by Matt McGee

If I had to sum up the show in 30 seconds, it would be something like ... Really good show with typical opening night jitters and mistakes, but you can really see the potential for it to turn into a fantastic show once the band figures out all the new songs and set pieces.

Somewhat longer thoughts follow...

The augmented reality stuff at the start of the show was kinda cool, but in a "you only need to experience it once" way.

Most of the new songs sounded really good and strong. I'm not a huge fan of Songs Of Experience, but the songs definitely come across better in concert than on the album for me. "Lights Of Home" is a favorite from the album, and sounded good tonight, but a bit slow. Once they get some more repetition with this one and get it nailed down, it'll be a great concert song.

I've always been a believer that "Where The Streets Have No Name" is an indispensable song, so it was strange not to hear it tonight. I'm not thrilled that it's not being played, but I admire the band for ignoring it and the rest of The Joshua Tree -- good for them and I hope they stick to their guns all tour and not cave in on this point.

The biggest surprise, of course, about what they did play was "Acrobat." I was wrong about this song. I've said many times on the @U2 podcast and elsewhere that I didn't think it would come across well live, and I was wrong about that. It sounded great, and will only get better as they keep playing it. And to be able to see and hear MacPhisto again after 25 years right before "Acrobat" was amazing. Never in my life did I expect to hear either one of those ... and there they both were, one after the other.

It's a long show at 27 songs and just about 2.5 hours. Wasn't prepared for that. I kinda feel like 2:10 or 2:15 is U2's sweet spot but if they want to add a few more minutes, who am I to complain?

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