by Crewboy

The final night of Vertigo certainly did not disappoint. After seeing the show numerous times in the smaller arena setting, this was my first Vertigo experience in a massive stadium. After a blistering hour long opening set by Pearl Jam, that got the audience all riled up, I thought to myself "U2 are going to have to step up and kick some major ass to top that" Indeed that's what the band did for the last night of this tour. Opening with COBL, Bono appeared on the right extended stage carrying the American Flag. As the song built..the energy of the audience built with it. You could tell that this was an audience that had waited 22 years for U2 to come back to Hawaii and that they were going to savor every moment of it. Blistering verions of Vertigo and Elevation only maintained the fevered pitch of the audience. With each passing song, the audience just got more and more into the show. At points, you could literally hear the audience singing along on key songs. It was that loud. Bono made it a point to thank the Honolulu audience for their "patience" and "giving us a second chance", following the delay from the original April date. At this point, Bono specifically thanked Edge and his family for their strength they have shown thruout the Vertigo Tour. The one surprise to the set list was when Bono pulled a fan onstage to play with them. He specifically wanted to play Wild Horses...which got played after Edge assured Bono that he still remembered the chords to it. From there on...it was the standard Vertigo setlist from Love and Peace....to an awe inspiring Pride, a blistering Streets (with 50,000 strong singing it in unison with the band), and One to close out the main set. The encores brought about the Achtung mini ZooTV portion of the show that Hawaii never got to see. The Fly/Mysterious Ways went over well. They lost the crowd a bit with Window In The Sky, mostly because it's still a bit too new and has hardly gotten any radio play here. Major surprises came with the appearance of Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong on The Saints Are Coming, whipping the Honolulu crowd into a frenzy. Then out comes Pearl Jam to play with the band on a rousing version of Rockin' In The Free World which ends with Eddie Vedder, Bono and the audience chanting "We Love The Edge", who was clearly touched by what was happening. Everybody thought that was the end to the show....but alas U2 decided to give us one more song....the soaring and beautiful All I Want Is You. The band played the song, let the Honolulu audience sing to it's hearts content and as they kept on singing "All I Want is Youuuuuuuu", the band one by one slowly exited the stage to the singing of the audience until only Larry (who could be seen clearly on the video screens smiling ear to ear)...was left playing. He left his drum kit...went to the mic...thanked the road crew, everybody that worked on the tour....and thanked the audience for waiting and said the three words that U2 fans were hoping to hear. "See you soon" And with that....the Vertigo Tour came to an end. The tour that many of us U2 fans though wouldn't happen and probably shouldn't have happened due to all the circumstances around it....not only did happen, but ended on the highest of notes with an incredible last show... Time to start saving so that we can do it all again in four years.

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