by ian

i was worried going to this show. i attended the portland show on the first leg and had the time of my life! -- a great seat, a special performance from u2 on easter, singing amazing grace and also the ramone's song because joey died that day. and also i shook bono's hand before the show, too!

for the oakland show i had seats way WAYYY in the back nosebleeds. and NO DOUBT's sound sounded like crap and everyone up there simply wasn't into moving around and dancing.

but when u2 came on all the sound troubles were fixed, and the entire crowd was well into it. in a way having seats in the back wasn't a bummer a bit -- it was a cool vantage point seeing how all the lights worked and how the crowd, as jessie helms said after seeing u2 in D.C., "move like fields of corn."

i was worried u2 would settle on their usual set list, but, during i will follow, in the middle mellow part, bono's guitar stopped working. bono lost track of the song a bit, got a new guitar, and instead of doing the 'your eyes makes a circle' he goes off and flat out makes up an entire song! i'm not kidding -- must of been three minutes of him just going off improv! very cool.

and then during another part of the show bono just stops and says, 'i wanna play something different.' and goes into huddle mode with The Edge.

then Slow Dancing gets played! holy shit! it blew my mind -- and not just a verse and a chorus -- the whole song!

but that's when you know a real u2 fan from the rest, cause up in the nosebleeds everyone started talking during SLOW DANCING -- and i was like, 'don't you guys know what a rare gift this is?' and i had willie nelson in my head and the beautiful bono version of SLOWQ DANCING off the STAY (FAR AWAY SO CLOSE) single.

but the best part of the show was when scott got brought on stage, and Dallas wooshed up a guitar for the guy. and instantly he starts playing A SORT OF HOMECOMING before bono can mangle him into a knockin on heaven door or curtis mayfield song.

and Scott just didn't stop playing and walked on back with Edge to the main stage playing the same intro bar. and bono finally sang the first verse. and did it beautifully -- even snagged those impossible high notes in the chorus.

and that was magical, because that is about my most favorite u2 song EVER. and I NEVER EVER IMAGINED EVER HEARING U2 play the thing live!

the best part is bono forgot the middle verse and just kinda awkwardly paced about trying to remember. he gave up, then did a wonderful job of making up the middle part by improvising about 'van morrison' was in his head years ago.

it was increadable -- just the spontinaity tonight. and THANK YOU SCOTT! YOU ARE MY HERO! good job!

u2 did a full version of ALL I WANT IS YOU that tingled -- and the night kinda just went like a dream after that.

at the very end, from where i was sitting, i had a unique perspective how the show ended. after walk on bono put on a santa hat as they left the stage, and i could see into underworld of the stage and saw bono pull the hat off and toss it to the ground and they all got into a van parked close, got inside and took off just like that! it was like a magic spell got popped or something.

but i thought outdoing portland, for me, would be impossible. but, holy smokes, here's u2, kneck deep into the third leg and STILL BLOWING MY MIND -- and i was in the shittiest seat you could have, too!

so folks, as bono joked last night, 'we'd like to play Oakland every night -- our wives will divorce us and you all will go broke, but oh well.'

heck, for the shows i've seen, i'll go broke. is giving money to U2 tax deductable?

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