by Kevin

Ok so my fourth U2 show, first off the Vertigo tour. Ended up winning the lottery and scoring anywhere between 3rd and first rows in the ellipse thanks to the great new scanning random lottery system. It was incredible and truely a night I can never forget. Here are some highlights:

City was incredible (as Im sure it has been at most shows) The way Bono just appears at the end of the Elipse spinning, confetti falling, those awesome rope lights.... great production. Also the flow into Vertigo is amazing. Once again, awesome lighting techniques.

Bono looked really psyched during the whole Pride to Streets to One. All three sounded remarkable and became very emotional/moving. Bono made a great joke before One, after he explained what the song was actually about he said something like "I'll never understand why people dance to this at their weddings, but whatever" Than after One and before the first encore people were yelling "dont go" and basically making fun of the entire idea of an encore Bono just replied "Oh dont worry, see we are going to go down those stairs now (pointing to the stairs behind the stage), but we will be back up in a minute." That got enough laugh from the crowd who probably realized how staged the idea of an encore is in todays concert business. But it was still funny.

Zoo --> Fly --> Mysterious ways, sounded great. Mysterious Ways though stole it I thought, especially with the girl dancing with Bono at the end of the Elipse. Once again, something I am sure has happened at multiple shows but those three songs flow together so well and Mysterious Ways is just an awesome way to finish them out.

Yahweh, frickin awesome! Not a song I expected to much from but was pleasantly suprised. Nice song!

The I still havent found was pretty cool, it shook up the set list a little bit. The way they let a few local kids come play the song was really neat. "The Bank Robbers" were really all over the place at first but brought it together nicely by the end. It was funny Bono tried cutting them off a few times but the kid on guitar was getting so into it he made them finish the song. Bono kept saying, "Thank you Bank Robbers" and they werent leaving, so he started saying it really sarcastically like "thanks, now please leave" but they wouldnt so they kept it going later


The end was odd, after the Bad --> 40 --> Bad the band left with what looked like the official last exit but the lights stayed dark for maybe another 3-5 minutes with a spotlight on the microphone and what looked like the crew preping the stage for one more song. But sadly the house lights came on. My thoughts is perhaps they wanted to play Vertigo once more but because of the lengthy "Bank Robbers" stint it had to be cut out. Any confirmations on this would be appreciated

Only bad part of the night:
This drunk middle aged loser standing next to us the whole time, who kept chugging beers like he was 18 and at his first frat party and then was falling all over people and yelling offensive things at Kings of Leon and even Bono (ex: "Dont play this f'n song, play something i know like beautiful day again" when Bono started talking about the meaning behind Miracle Drug) Word of the wise, if you are going to go see U2 try to understand that most of the fans are there to see/hear/take it all in, and if you want to get hammered thats your own business but do it at your own expense and not anyone elses. He finally left at the end thank god, after spilling beer on many of us up front (Anyone reading this review will know what im talking about im sure!)

Anyways that was my only complaint, the guy who ruined the atmosphere. The show itself was remarkable. There is nothing like leaning on the railing basically being able to reach out and touch thet stage and it was all thanks to U2's balanced ticking lottery, that after going through it I do have to say now makes more sense to me (and I am not just saying that cause I was a "winner", im saying that because I thought the whole proceess was smooth and organized from start to finish, and most importantly it was fair to every fan there.)

And of course, thank you to U2 for giving me another night to remember like you so gracefully did four years ago. I hope to see you in the city this fall, till then have a blast in Europe!

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