by Sven Coervers

The first night in the covered Amsterdam ArenA the sound was bad. The second night the audience and the band seemed a bit out of sync. This night, however, it all came together. The band seemed in very good spirits and the audience caught on. After two almost identical sets in Amsterdam I was pleased that tonight U2 decided to shake it up a bit. Wild Horses, Original of The Species, “40”; they were all songs I hadn’t heard live before. The biggest surprise though was a magnificent stripped down version of Miss Sarajevo. Bono even sang Pavarotti’s bit, hitting the notes beautifully. There he truly proved his statement in Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own that “the opera is in me.”
I cannot remember ever laughing my ass off at a U2 show, but it happened when Bono got this big bare-chested guy on stage during Beautiful Day. This man lifted Bono and carried him around like a baby. How’s that for Elevation? Bono adapted the bridge of Beautiful Day, barely in control of his own laughter, to singing about “Big man, big heart.” This was something the man misunderstood as an invitation and Bono could not escape being kissed on the cheek. After being put down Bono probably felt it was wisest to flee to higher ground for the remainder of the song, so he quickly joined the rest of the band, leaving the big guy to jump around for a bit on the lower stage area.
All in all this show was a great climax after three days in Amsterdam. As always U2 was good to The Netherlands and The Netherlands were good to U2. When I left the stadium I felt uplifted and sad that it was over at the same time.

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