by Joe Horrigan

The Center Stage was a small club, with a capacity of about 500, mostly seated. A locally popular band called Red Line opened the show, but they were not very memorable (a weak rip-off of the Police). U2 was trancendent, from the start. The show opened with a hard-hitting version of Gloria. Larry looked like he was wielding two wooden clubs, and he was smashing around all over the place with his upturned symbols. Highlights of the set included Another Time, Another Place, and An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart. The first encore was Fire, ushered in by everyone flicking their lighters again and again at Bono's urging. The ultimate highlight occurred after the formal end of the show. This was very bizarre, and I have never seen it reported anywhere nor have I seen the band do this elsewhere: after the crowd petered out, and the lights went up , the band came back out again to do another rendition of I Will Follow. Then the crowd petered out again, leaving just a handful of fans by the stage. About five minutes later, the band came out again, to play I Will Follow once again! And then it happened again, and again, and again! They played this game of false endings a total of five times, and each time it was I Will Follow that they hit the few remaining fans with. By the end they were laughing all over themselves and could barely play. It was unreal.

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