by Crewboy

The third night of the tour and a major change in the set list and song order. For this show, the band opened with a trio of songs that were in the middle of the show at San Diego. Most people were prepared for COBL to open the show. So to see the new opening for LAPOE was a bit of a surprise. But surprisingly it worked....that slow buildup to get the crowd going before working them into a fever pitch. The first half of the show just seemed to be BAM! BAM! BAM!...one big song after another. It was almost as if the band was just hitting us with everything they had. By the time they got into ISHFWILF (it's first appearance on this tour), the audience was already putty in the band's hands. It was just one great sing along all night long on some of the older material. Unfortunately after a hour of nonstop big songs....something had to give....and after a blistering Streets and a beautiful One...it seemed as if the band didn't know what to do next. I've never been to a U2 show where Bono literally said "give us a few moments will ya". It was almost as if they thought the show wasn't working and they wanted to go back and retool the set list in midshow. Whatever they did, it worked because the last hour was even more blisering than the first. It didn't seem as if it was one complete show but two separate sets with the "second" show starting with Zoo Station, a song nobody saw coming. By the time the band wrapped things up with "40" with a dedication to The Pope, it was a near fever pitch with the audience begging for the band to come back out. But alas they didn't much to the disappointment of the audience. But all in all....I thought it was great show. It was very fan friendly for both the diehards as well as the casual fan who only knew the "hits". I took a friend of mine to this show and it was his first U2 show. He went into thinking "It's only U2"...and left saying it was like a religious experience and was trying to figure out a way to get tickets for the next night.

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