by Zookeeper

I guess I am going to try and review only U2 and not the rest of the experiences tonight. From the lobby Love and Peace or Else sounded really great. The whole damn building was rumbling from Adam's Bass. Running to Stand Still was an early highlight, although up in the top bowl of the arena, it was impossible to understand the video message at the end of it.
Several songs were maimed, or tainted such as pride, not having the final chorus sang. Elevation which featured the band actually playing on only one verse and the final chorus.
Zoo Station was the biggest piece of crap I have ever heard them perform. Luckily the sound was so bad at the top of the arena that you couldn't make out that Bono and the crowd were actually singing 2 different things. This track was only saved because The Edge played so damn good, and so damn loud.
I don't know what was wrong with "one" but it was definetly not up to it's usual standards. It may have been from the distraction of the phone number and everyone trying to figure out exactly what Bono was talking about in it's intro. It had something to do with the power of cellphones. But I doubt it was the batteries he was talking about.
Highlights... The crowd talking about traffic during their usually most powerful song, Streets. Bono wasnt into this, but neither was anyone around us.
Vertigo... was easily the most powerful song of the night. The crowd really was into this one for some reason, and the boys fed off of it.
Mysterious Ways was great, bite me all you "fans" who think this one should be left off everynight. The crowd loves it, thus making the band play it all the better. I wont comment on "Tiffany".
Miracle Drug was one of the better songs of the night. It is just a solid piece that comes across live very nicely. The running lights on the stage for it are pretty cool also.

Other notes... the video screens suck even more than the did on the elevation tour. It was not made clear that The Edge actually sings during Miracle Drug, or that Larry was playing Keyboards on a really weak version of Yahweh. They need to take the black and orange video screens and dismantle them. The "lightscreens" were pretty nice though.

As for the encore... come on people. "40" is the last track, we all know this. If you were expecting more, there must be something wrong with you. They only left the house lights off so people could drain their cellphone batteries by lighting them up for 10 minutes. I seem to remember a small break... not sure if the band left the stage, like right before city of blinding lights? or after vertigo? not sure, but there was definetly a break in there.

All around, not the best show I went to by them... but not because they didnt try, but because several songs just werent played to their full potential. The City of Anaheim and the Anaheim Police (maybe not their fault) did all they could to ruin the night, and in my area of the building... that was brought up several times.
Oh well. The fans made this event truly better than it should have been. Im proud of SoCal for maybe the first time ever.

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