by Todd Pendleton

The Eugene show was awesome! I flew down to Vegas for the opening of the tour and I can honestly say after seeing the Band more than 20 times over the years, they were defintely rusty! Bono admitted at the end of the show that the Band had screwed up and has also said in interviews that they were not ready to open the tour because POP was not finished in time. It was still cool to be there though, there were a ton of stars, media etc. and it was kinda cool to see U2 the world's best band a little rusty and working through the kinks. I must admit I thought the crowd in Vegas was lame! My girlfriend and I were the only one's singing and clapping to every song.

The set list is much better better than Zoo Tv tour with a nice mix of new and old songs. I think there were a lot of fair weather fans in Vegas which happens when a band gets as big as U2 is today but as Bono said at a Love Comes to Town show I was at in Dortmund, Germany in 1989 - How good a U2 show is all depends on the crowd. I'm sure the Vegas crowd didn't live up to Bono's expectations.

Eugene was different. The crowd was into it from the get go and Bono and the boys seemed to have worked kinks out. Bono seemed to really enjoy Eugene saying after I WILL FOLLOW - Eugene is a lot like home, good beer, warm people and shitty weather. The Band hit its stride musically and Bono played off the crowd getting them to sing at every chance. The new songs defintely don't get the reception like the old one's. I hate fans/reviews that complain about U2 not playing enough old stuff. The new songs are great and U2 have reinvented themselves and music with Achtung Baby, Zooropa and POP. If U2 had released another Joshua Tree they would be has beens today and as musically exciting as Hootie and the Blow Fish. People better get use to the new U2 because they're not going back!

The show did have a few kinks - the screen behind the stage had large sections that were not working and the clarity was not as good as Vegas. Also, the Lemon got stuck and had to be moved manually by a stage hand to the catwalk. The highlight of the show came during the second encore when Bono jumped into the crowd. As he finished singing ONE, Bono reluctantly walked off the stage. I can't wait to see them again!! I'll be at the Oakland, L.A., Colonge, Germany and Seattle shows in the upcoming months. I hope those shows will be as good as Eugene.

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