by Todd Hester

Institute opened and had to overcome pretty noticeable sound issues. The same issues occurred when U2 opened (with "City of Blinding Lights"), but they did a much better job of overcoming them. The band played a great mix of stuff, although "Gloria" was the only real old school song they did, with the noted exception of "40". I attended one of the Atlanta dates as well, and on that date, "I Will Follow" was played instead of "Gloria" and that seemed to be the token old school tune. The crowd could have been better, but it wasn't bad. Mark it up to the sound issues. Bono had just a bit of trouble at the beginning of the "Miss Sarajevo" opera part, and he was holding his hand over his left ear to hear himself and get back on track, which he did--absolutely nailing the last, and more difficult--part of Pavarotti's piece. U2's freshness live have always been a real plus, and Bono showed that when someone through a Santa's hat on stage and Bono grabbed the guy and brought him up. They sometimes do staged stuff like that, but that didn't happen in Atlanta and I haven't read of it elsewhere, and Bono and the guy both seemed surprised by the spontaneity. Bono also messed up the second stanza on "Stuck In A Moment" and had to go back and do it again. I actually thought that was cool; they keep the thing real.

The political stuff was charged and intense, and this is where the crowd really came in. As "Sunday Bloody Sunday" began, Bono quipped, "This is your song now". Wow. Bono sang "Johnny Comes Marching Home" at the end of "Bullet the Blue Sky" and then dedicates the songs to the "brave men and brave women" of the U.S. military. He noted, before playing "One", that today 500,000 Africans are getting AIDS cocktails that weren't getting it before, and he praises former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms (from NC) for supporting that work. He also praised NASCAR and Teresa Earnhardt (widow of the late Dale Earnhardt, Sr.) for supporting the ONE Campaign to make poverty history. U2 and the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to Frank Sinatra, which seemed a little forced, as we did it in the second encore and it felt out of place. Bono shines a spotlight on the crowd before the band plays "40", and then the end.

All in all, an incredible and memorable concert. Some guys around me were commenting that the only bands better than U2 are the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I'll give them the Beatles, but people go to see the Stones now to hear "Brown Sugar"--the old stuff. They go to see U2 to hear the old stuff and the new. U2 is unstoppable on their game, and they were on in Charlotte.

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