by bigals

I saw Elevation Birmingham on the day that Bono's personal problems became public knowledge resulting in a pretty subdued show - disappointing in hindsight. So when I read the reviews from Tuesday's show, pretty mixed and uninspiring, I found myself travelling 180 miles wracked with apprehension. Having got in the stadium about 5ish I have to say the accoustics were awful with the tuning up of the support acts reverberating off the back wall of the arena giving a 'tinny' sound to the whole thing. Oh no, not only was it not going to be a good show, the sound was crap too. Cue a couple of beers (drown the sorrows ?!?!). We perched ourselves on the lower seating for the support acts who were received quite well. I thought Idlewild were quite good and maybe I'll watch out or them. Athlete were muffled and bassified(?). It was noticeable throughout both acts that the acoustics were geting better as was the synchronicity of the audio/screens - obviously guinea pigs for the main event.

We sat at the back lower level seats for no apparent reason, just taking in the atmosphere, watching people scrambling for vantage points, the tension building

And what a main event. The unannounced sauntering onto stage just oozes class. Bang - straight into Vertigo, then the next few songs made up a set which I was delighted with and loving every minute of. The crowd was rocking, the band sounded great (I've heard a few bootlegs from the first leg which only added to the apprehension). Made our way onto the pitch during love and peace to soak up the atmosphere, from where the view was poor (especially for us vertically challenged people) but we stuck it out and grooved our way through the rest of the show. I could list my song preferences that weren't played but I won't. Of the setlist only Zoo Station seemed out of place (I'm so used to it starting every Zoo TV show that I feel that's where it belongs, not in the middle of a Vertigo show.

One major, massive, mega moan is that the band seem to now have a fixed 2 hour time frame set in their minds/hearts for each show. Why, with such a catalogue of tunes can't they play maybe just a little longer, especially when I'm there!

All in all a fantastic show and as one earlier reviewer said if there's a better Vertigo show to come then there will be some very, very privelleged people present.

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