]@

by Thomas Bell

Well, tonight was another solid show but unfortunately, no real surprises.

The last two shows, I've been saying that the Pond audience has been just a
little underwealming. Tonight however, I really felt people were far more
enthusiastic and "into" the show. On the other hand, the band, Bono in
particular wasn't quite as energetic as the last two shows. Also, this was
easily the shortest of the three shows with the band coming on about 8:55 and
the show ending before 11pm.

Again, no songs from Pop were played tonight. I was hoping to hear the band do
Discotheque/Staring at the Sun but I am glad I got to hear them do a full
version of All I Want Is You this tour and Gone on Tuesday.

Highlights were superb renditions of Beautiful Day, Until the End of the World
and New Years Day one after the other that really got the crowd worked up big
time. Kite was just as good as the first night. The Edge threw in some new
guitar parts reminiscent of Mysterious Ways into the quieter parts of New York.

Unfortunately, Sunday Bloody Sunday again was a bit slow even though the
audience was really into it but Edge broke a string forcing him to change
guitars in mid-song and it raelly sucked the life out of the performance. Edge
again broke a string near the end of Angel and Bono made a joke about it and had
Edge play the end of the song on the low E string of his acoustic.

Again The Edge had problems when his strat popped out of tune just before they
went into All I Want Is You and Bono was really ragging on the poor guy saying
"Calling Doctor Spock" and "Edge, are you still with us?". Edge quickly got it
sorted out and they played a very good version of the song. I thought AIWIY got
a much bigger reaction when the band started playing it then Bad did on the
previous two nights.

Streets again got the biggest and most enthusiastic reaction from the audience.

During Mysterious Ways, Bono pulled a girl with glasses and wearing a pretty
slinky catwoman-esque outfit onstage in the main stage to dance with him a bit.
She held her own very nicely and gave Bono a big kiss on the cheek which he
comically wiped off as soon as she was hustled off back into the pit. Tonight's
version of The Fly was the best of the three nights. The Edge ripped out a great
solo.

Bullet, WOWY and Pride seemed a bit perfuctory tonight. Before the band started
One, Bono talked a length about people writing their congressmen and so on
regarding the world debt. After One, Bono played a verse from a song I couldn't
recognize.

Overall, I'd have to call tonight's show the weakest of the three in Anaheim
which isn't really a dig at the band because all three shows were excellent in
my opinion.

Tonight's setlist:

Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until The End Of The World
New Years Day
Kite
New York
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
In A Little While
Angel of Harlem
Stay
All I Want Is You (full band version)
Where The Streets Have No Name
Mysterious Ways
The Fly

ENCORES
Bullet The Blue Sky
With Or Without You
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
One (with a verse of a cover song I couldn't recognize)
Walk On

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