the whole standing-around-trying-to-get-a-good-spot thing worthwhile. Actually, I'm surprised to get as close as 30m from the stage seeing we only got there at 5pm (for those who'd like to flame me for complaining about standing around, my only defence is I'm not as young as I was when I first saw them in '84).

My only disappointment was them not playing Until the End of the World.

Probably the last time we'll see them here (thanks to them for not forgetting us this time)- I'm just happy I got to.

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