by Ravi

The show opened with Elevation, one of my favorites from the new album and it was strange because the house lights were on for that song, but the crowd was still into it. The band got on stage and the crowd went wild, and he started of with a trademark kick like in the video.
The response to the first of the older songs was huge and the band fed off the energy accordingly and played harder. The stage was really different, with ramps in shape of a heart with lights on the edges so that they could walk around during the show and be closer to the crowd. There were 4 black and white video screens above the stage which showed each band member. Also, during Mysterious ways, video screens came up from the back, behind the drumkit and showed sillouhettes of women dancing. Bono started out that song lying down on one of them and then got up as the screen lowered. Some other cool moments were when Bono got a rose from someone in the crowd, he got a flag (Irish I think) and draped it on the piano, and when he took at hat from someone and wore it. Also he danced with a girl on the stage during Angel of Harlem. Bullet the Blue Sky had a cool anti-gun video before it also. One other good effect was when they lowered some banners which were opaque and flashed lights so that the shadows of the band members would come on to the backdrops.

The highlights for me were Even Better than the Real Thing, In a Little While (which somehow conveyed the feeling of a smaller show in a big arena), Angel of Harlem and Ground Beneath Her Feet and Bad. In a little while was introduced as a tribute to Joey Ramone, a poignant moment and it seemed very heartfelt. Bono said it was the last song that he heard before he died. Where the Streets Have No Name was epic and everyone was singing and yelling and were very excited, its moments like this that make it all worth it. The whole encore was great, although I think they could have easily played 4-5 more songs. The sound was pretty good, except for the guitar which was buried in some places. Vocals were awesome and the harmonies by Edge were even easy to hear. Its great to hear what Bono adds to the songs live, and how he makes the songs different from the albums. When he soloed though it was very cool, because the effects he uses sound amazing, his unique style really makes this band what it is! I didn’t expect Bono to play as much guitar as he did, he had a nice hollowbody green guitar. When the band was introduced , the all came up onto the ramps and the Edge got the most applause and was said to be from south central, wearing that 55 on his jersey; he also wore a black beanie. It was also funny when Bono hesitated when he said his greetings to “Anaheim, I think!?”
Bono also had a spotlight which he pointed at the crowd towards the end of the show, I think it was during the Fly. I have never seen that before, it was cool to see the crowd’s reaction to it. I also loved the lighting of the show, spooky at times and electric too.

Towards the end, the Edge’s video cam moved to show a light in the arena for “Team Foul” which I thought was pretty funny!! Great show overall, they really know how to put on a great performance and take it to another level, I was impressed and would recommend every fan to check them out! I loved both the new songs and old which made it an even better experience!

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